Miller: Have We Been Too Hard on Greg Davis?

I think KF is one of the best at player development. Unfortunately, he a poor manager of talent, he is poor at clock management, he is poor at making in game adjustments, and he is overall just a poor game day coach.

One of the biggest plays in Iowa history, Tate to Holloway, is actually one of the biggest clock and game management mishaps in Iowa history. Tate bailed KF out and the rest is history. However, this is one of the the biggest plays in Iowa history in spite of KF, not because of him.
 
JonDMiller said:
http://hawkeyenation.com/football/too-hard-on-greg-davis

Again, can't bring it in here or the formatting gets jacked up...but this spreadsheet I put together in 2012 and refreshed with recent numbers is at the crux of the question:

offensivestats.jpeg
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Jon - in the immortal words of Dollar Bob Bowlsbey, you're a "rank amateur" that doesn't know what he's talking about! :)
 
No, I don't think we're being too hard on him. I hear so much about how good the talent is in Iowa's offense this year, and guess what? We're still one of the worst in the country offensively, and that's against an easy non-conference. I can't believe things are going to improve when the schedule gets more difficult.

3 years of Greg Davis's offense, and 3 years it's been horrible. When he turns out a good offense, then I'll reconsider this notion. At least KOK had some decent years, and the scoring offense was at least "top half" most years. Yeah, his offenses weren't usually what I'd call GREAT, but they at least seemed half-way competent more often than not. I can't hold 1999 & 2000 against him too much since the program was in pretty rough shape, and things improved pretty quickly after that.

The rushing offense... That disappoints me. I thought KF was supposed to be this offensive line guru, so I would have expected a little better results in our ground game. But if you're running into a stacked box all the time, then I suppose that's moot point.

None of this is to say that I think KF can't (or shouldn't) share some blame here, though. I have to believe he has a lot of say in how the offense is run, and average to just plain bad offense has been the norm. Being an ex OL coach, I would think he would care more about the offense than he seems to.

That said, I don't think Greg Davis's scheme is going to work and was a bad hire. As Jon said, there is NO vertical threat from that offense, so it's like being in a goal-to-go situation all the time.

As others have said, KF hired an OC that would run the type of offense that he wanted to run, not necessarily the BEST hire.
 
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Screw all the rest of the numbers, look at just the scoring ranking.

Take away the first two years of the KOK coached O when KF was digging the program out of the hole that Hayden left and you find that the Iowa O was in the top half of the country in scoring 9 out of the 11 years KOK was the OC.

The last two years and through 3 games this year we are 111th, 76th and 111th.

Blame KF for making a horrible hire in Davis but he isn't the one calling plays or having guys run two yard outs every play.

But to me those numbers prove that Davis was a horrible hire and KOK for all his faults at least at a scheme that put points on the board.
 
hoffahawk said:
Screw all the rest of the numbers, look at just the scoring ranking.

Take away the first two years of the KOK coached O when KF was digging the program out of the hole that Hayden left and you find that the Iowa O was in the top half of the country in scoring 9 out of the 11 years KOK was the OC.

The last two years and through 3 games this year we are 111th, 76th and 111th.

Blame KF for making a horrible hire in Davis but he isn't the one calling plays or having guys run two yard outs every play.

But to me those numbers prove that Davis was a horrible hire and KOK for all his faults at least at a scheme that put points on the board.
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Hoffa makes a lot of sense here. I would add that Iowa has not been able to attract a lot of skill position 4 stars over the years. So, it made sense that we used the kind of system that, essentially, the pro's use. Everything is about playing the percentages. That is where KF came from and, when he has had good running backs, and of course, great defenses, he has been very successful. I believe that Iowa's RB's are about low average as BT backs go. Look around at the others, just in our division. I love the effort Iowa's RB's put forth...I am just talking about the athletic skills, not the great kids we have in the program.
 
