Is This the Ferentz Era Low Point?

JonDMiller

JonDMiller

Publisher/Founder
Iowa has lost four games in a row and has been losing the battle on both sides of the ball. Is this the low point of the Ferentz era?

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Skimmed the article, will read more closely later. Just wanted to answer the (rhetorical) question.
Yes, it is the low point. The program is at best in disarray, at worst regressing. What little talent is on the team is not breaking through and leading by example. Coaching, top to bottom, appears completely flummoxed.
This is NOT supposed to be the state of the program in year 14 of a highly-paid coach's tenure.
Edit: I am not looking strictly at stats and W-L; I believe there are ample signs that support the "low point" position.
 
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No, Iowa has won 4 games this year. That is not 0-11. Except for Minny, we could have been 1-11 though...
 
No. Cityboyz, fat cats, Everson/Satterfield all dwarf this. This is just a bad year on the football field. In that era the Hawks were bad on the field and embarrassing off.
 
Scorpio79 said:
Skimmed the article, will read more closely later. Just wanted to answer the (rhetorical) question.
Yes, it is the low point. The program is at best in disarray, at worst regressing. What little talent is on the team is not breaking through and leading by example. Coaching, top to bottom, appears completely flummoxed.
This is NOT supposed to be the state of the program in year 14 of a highly-paid coach's tenure.
Edit: I am not looking strictly at stats and W-L; I believe there are ample signs that support the "low point" position.
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Disarray and flummoxation pretty well describe the way they look out there. We have enough athleticism to look semi-respectable, but I swear we haven't completed a timing route since 2005.
 
Put a guy like Garmon in the slot and Bubble Screen to him or maybe Smith. Those are the type of guys who can make teams pay for not honoring the slot. I would like to sit down and pick GameFilm's brain for a while to learn as he dissects as well as anyone.
 
True, the off field stuff in the past has been its own ' low point'.

From a purely on field production standpoint, that is where I am looking at it.
 
It's absolutely the low point on the field. Kirk's first 2 years can't be included in the conversation because they weren't a downward spiral, seemingly to the end, they were the beginning of something. Although it did feel like the low point at the time.
 
yes, this team is getting worse every week. It can't move the ball regardless of how bad the other team's defense is and it can't stop anybody. I'd be surprised if the final two games were within 35 points.
 
Nice post Jon. A few thoughts:

1) The poor play this season mostly can be traced to the 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes, which were an indirect result of poor 2006 and 2007 seasons. So it is concerning what kind of impact this season will have on recruiting in, say, 2014.

2) You could see this coming in 2010. In 2009, Iowa was great, and lost a handful of great players (Bulaga, Spivey, Angerer, Moeaki, Edds). But the 2010 Hawks still returned a ton of talent, including all their skill players, and numerous draft picks on defense. There was reason for high optimism. But the 2010 team pretty much had no contribution from the 2009 class except for Micah Hyde. There just wasn't any talent there. If the 2009 class was an average Ferentz class, that 2010 team wins 2 or 3 more games. Incidentally, I suspect that is why you predicted such a great record for 2010 - you assumed there would be solid contributions, on special teams if nothing else, from the 2009 class.

3) The talent level of the team Iowa is putting on the field is low. But we are being out-coached and out-schemed as well. For several years, it seemed like Iowa won more games than their talent level would suggest because we had better coaches. The last 3 years it seems like was are losing more games than our talent suggests we should, and it, right or wrong, it feels like coaching is a big part of that.
 
HawkeyeShane said:
It's absolutely the low point on the field. Kirk's first 2 years can't be included in the conversation because they weren't a downward spiral, seemingly to the end, they were the beginning of something. Although it did feel like the low point at the time.
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Well said. He had no prior history.

Now that there is history and if Ferentz were a stock shown on a candle chart you would see the trend going down. In this case the "trend is not our friend".
 
HawkU said:
Well said. He had no prior history.

Now that there is history and if Ferentz were a stock shown on a candle chart you would see the trend going down. In this case the "trend is not our friend".
Click to expand...
Thanks HawkU...the question now is, can the chart be turned upside down with everyone at the board meeting watching?
 
sdschroe said:
Nice post Jon. A few thoughts:

1) The poor play this season mostly can be traced to the 2008 and 2009 recruiting classes, which were an indirect result of poor 2006 and 2007 seasons. So it is concerning what kind of impact this season will have on recruiting in, say, 2014.

2) You could see this coming in 2010. In 2009, Iowa was great, and lost a handful of great players (Bulaga, Spivey, Angerer, Moeaki, Edds). But the 2010 Hawks still returned a ton of talent, including all their skill players, and numerous draft picks on defense. There was reason for high optimism. But the 2010 team pretty much had no contribution from the 2009 class except for Micah Hyde. There just wasn't any talent there. If the 2009 class was an average Ferentz class, that 2010 team wins 2 or 3 more games. Incidentally, I suspect that is why you predicted such a great record for 2010 - you assumed there would be solid contributions, on special teams if nothing else, from the 2009 class.

3) The talent level of the team Iowa is putting on the field is low. But we are being out-coached and out-schemed as well. For several years, it seemed like Iowa won more games than their talent level would suggest because we had better coaches. The last 3 years it seems like was are losing more games than our talent suggests we should, and it, right or wrong, it feels like coaching is a big part of that.
Click to expand...
Good stuff, sdschroe.
 
This isn't a bad place to be. It's fun to think about the good years to come. When we recruited McNutt, who knew he'd be that level of stud. Think of how man McNutts we have in the program that just haven't surfaced yet.
 
McNutt was the 13th ranked hs qb and dual threat. Means usually speed. Not a big stretch me thinks that he'd be a good B1G receiver, but maybe not NFL.... The guy wasn't exactly Randy Moss.
 
Given the stark reality of the offensive ineptitude you've documented in black and white, how in the world can Ferentz justify retaining Davis as OC?
 
MisterLucky said:
Given the stark reality of the offensive ineptitude you've documented in black and white, how in the world can Ferentz justify retaining Davis as OC?
Click to expand...

I suspect we'll hear "Greg's style needs time..." quite a bit in the coming months.
 
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