Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm)

[BSpringsteen]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

If over the last decade you're winning on par with the Top 20 programs in the nation and your revenues are in the Top 20 in the nation and you're doing it with talents that is ranked about 35th to 40th in the nation year in and year out in the rankings, I think you have to take some of that into account...winning at Iowa has never been nor will ever be easy.

It may not be easy, but there is no reason it has to be this hard either.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again here. You have an amazing college town, great campus, wonderful facilities, hot girls. The issue is in marketing. And KF refuses to acknowledge that he has to sell the University constantly not to recruits but publicly and in a way that is certainly outside his comfort zone.

When was the last time you heard him say Go Hawks in an interview or its Great to be a Hawkeye? When have you seen him be a cheerleader in public for the school. When have you seen him be enthusiastic about the university in a time and place where it would be noticed.

I get that it's not him, but when you are at a place like Iowa, I believe it is a prerequisite to be successful. The golden era of Iowa football is now 9 seasons in the past. People talk about the 2008 team, but that was still just an 8 win regular season, which to me is the baseline for a good year, not a great one. You can't be living in a "in the past decade moment" when each year that passes is removing one of the good years.

Little things like uniform changes, aren't necessary at blue bloods but when you are trying to brand yourself nationally, they help.

To be fair, this isn't all on KF. Barta could be stronger in this, our sports marketing department is an absolute and total embarrassment to the school.

If recruiting at Iowa is recruiting with one hand tied behind your back, than the people in power seemingly volunteer to tie the other one behind themselves on their own.

 

[Billso]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Those numbers are pretty low JD....didn't Nebraska offer over 90 4 and 5 star kids? I wonder how many they offered total?

Nebraska offered 129 4/5-star kids. Even Illinois offered 91. Nebraska's class this year was ranked #11 nationally by Scout. You can't win if you don't play. Nebraska has more NC tradition but all the same geographic challenges of Iowa.

Granted Nebraska went 10-4 this year, but those offers were made before the season, and both teams went bowling last year.

OTOH, Nebraska's recruiting rankings for the 3-4 years prior to this year were comparable to Iowa's.

My thinking on Iowa's recruiting:
1) Iowa has legitimate recruiting disadvantages. They are real. They are not just "excuses". In our conference, OSU/Michigan/PSU will always have a massive inherent advantage there.
2) Iowa under Kirk has done a wonderful job mitigating that by focusing successfully on development.
3) Nonetheless - the recruiting approach needs an upgrade. We are being out-recruited by programs with similar disadvantages.

 

[FreedComanche]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Oh Freed, get with the times! ha ha ha, just kidding man!

When he starts posting more Iowa football stuff we can start a thread or something and just post his tweets in it so it can be followed here.

Thanks. Unless there is way that I can make money easily with twitter or facebook, I'll never have an account for either. And I think one can become to used to virtual reality these days.

Gee, never thought I'd have something in common with "the failure in chief" of the Iowa Hawkeye football team.

FreedComanche

 

[HawkeyeMcNutt]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Nebraska offered 129 4/5-star kids. Even Illinois offered 91. Nebraska's class this year was ranked #11 nationally by Scout. You can't win if you don't play. Nebraska has more NC tradition but all the same geographic challenges of Iowa.

Granted Nebraska went 10-4 this year, but those offers were made before the season, and both teams went bowling last year.

OTOH, Nebraska's recruiting rankings for the 3-4 years prior to this year were comparable to Iowa's.

My thinking on Iowa's recruiting:
1) Iowa has legitimate recruiting disadvantages. They are real. They are not just "excuses". In our conference, OSU/Michigan/PSU will always have a massive inherent advantage there.
2) Iowa under Kirk has done a wonderful job mitigating that by focusing successfully on development.
3) Nonetheless - the recruiting approach needs an upgrade. We are being out-recruited by programs with similar disadvantages.

Boom. This is the key.

 

[dave3912]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Nebraska offered 129 4/5-star kids. Even Illinois offered 91. Nebraska's class this year was ranked #11 nationally by Scout. You can't win if you don't play. Nebraska has more NC tradition but all the same geographic challenges of Iowa.

Granted Nebraska went 10-4 this year, but those offers were made before the season, and both teams went bowling last year.

OTOH, Nebraska's recruiting rankings for the 3-4 years prior to this year were comparable to Iowa's.

My thinking on Iowa's recruiting:
1) Iowa has legitimate recruiting disadvantages. They are real. They are not just "excuses". In our conference, OSU/Michigan/PSU will always have a massive inherent advantage there.
2) Iowa under Kirk has done a wonderful job mitigating that by focusing successfully on development.
3) Nonetheless - the recruiting approach needs an upgrade. We are being out-recruited by programs with similar disadvantages.

