Nice perspective from Longhorn fan on Greg Davis

Interesting read. Think of Texas football expectations sort of like how we think of Iowa wrestling expectations. Davis might a great coach but for a combination of reasons he was no longer the right fit at Texas ... Think of Zalesky being replaced at Iowa and then going on to coach Oregon State and doing a nice job for them ...

Fans nowadays can be ruthless -- especially when you have fans from programs who are used to winning big on the national stage. If Davis is indeed the hire, I think he will do a nice job for the Hawks ... Change can be good ...
 
Whomever we hire, I just want to see three things change offensively:

1. Learn to consistently run a 2:00 offense. Nothing is more frustrating than to watch a team struggle to the point that you wonder if they ever practice it.
2. Continue to go with what is working until the other team adjusts...stop trying to be balanced for the sake of being balanced. Balance on an annual basis is fine, but game to game, we may need to be a lot more run heavy or pass heavy depending on the opponent.
3. Learn to stay away from tendencies. For example, 9 times out of 10, we run on 2nd down if we passed on 1st down and it was incomplete. Tendencies are fine if you have elite athletes and you can simply line up and dare them to stop you. With the exception of a year here or there, we don't have that luxury, so we have to stay away from giving the opposition a leg up on us by essentially knowing what we will do on certain down and distance scenarios.

Hopefully GD, if the rumors of his hire are true, can handle these 3 issues.
 
SpiderRico said:
Whomever we hire, I just want to see three things change offensively:

1. Learn to consistently run a 2:00 offense. Nothing is more frustrating than to watch a team struggle to the point that you wonder if they ever practice it.
2. Continue to go with what is working until the other team adjusts...stop trying to be balanced for the sake of being balanced. Balance on an annual basis is fine, but game to game, we may need to be a lot more run heavy or pass heavy depending on the opponent.
3. Learn to stay away from tendencies. For example, 9 times out of 10, we run on 2nd down if we passed on 1st down and it was incomplete. Tendencies are fine if you have elite athletes and you can simply line up and dare them to stop you. With the exception of a year here or there, we don't have that luxury, so we have to stay away from giving the opposition a leg up on us by essentially knowing what we will do on certain down and distance scenarios.

Hopefully GD, if the rumors of his hire are true, can handle these 3 issues.
Click to expand...

Very good summary of the problems on offense and what the new OC can do to get at least 4 to 7 more points a game.

It is amazing what the 4 to 7 more points a game would have meant since 2005. A huge difference in win-loss record and some amazing records.
 
uihawk82 said:
...

It is amazing what the 4 to 7 more points a game would have meant since 2005. A huge difference in win-loss record and some amazing records.
Click to expand...

It's also amazing what 4 to 7 points less a game on defense and the please-don't break-too-much Iowa pass defense returning lost touches to Iowa's offense would have meant since 2005.

I don't think, for example, Alabama's fan base whines as much about their anemic offense as Iowa's fan base does. I guess Alabama fans realize: if the defense stops the other team from scoring, the offense doesn't need to score as many points. Alabama won a national championship with an anemic offense in 2009, ya know.

EDIT: Hey, I'm all for a great defense. I think that's what Iowa needs right now. A great defense is the backbone of any great team, so let's hope Iowa finally gets one.
 
Last edited:
QUOTE=ICHawk24;732742]It is frustrating the Iowa was only top 10 in the country in scoring defense in 2009 and 2010. Only in 2008 were we top 5.

cfbstats.com - 2008 National Team Leaders[/QUOTE]

You know ICHawk, I've already shot down this theory that Iowa had a good defense because of points allowed. I used the 2010 Iowa football season to disprove this theory in a thread a couple of days ago.

To summarize: including patsies, and Iowa State and Penn State, Iowa's defense allowed 4.25 points a game. All these teams were primarily running offenses. Iowa State's QB was Arnaud.

Iowa's defense played 5 games against primarily passing teams and gave up an average of 24 points a game. Iowa's bend-but-don't-break pass defense gave up a lot of Iowa offensive touches to these teams as well.

Iowa gave up 21? points to tOSU who was primarily an athletic offense - couldn't pass.

Iowa's defense gave up 31 points to Wisconsin who's offense was athletic, could pass, and run.

MSU, even though they were highly rated at the time, could only run proficiently so, Iowa's defense stymied them.

The question is: is Iowa's defense good (using average points allowed)?
The answer: it depends what kind of offense Iowa's defense is trying to defend. Iowa's defense is great against (when coach K. was at Iowa) a running offense, mediocre against a passing offense, and bad against an elite offense (who isn't)
 
It's hard to fault the defense for our offense's inability to score. Especially when you take into account the number of takeaways that our defense has gotten over the past several years. We have gotten as many takeaways as any team in the nation over the past decade plus. What separates us from the elite teams is our ability to turn those takeaways into points.

