Miller: Low Point Loss

We'll probably put an *** whopping on Michigan and we'll all be back to scratching our heads and wondering what in the hell kind of team we have.

I hate the idea of Stoops coming in based on his sideline demenor but something has to change. I've met Norm a ton of times and love the guy. He's built up a ton of good will and he deserves to write his own ticket out of here. That said, we need something to change and fast.
 
How these kids respond on the field after today's loss will tell alot about the coaching staff. The thing I'm worried about is how they seem to panic on offense during "game on the line" situations, starting with the Penn State game. I'm really suprised, given how they came back vs Pitt, I didn't see or sense "panic" then. I don't know enough about how / if the coaching staff prepares the players for those situations, or, if they themselves are prepared.
 
How these kids respond on the field after today's loss will tell alot about the coaching staff. The thing I'm worried about is how they seem to panic on offense during "game on the line" situations, starting with the Penn State game. I'm really suprised, given how they came back vs Pitt, I didn't see or sense "panic" then. I don't know enough about how / if the coaching staff prepares the players for those situations, or, if they themselves are prepared.

It amazes me that while this offense is seemingly very adept at going hurry-up, no huddle, it appears to have absolutely nothing in the way of a two-minute plan for the close of the half and the end of a game in which we trail. I do not understand this. This should be an integral part of the playbook from the first day a player sets foot on campus, continued each year to build continuity and familiarity with just enough tweaks to keep opponents guessing.
 
These "kids"(last I checked being 18 makes you an adult in this country, yet for some reason if somebody works at McDonalds at age 20 and gets a DUI and does idiot crap nobody has sympathy for them but if you play college football you are apparently incapable of discretion or self control, but I digress) are just not very good. Several years of bad recruits and players leaving is destroying us now.
 
^ How convienent of you to overlook talent. You've got a WR who just broke a school record for TDs and a RB who just ran for 252 yards. Never mind Vandenberg, Davis (absent today) and a host of others.
 
Huge understatement. Both of those teams likely will be favored by more than two touchdowns IN IOWA CITY. Those games will be brutal, as will Nebraska @ Lincoln.

You know nothing about point spreads if you think michigan and michigan state will be favored by more than 2 touchdowns in their games against the Hawks. Tone down the ridiculous rhetoric !
 
the extra practices are nice if they lead to an upward trend in play in the next seasons... that is not happening

But wait, think where they'd be if they didn't have those 15 extra practices. So, they are having a positive effect on the following season, it's just a matter of perspective.
 
That's the frustrating thing. Iowa needed a epic stand against Syracuse to win a game, Iowa needed not one, but two FG blocks to beat UNI, and a dropped pass to beat Indiana.

Then you have the Western Michigan loss, the Iowa State losses, and now the Minnesota losses.

Iowa has been playing down to the level of their lesser opponents for several years now. It's a trend.

OR MORE LIKELY - IOWA IS JUST NOT THAT GOOD.

But feel free to use whatever excuse that makes you feel better. We all know the truth.

Clearly everyone that plays the mighty Sqwuaks is playing their bowl game. LOL.
 
I am not in the Fire Ferentz camp. I am disappointed like everyone else, but there are four games left to play out this year. Even then, the guy has built up a great deal of goodwill and he's been a damn good coach for Iowa.

I get that people are ticked, but I think some people are over reacting a bit here.

I don't think people are over reacting at all...Ferentz is a HORRIBLE in game coach and he has proved that year after year. He can't beat crap teams to save his life and gives no emotion on the side lines at all...

Unfortunately Iowa for stupid reason gave him a life time contract at an insane amount of cash he has never earned.

And his poor old Iowa attitude is just stupid as can be and old to keep hear him say that, do you think recruits really want to hear that BS...

It is time for a change because things are getting worse at Iowa not better. Would be nice for once to see Iowa completely dominate a lesser opponent...makes one long for the Hayden days.
 
OR MORE LIKELY - IOWA IS JUST NOT THAT GOOD.

But feel free to use whatever excuse that makes you feel better. We all know the truth.

Clearly everyone that plays the mighty Sqwuaks is playing their bowl game. LOL.

Do you think Iowa State and Minnesota are better teams than Iowa?

I've said it several times on here. I can handle the Penn State loss, but losing to Iowa State and Minnesota are not acceptable.

Iowa losing to Pitt makes more sense than losing to those awful teams.
 
Last edited:
It doesnt matter if its Miller, Zabel,Dolphin or Podalak none of these guys would ever post or say what they truly feel. Keep drinking the kool-aid boys. OUT COACHED AGAIN!!!! I think Kill or Rhoads would switch rosters in a heartbeat.
 
I can point you to a 45 minute controlled 'rant' the week before Lickliter was called into Barta's office, where I said I could no longer support him as coach. Still have the audio. And no one else in the media had said that at that point.

So next question

<<So next question>>

Q: What ARE you calling for? New coache(es)? Change at QB? Every player on the field for the onside kick ( excepting deep man/men) being routed to a new school? A new ST coach?
Just what are you calling for?
 
JD, understand what you're saying, but when you're one of the top paid coaches in the country you don't lose to ISU and Minny in the same season. It would be like Nick Saban losing to Vandy and Mississippi State two years in a row or Bob Stoops losing to Kansas....it just doesn't happen. I know, I know....Iowa isn't Alabama or Oklahoma. Then why do we pay our coach as if we are?

<<Then why do we pay our coach as if we are?>>

Because it costs more to get someone to WANT to coach here.

And for all the class-warfare-I'm-a-taxpayer folks, KFs salary is NOT paid with "your" tax dollars (although my guess is most of the folks here pay few, if any, taxes, any way).
 