I agree with #1, however #2 seems like the development has fallen off compared to earlier in the KF era. #3 is true, however I think they need to upgrade the evaluation stage, maybe hire it out or take more time on it.

I didn't get a call back on the assistant coach opening so what do I know!

 

[dave3912]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Thanks. Unless there is way that I can make money easily with twitter or facebook, I'll never have an account for either. And I think one can become to used to virtual reality these days.

Gee, never thought I'd have something in common with "the failure in chief" of the Iowa Hawkeye football team.

FreedComanche

I got facebook to keep in touch with family and friends easier. I have twitter to follow Iowa sports, it is instant almost. I have to be it up but I can usually find out on my phone in seconds what is going on with stuff that breaks. I follow media guys from pretty much every website that follows Iowa sports.

 

[ohhawk]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

People make a difference........we'll see what his new hire/s bring to the table as far as their recruiting reputation. That will tell me Ferentz's viewpoint of their need for little, more, or much more help in the recruiting trenches. Maybe we'll hear of a new full time Recruiting Coordinator position being created prior to his earlier statement of being perhaps two years away from consideration of that possibility.

 

[DwayneTwill]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

It may not be easy, but there is no reason it has to be this hard either.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again here. You have an amazing college town, great campus, wonderful facilities, hot girls. The issue is in marketing. And KF refuses to acknowledge that he has to sell the University constantly not to recruits but publicly and in a way that is certainly outside his comfort zone.

When was the last time you heard him say Go Hawks in an interview or its Great to be a Hawkeye? When have you seen him be a cheerleader in public for the school. When have you seen him be enthusiastic about the university in a time and place where it would be noticed.

I get that it's not him, but when you are at a place like Iowa, I believe it is a prerequisite to be successful. The golden era of Iowa football is now 9 seasons in the past. People talk about the 2008 team, but that was still just an 8 win regular season, which to me is the baseline for a good year, not a great one. You can't be living in a "in the past decade moment" when each year that passes is removing one of the good years.

Little things like uniform changes, aren't necessary at blue bloods but when you are trying to brand yourself nationally, they help.

To be fair, this isn't all on KF. Barta could be stronger in this, our sports marketing department is an absolute and total embarrassment to the school.

If recruiting at Iowa is recruiting with one hand tied behind your back, than the people in power seemingly volunteer to tie the other one behind themselves on their own.

This is all dumb. Kurt's problem isn't his desire to stick with our awesome uniforms instead of switching to something that looks like crap, or his refusal to say "Go Hawks!" at press conferences. That's nuts. His problem is his boring game plan and bad coaching decisions which lead to him losing to bad teams.

 

[BSpringsteen]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

This is all dumb. Kurt's problem isn't his desire to stick with our awesome uniforms instead of switching to something that looks like crap, or his refusal to say "Go Hawks!" at press conferences. That's nuts. His problem is his boring game plan and bad coaching decisions which lead to him losing to bad teams.

I think you can put boring game plan in the above, but by and large, I just think that we need better players.

Last year wasn't a 4-8 year because of KF, it was that way because we had an astonishing lack of talent at basically all key positions, and not even close to enough depth to weather a couple injuries.

 

[olddude]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

I think you can put boring game plan in the above, but by and large, I just think that we need better players.

Last year wasn't a 4-8 year because of KF, it was that way because we had an astonishing lack of talent at basically all key positions, and not even close to enough depth to weather a couple injuries.

This has been a problem for years. Even without injuries you have to be able to rotate atleast a little. I think from last year and what he said in his presser, he is starting to understand that and is trying to bring them up faster. Plus that does not hurt on the sell to recruits either.
Only thing I thought he could have said better in the presser, was when he said we have 3 Sr starters at LB next year. I hope to God he is giving the underclassman a chance and really paying attention during work outs and not just assuming the SR's are a lock. Keep it open for competition.

 

[HawkeyeMHA]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

I don't do all that twit tweet stuff. I still got an Atari.

 

[DwayneTwill]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Last year wasn't a 4-8 year because of KF, it was that way because we had an astonishing lack of talent at basically all key positions, and not even close to enough depth to weather a couple injuries.

And whose fault is that? Kurt acting like an idiot at press conferences or sending the team out wearing clown suits isn't going to change it.