RocknRollface said:
Davis deserves little of the blame IMO.

if he was running things on O with autonomy than he would deserve the blame.

right now KFs run scheme, his conservative philosophy and his QB choice give him ownership of this mess.

seriously what can Davis do with a QB who refuses to throw down field?
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GD is the OC but he is still on a tight leash. KOK ran a spread offense before he was the OC and Iowa. There has been more GD schemes than last year. He loves the read option and Iowa has actually ran the option a few times this year. The problem last year is that when they ran it Jake NEVER held on to the ball. This year they look lost on whether to hand off the ball or keep it. They audible to the run EVERY time....Try checking to a play action a few times to keep the D honest.

I am starting to believe that the system is too complex and Jake is over thinking everything instead of making plays. Why else did JVB regress so much before his senior year? His footwork was definitely worse but it probably had something to do with over thinking everything. They need to slow the game down for the QB as much as possible and get back to simple pitch and catch.

The run game on the other hand....who knows what happened there. There is no reason Iowa shouldn't be able to pound the ball on UNI, Ball State and ISU. Baffling.
 
Numbers dictate this is a 5-7 team. We will see if KF can resurrect this offense. Still think there are routes being run deep within the play calls but Jake struggles to go down the field. IMO C.J. would go down field but KF isn't comfortable with the risk/reward percentage.
 
I don't think we have been hard enough on him. HE IS STILL HERE! What kind of offense has no rushing attack when you have one of the best offensive linemen in the country? And it's not like the rest of the line is a bunch of scrubs either. They are good journey man players. The running backs may not be marquis players like at Nebraska or Wisconsin but they are good players. We have never seen as big a group of wide receivers as Iowa has now. And yet....No offense. Last or nearly last in all offensive categories. There is nothing here to support the retention of Greg Davis.

And in calling out Greg Davis, it also calls out Kirk Ferentz's judgment. Even in good years, Iowa has a mediocre offense. Some of the blame must go to Kirk. If he can't pull the trigger, sorry it's time for him to go too.
 
Have we been too hard on derp Davis? Are you ******* kidding me? Get him a ******* drink box then. Our offense is abominable, yes, like the snowman.
 
Problems are from KF as much as Davis.

To reiterate, what are they supposed to do against a D stacking the box with a QB that refuses to throw the ball downfield and a coach who refused to take that QB out?
 
Man, new to this site...Gopher fan...thought I'd check out the pulse of the Hawkeye fan base after losing to LOWLY ISU. The Gopher fan base remains optimistic after losing to TCU. You guys are already calling for a Ferentz and Davis mutiny? Come one, man. As an outsider looking in, Ferentz has always played conservatively and usually seems to barely win the games he is suppose to and nearly wins the ones he's not. Ferentz is the Hawkeye BRAND. He and Fry made your formula successful. He'll pull it out as usual and will probably loosen up and let Greg Davis do more. I think your problem is that Rudock over thinks the position and Ferentz and Davis let him.

Who Hates Iowa? We Hate Iowa!
 
RocknRollface said:
Problems are from KF as much as Davis.

To reiterate, what are they supposed to do against a D stacking the box with a QB that refuses to throw the ball downfield and a coach who refused to take that QB out?
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Well, derp Davis says, jake, on this ******* play I want you to throw the ball deep to willies right down the ******* middle. I don't care what you see throw it to him down the middle. That can be done. That derp can do.
 
Our offense couldn't score 35 points even if the other teams defense was on their sidelines. It is pathetic. Nuff' said!
 
The offense is worse than it was with KOK. Kirk remains the same during both tenures.

That tells me Greg Davis is a problem.
 
hawkinn3 said:
What is most surprising is that Kirk has always based his offense on running the ball to set up the pass but we have never had a very good running game. We average the 70th best running game in Kirk's era? The Kirk Ferentz era should be called the Norm Parker Era because his defense is what made Iowa so good in 02, 04 and 09. Give Norm a statue and Kirk a bus ticket.
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Agreed. "Kirk-ball" 101!

Only problem KF hasn't realized that his D have not been that good.......and that is sad indeed.
 
This hybrid KF running game and GD passing game isn't working. They need to commit one way or another or GD has to go.


Zone blocking scheme was designed to plug any running back into it and be able to pick up yardage even against 8 man fronts. Obviously, neither is the case. this isn't the early 2000's you are going to have to tweak that philosophy if not scrap it altogether.
 
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