Exactly. We've had 3 fantastic seasons. 2 Big 10 titles and an Orange Bowl victory a few years ago. The rest is average. People tend to forget that an Outback Bowl or January Bowl game nowadays is not what it used to be like back in Hayden's days and it is why Hayden will always be known as the godfather of Iowa football.

<<(A)nd it is why Hayden will always be known as the godfather of Iowa football>>


Really? Howard Jones-, Eddie Anderson- and Evy-era fans may disagree on that...
 
JFC, JD, stop with the "we're Iowa and we only have 5 BCS level high school recruits out of this state so be thankful" b.s.!! If that's the case then don't pay KF the money we're paying him and go get someone else who only costs 1 mill per. I'm always going to have high expectations because I'm a winner and don't settle for mediocrity. I wish more of you would jump on board.

<<(B)ecause I'm a winner and don't settle for mediocrity>>

Wow. I got chills reading that.
 
There may be worse losses in the Kirk Ferentz era as it relates to what it meant to certain seasons, but Iowa's loss to Minnesota this Saturday is certainly a low point.

Before the game, there were debates as to whether or not this year's Minnesota team was the worst in the Big Ten since the 1981 Northwestern team. The amount of points Minnesota had given up in just the first half of their three Big Ten losses was more than 100 points and their offense was the worst in the Big Ten.

Yet Iowa lost to these Gophers, falling to 5-3 with an arduous November slate still to play.

After eight games, you typically know what kind of football team you have. As it relates to this year's Iowa team, the likely reality is that they are just an average football team. They have yet to win on the road, losing to two bad squad's as well as the loss to Penn State, who may be the worst 8-1 team in the history of college football.

Iowa's defense couldn't get off the field in the fourth quarter, but it was the offense who failed the team on this day, something we have been saying since November of 2010.

When you have a rusher that puts up 252 yards, the third highest single game total in school history, you should not lose a football game. When you take into account the other 13 games in Iowa history where it's running back topped the 200-yard mark, they are 12-2. The other loss was at Northwestern in 2005, another game where Iowa led by double-digits in the fourth quarter and where the opponent successfully converted an onside kick.

Iowa had been stellar in the redzone this year, scoring on 26 of its 27 trips. In this game, they were just 3 of 6, missing a 24-yard field goal, a 43 yard field goal and a fumble on a blindside blitz sack. Each of those miscues was very costly in a game that you lose by one point.

When you put up nearly 300 yards in the first half, you should score more than seven points. Iowa didn't and it lost the game.

While Iowa's defense is challenged from a personnel standpoint, something we knew would be the case back in January, they allow the opposing quarterback to get far too comfortable. Is it a coincidence that opposing quarterbacks put up one of their best games of their respective seasons when they play Iowa?

Look at this year; Steele Jantz had a game for the ages and has since been benched. Matt McGloin was solid against Iowa, by far his best game. Marqueis Gray has been abysmal this season throwing the ball, completing less than 50 percent of his passes. Against Iowa? 11-17. Indiana's true freshman looked good...and so on.

Once upon a time, perhaps you could get away with the base defense Iowa played. But today's quarterbacks are a different breed. They run the spread offense in high school and have been making quick decisions and hitting underneath routes for years before they get to college. Where Iowa's defense is willing to take its chances plays right into where today's quarterbacks are strong.

That's not to pin this game on the defense; they played their best game of the season through three quarters. But it was the onside kick recovery in the fourth quarter that broke Iowa's back...it's also the second straight year where Minnesota has recovered an onside kick against Iowa to propel them to a victory.

This was also Iowa's 5th straight road loss and James Vandenberg is now 0-4 on the road as Iowa's starting quarterback.

Iowa sits at 5-3 with back to back home games against Michigan and Michigan State. It's very hard to pick Iowa in either one of those games right about now, and I have felt bad about the game at Purdue since the middle of summer. The game at Lincoln looks downright scary right now. The thought of Rex Burkhead slamming into the Iowa defensive front? Yikes.

Iowa needs one more win for bowl eligibility, and this program really needs those 15 bowl practices. We all know they returned the fewest starters of any Big Ten team, so that developmental time is paramount for this club.

Right now, it's tough to be optimistic about any one of these final four games.
15 extra bowl practices did'nt seem to make a differance for this year.
 
Re the comment about class warfare, I'm in the top 5% income level, and I resent people who get paid top dollar for mediocre performance who then whine about having to be paid more for living wherever. That's not class warfare, that's how capitalism is SUPPOSED to work. No performance, no pay. CRONY capitalism is when you get paid high dollar and make excuses for poor performance. I've fired plenty of managers who whine and blame everyone but themselves for poor performance but have worked to improve the sadly very few who will take the blame on their shoulders and want to work to improve. Nothing disgusts a true capitalist than entitled wealthy.
 
15 extra bowl practices did'nt seem to make a differance for this year.

Oh so by all means, we should hope that we don't get those extra practices every again.

JFC, those practice maybe didn't help much for this year, but they can't ever hurt. Worst-case scenario, you're left right where you were before those practices. Best-case, they help speed up the development of your players.

Seriously, why would we want to pass that up?
 
Oh so by all means, we should hope that we don't get those extra practices every again.

JFC, those practice maybe didn't help much for this year, but they can't ever hurt. Worst-case scenario, you're left right where you were before those practices. Best-case, they help speed up the development of your players.

Seriously, why would we want to pass that up?

Because sometimes at a school like Iowa as long as you are making a bowl every season, nothing is going to change. It takes a major down year, like not even making a bowl game, to shake things up. If it takes missing out on a bowl this year to get KF to shake up his staff, then I'm all for it.
 

Latest posts

Top