 

[HawkIMalaise]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Alabama runs a "boring" offense too. However they have the horses year in and year out to get it done. This includes not giving scholarships to coaches kids and other 2 star 6'2" 210 stiffs that that 4.7 40's because the dominated the conference in 1A conference reppin the town of Decorah.

 

[Billso]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Kurt acting like an idiot at press conferences or sending the team out wearing clown suits isn't going to change it.

I agree, but nobody proposed Kirk act like an idiot at press conferences or send the team out wearing clown suits. If that's what you think marketing & PR are about, you may hold the same misconceptions Kirk apparently does. Even people as smart as him tend to fear or disparage what they don't understand.

Modern marketing & PR are incredibly sophisticated fields, much more data-driven than ever before, and encompassing everything from long-term brand building to market research (among fans, donors, recruiting targets, etc.) to tactical PR and crisis management. It's not about some guy in a plaid blazer running around shouting "we won't be undersold!". Iowa's sports marketing and PR operation, to be polite, is doing some good things but has tremendous scope for improvement both strategically & tactically.

When you have built-in disadvantages you need to be that much better than the competition. Same premise applies to attention to detail on things like clock management. Kirk is right that he has little margin for error, so he needs to take controllable factors out of the equation.

 

[whammer33024]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Alabama runs a "boring" offense too. However they have the horses year in and year out to get it done. This includes not giving scholarships to coaches kids and other 2 star 6'2" 210 stiffs that that 4.7 40's because the dominated the conference in 1A conference reppin the town of Decorah.

are you really comparing iowa to alabama? because if your expectations are to be at alabama's level at recruiting or winning in general, you are going to be VERY disappointed and should probably lower your expectations a bit

 

[FreedComanche]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

I got facebook to keep in touch with family and friends easier. I have twitter to follow Iowa sports, it is instant almost. I have to be it up but I can usually find out on my phone in seconds what is going on with stuff that breaks. I follow media guys from pretty much every website that follows Iowa sports.

That means you must wear black and gold underwear then. At least you don't worship ferentz.

FreedComanche

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

Nebraska offered 129 4/5-star kids. Even Illinois offered 91. Nebraska's class this year was ranked #11 nationally by Scout. You can't win if you don't play. Nebraska has more NC tradition but all the same geographic challenges of Iowa.

Granted Nebraska went 10-4 this year, but those offers were made before the season, and both teams went bowling last year.

OTOH, Nebraska's recruiting rankings for the 3-4 years prior to this year were comparable to Iowa's.

My thinking on Iowa's recruiting:
1) Iowa has legitimate recruiting disadvantages. They are real. They are not just "excuses". In our conference, OSU/Michigan/PSU will always have a massive inherent advantage there.
2) Iowa under Kirk has done a wonderful job mitigating that by focusing successfully on development.
3) Nonetheless - the recruiting approach needs an upgrade. We are being out-recruited by programs with similar disadvantages.

Couldn't have said it better. +1,000,000,000.

When Nebraska offers 129 4/5* recruits, and Illinois offers 91, and Iowa offers 44 - I'm sorry, but you can't tell me that Iowa's staff is trying as hard as they SHOULD BE to recruit highly-rated talent. Nobody said they were going to get a bunch of commits, for crying out loud, at least make the effort.

Nebraska has tradition, but the same geographic challenges Iowa has. Illinois may have better in-state talent with Chicago right there in their back yard, but what tradition do they have?

Iowa can't offer more than 44? Give me a break. I don't buy it for a second, I don't care what anyone tells me.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

are you really comparing iowa to alabama? because if your expectations are to be at alabama's level at recruiting or winning in general, you are going to be VERY disappointed and should probably lower your expectations a bit

Um, that's not at ALL what he said.

 

[dave3912]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

That means you must wear black and gold underwear then. At least you don't worship ferentz.

FreedComanche

After '10 my eyes were opened wide. I don't think he is a bad guy and I think he follows the rules. But with that said I don't like his style of play. I like tough defense but I like offenses that put up points. Plus I don't like his unwillingness to open things up and try new things a little more.

 

[NeilDiamond]

Re: Living and Dying by the Two-Star (with some interesting data from HawkeyeGameFilm

I don't understand all the arguments and excuses. Bottom line is Iowa's staff is not recruiting well enough and has not recruited well enough for a while. Period. Literally hundreds of millions have been poured into facilities, airplanes, bells and whistles to attract this kids and I would argue that in terms of "bait", Iowa is now on par with the upper 25 programs in the Country. Of course, we also pay our coach like a NC winner. Yet, we just finished almost last in the B10 in recruiting. Quite frankly, it is inexusible.