When the margin for error, evidenced by the number of close losses over the last several years, is as slim as it is.....you HAVE to take advantage of opportunities when they are presented to you. I know KF is extremely risk averse, but sometimes you have to take risks AT THE RIGHT TIME. How many times can anyone recall us going for the homerun on the first play after a turnover? I can hardly remember any. But I do remember a lot of times that we ran the stretch play on the first play after a turnover.

We don't need to score 50 pts a game to be successful. With our defensive philosophy and our ability to keep plays in front of us, we won't give up a lot of points. But what we HAVE to do is be efficient on offense. Find the hidden points (i.e., just before half, taking a chance or two on our side of the 50, etc), take some chances when the defense gets us a turnover, don't settle for 3 every time we're inside the 10, etc. We need to do that because we don't have a defensive philosophy that is going to 3 and out teams on a regular basis which limits our possessions. If we can pick up an extra 3-7 points, we win a majority of the games that we lost.
 
Yeah, you can't blame the defense when the offense fails so often to get a critical third down that would enable them to run out the clock.
 
HomerChampless said:
It's also amazing what 4 to 7 points less a game on defense and the please-don't break-too-much Iowa pass defense returning lost touches to Iowa's offense would have meant since 2005.

.
Click to expand...

That does not make sense. The hawk defense just held OU to way under their yards and points per game, AND THEY GOT 7 LATE GARBAGE POINTS.

Jeez, our defense is really good. Yes I would like more three and outs and I have been baffled at how many 3rd and longs we give up.

But if we score one more TD in 10 possesions a game we have an outstanding overall record since 2005.

The NWand MInny losses are examples where we run up big yardage but dont get enough points.

Come on!! If we score less points, duh.
 
HomerChampless said:
QUOTE=ICHawk24;732742]It is frustrating the Iowa was only top 10 in the country in scoring defense in 2009 and 2010. Only in 2008 were we top 5.

cfbstats.com - 2008 National Team Leaders
Click to expand...
You know ICHawk, I've already shot down this theory that Iowa had a good defense because of points allowed. I used the 2010 Iowa football season to disprove this theory in a thread a couple of days ago.

To summarize: including patsies, and Iowa State and Penn State, Iowa's defense allowed 4.25 points a game. All these teams were primarily running offenses. Iowa State's QB was Arnaud.

Iowa's defense played 5 games against primarily passing teams and gave up an average of 24 points a game. Iowa's bend-but-don't-break pass defense gave up a lot of Iowa offensive touches to these teams as well.

Iowa gave up 21? points to tOSU who was primarily an athletic offense - couldn't pass.

Iowa's defense gave up 31 points to Wisconsin who's offense was athletic, could pass, and run.

MSU, even though they were highly rated at the time, could only run proficiently so, Iowa's defense stymied them.

The question is: is Iowa's defense good (using average points allowed)?
The answer: it depends what kind of offense Iowa's defense is trying to defend. Iowa's defense is great against (when coach K. was at Iowa) a running offense, mediocre against a passing offense, and bad against an elite offense (who isn't)
Click to expand...
[/QUOTE]

It really looks like you didn't prove anything at all. Sorry to break it to you, but ALL of your games count, even the ones against "weak" teams.

In 2010 Alabama has the 3rd best scoring defense in the nation (13.54 PPG), but still had games of giving up 20, 35, 24, & 28. So in those 4 games they gave up an average of 26.75 Pt. per game.

All defenses give up points. If you are only going to cherry pick any teams worse 4 or 5 games, you can make them all look like that.
 
Myopic Hawk fans frequently trot out the "once you take out the cupcakes, our stats look bad" approach. Every team has cupcakes, and SEC teams have more than most, so you would have to take them out of every team's totals.

You don't like points? How about efficiency stats?

7th in the country in yards per rush:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders

25th in yards per pass:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders

24th in passer rating:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders

11th in picks:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders
 
ICHawk24 said:
Myopic Hawk fans frequently trot out the "once you take out the cupcakes, our stats look bad" approach. Every team has cupcakes, and SEC teams have more than most, so you would have to take them out of every team's totals.

You don't like points? How about efficiency stats?

7th in the country in yards per rush:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders

25th in yards per pass:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders

24th in passer rating:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders

11th in picks:
cfbstats.com - 2010 National Team Leaders
Click to expand...

I wish our offense would have rankings like that. then it would be world beaters.
 
MoseSchrute said:
Yeah, you can't blame the defense when the offense fails so often to get a critical third down that would enable them to run out the clock.
Click to expand...

Completely agree. With a few exceptions Iowa's defenses have almost always played at a higher level than the offenses.
 
Back to Davis. Some Texas fans think he got thrown under the bus when he left. If you look at the talent he lost, his "sub par" performance is understandable really.
 
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