Just how young this team is....

[SheagleHawk]

I get so freaking sick of this argument.

Iowa had a true freshman playing middle linebacker and other guys playing LB that had no business being on the field. They also had only lost 2 games before they ended up having to play a bad fifth year senior at right guard, who was playing next to a first year starting small center. And AROB was the starting running back with Coker's development slowed because of the shoulder injury. And oh yeah, the defensive coordinator was hospitalized all season.

So what? There was a bunch of good guys on the DLine, a good senior QB and some good (but not NFL worthy) receivers. The overall talent wasn't that great. GET FREAKING OVER IT!

I would guess the entire board feels the same way about your 3 yr cycle theory.

 

[homes]

I get so freaking sick of this argument.

Iowa had a true freshman playing middle linebacker and other guys playing LB that had no business being on the field. They also had only lost 2 games before they ended up having to play a bad fifth year senior at right guard, who was playing next to a first year starting small center. And AROB was the starting running back with Coker's development slowed because of the shoulder injury. And oh yeah, the defensive coordinator was hospitalized all season.

So what? There was a bunch of good guys on the DLine, a good senior QB and some good (but not NFL worthy) receivers. The overall talent wasn't that great. GET FREAKING OVER IT!

You're right, Sash, Greenwood and Prater weren't that good, nor were Vandevelde or Reiff. LBs were a problem, but 4 losses in the Big Ten? Can't excuse that.

 

[DesMoinesHawki]

Don't buy the young factor -- at all ... We have plenty of upper classmen ... We are not the only BCS team with first-year players. This is about talent, not youth ... Vandy, CJ, Davis, Hyde, Morris ... etc., etc., have seen plenty of playing time ... You simply don't lose to a Central Michigan at home ... We didn't lose because we are young ... we lost because we simply don't seem to have the talent ...

Look at Clayborn's senior year ... That team was loaded with talent ... and we barely climbed above .500 ... Really tired of the different excuses ... The program is headed in the wrong direction ...

 

[MoseSchrute]

When someone comes up with a legit excuse for losing to cent. michigan, other than inept coaching staff, please let me know.

Stealing all those "diamonds in the rough" from MAC schools has left us with MAC-level talent. But recruiting goes back on the coaches too...

 

[HawkeyeMcNutt]

You do realize that with the exception of our DL, our defense is not young, right? Our back 7 is loaded with junior and senior DB's and LB's. And by the time our DL has experience, we will then be going with a back 7 that is unproven and has never seen the field, right?

We have seniors at QB, WR, and 2 OL positions, as well as juniors at TE, 1 OL spot, and FB. Those young RB's everyone was so worried about don't seem to be struggling too much, do they? You can say we are young at WR, but Staggs and Shumpert aren't young, they just don't play.

Law at Safety, Lowery at CB along with Draper, plus Lile would've seen the field this season and will next season IF he can recover. Then you have Collins who will have experience, Laron Taylor will likely see snaps next year, the back seven will be somewhat inexperienced, but will still have some guys with talent who will have played quality snaps.

 

[dmShortSaledude]

You do realize that with the exception of our DL, our defense is not young, right? Our back 7 is loaded with junior and senior DB's and LB's. And by the time our DL has experience, we will then be going with a back 7 that is unproven and has never seen the field, right?

We have seniors at QB, WR, and 2 OL positions, as well as juniors at TE, 1 OL spot, and FB. Those young RB's everyone was so worried about don't seem to be struggling too much, do they? You can say we are young at WR, but Staggs and Shumpert aren't young, they just don't play.

With a Kirk Ferentz team you will Rarely have experience. As without experience, you Never play....

So, basically, you have to have the stars & planets align properly. That is, you recruit well once in a while, then those recruits come up with crap teams, so those player get a few snaps. Then you have decent talent, with some experience. That means we may have an ok team in 2 years. Get it? Ok, good.

 

[dmShortSaledude]

Rotate your players in comfortably situations. Develop players to have experience. Wild thought, I know.

 

[herkyattack]

Rotate your players in comfortably situations. Develop players to have experience. Wild thought, I know.

This is one of my biggest complaints with Kurt. There is no reason younger players like Nico and Collins shouldn't be rotating in every once in a while, if just for a few plays. Hell, we finally burned the shirt on T. Smith last week, and knowing Kurt he probably won't play more than 15 snaps the rest of the season.

 

[JBRTHREE]

Oh jeez.... Once again we are going to hear the same OLD song about all the YOUNG players being the cause of the apocalypse... EVERY team is young! THAT is the point of COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!! The bottom line in College ball is NOT age, its talent! You can sing that "Babes in the Cradle" crap all night long, it's a canard. When you get BEAT you get BEAT! And not one of those kids on the sideline lacks talent, or class... They just lost a game, and that is not the end of the world. Get up, dust yourselves off and go kick some BUTT! Now lets go get some Gopher!!!

 

[Captain]

Time for most of you guys to realize that the Iowa Program is not NEARLLY as good as you think.
Laughable....really.

 

[HawkeyeHypnosis]

Time for most of you guys to realize that the Iowa Program is not NEARLLY as good as you think.
Laughable....really.

Really? Because of this year? The last few? The program is fine. You're laughable really. One bad start to a season doesn't erase any recent history of this program. We won a BCS bowl 2 years ago. Remember?

 

[Ozhawk]

I was looking through past recruiting classes, and it really struck me just how young this year's football team is going to be. Typically you have a lot of upperclassmen starting, with an occasional underclassmen here or there. But looking back at our past classes, this is simply not the case. Glancing at our '08 and '09 classes (Would be RS Senior, Senior, and RS Junior classes), you would expect to have a few starters. But....

'08: Vandenberg, Ferentz
Only two likely starters from this class

'09: Alvis, K. Davis, Hyde, Rodgers, Van Sloten
Five likely starters from this class

Which leaves us with the 2010 class, which consists of true Juniors and RS Sophomores. Ideally, you would want a handful of starters from this class.

'10: C. Davis, CJFed, Hitchens, Kirksey, Lowery, Martin-Manley, T.Miller, Morris, Scherff, Trinca-Pasat

There are ten likely starters from this class, and another (Shumpert) will likely get the majority of snaps when we implement a 3rd receiver, which we may be doing with much more regularity this year.

This just reinforces many of our beliefs that while we may struggle this season (I for one am not in that camp), there is a very bright future ahead of us.

Fuzzy Math there sir...Fuzzy Math

 

[HawkeyeDenis]

As far as youth goes. Miami (florida) has 50ish freshmen/soph