So there is a narrative that I read consistently that at this point just angers me every time I see it. This post is my attempt to chill the narrative and get people to say what they actually mean. As a fan you have every right to be upset with your team, its losses, its coaches, whatever. If you like Kirk and or Brian, you hate Kirk and/or Brian, you want to see them fired, replaced, put on a pedestal, encased in carbonite and sold to Jabba the Hutt, whatever......I don't care. But I'm exhausted by the false narrative that nothing ever changes with our coaching and our offense, its just not accurate. Its a lazy commentary. So stop being lazy. You want to complain because we lost to Michigan go ahead, but then break out some legit vitriol, not the tired, false narrative that nothing ever changes. There's plenty of legit things to complain about from Saturdays loss to a team we are better than right now, and we should have beaten. Some of those things are coaching things, so have at it. But stop with the these guys never change stuff garbage, I beg you. Since Brian took over for the 2017-2018 season here are just a few things that have "changed" with our offense and schemes, and related items. I could have added more, but i'll let you guys do the rest.
Offensive plays per game:
2019 76.2 currently ranked 30th
2018 68.9
2017 ranked 110th with 66.2
2016 65.9
Team pass play percentage
2019 48.03%
2018 47.04%
2017 44.13%
2016 39.7%
For the majority of the ferentz era we were between 40-44%
Points per game
2019- We are currently at like 27, we were way above that until scoring 3 this week, who knows ?
2018- 30.6
2017- 28.2
2016-25.2
Usually somewhere between 26-28 during the ferentz era
4th down attempts
2019- already this year 11 attempts. In 5 games we have pretty much the same number of 4th down attempts we had in all of 2015
2018- 25
2017- 22
2016- 17
2015-14
Fake field goals, and punts.
This is a narrative answer rather than stats based, because in my quick look up i couldn't find them i'm sure somebody will help me out with that. I read a post from 2016, after a botched fake kick that asked readers to post recent fake punts or kicks they could remember. for the hawks. The thousands of posters came up with 7 they could remember in the entire ferentz era. How many fake punt, or field goal attempts have we seen in the last two years? Do you remember when the iowa crowd cheered for a failed fake attempt, because we at least tried a fake attempt?
I write this post not to say you shouldn't complain. Complain away. Just do it accurately and lose the lazy narratives. Complain away about brian and kirk and the team, etc. Philosophies and scheme, and style have all started to change rather dramatically during Brian's tenure. From playing the majority of snaps from two tight end sets, to running mostly 3wr sets this year, to being more pass oriented then at any other time in our history this year, change has come. Maybe things like us losing head scratcher games to teams we shouldn't lose to hasn't changed. Maybe not going undefeated and winning the national championship or big ten title hasn't changed (The year ain't done yet). But plenty of things have changed with this team. Its not the same old same old, and to be honest, the narrative that nothing ever changes is what is same old, same old.
