The KEY issue that I see, which I have seen since KF's original DC and OC left the program, is TRUST. Plain and simple, KF does not fully trust his staff to prepare the team with a strategy that can exploit the weaknesses of the other team.
Norm Parker had the most freedom of any of KF's staff at Iowa, KF trusted him fully to prepare the team for the opponent, and just as importantly, the team had supreme confidence in Parker to do what he was an expert in doing. KOK had less freedom to do the same thing on the offensive side of the ball, mainly because KF is incredibly risk averse and knows turnovers usually spell the difference in most games.
However, now we have both coordinators operating with training wheels, placed there by KF, especially on BF. I'm sure KF wants to see BF succeed but like any father with their own kids, you have to trust them to make their own decisions, realizing that even though mistakes will be made, that is just a part of the learning experience and they will ultimately be better for it.
So, in short, you have a coaching staff who is constantly looking over their shoulder, trying to avoid making a critical mistake, but by doing so they have limited their actions to what is readily predictable by the opponent. We've seen the same thing at the QB position for years; i.e. our QB's are so afraid of making a mistake that they check down to the lowest level, which almost always is fatal in moving the chains. CJ was successful in spite of the training wheel approach because he did not fear KF, he played his own game and KF eventually realized CJ could be trusted.
Lastly, I don't watch Iowa's games to be frustrated by their head coach's play not to lose strategy, yet that is where we are most weeks because KF cannot see how he is impeding his team's progress. I know I have mentioned this before but we truly do need an intervention where KF is shown how he is ruining his team's chances for success by over-controlling everything they do. I do not disagree with him on the need to properly execute, but without the necessary freedom and confidence to do just that, success will not happen.
