I have seen five elite Iowa teams in my lifetime: 1985, 2002, and 2009 were all top five teams that had varying fates in their bowls, but any of them could have gotten to the NCAA final in a 4-team playoff system given their talent. The other two were 1984 and 2008 which were elite teams at the end of their seasons, but prior to that point had problems with injuries or experience/other variables. But don't a lot of use think the end-of-year 2008 team could have/would have beaten the 2009 team? I think maybe so.
This year, KF and Co. did a great job putting a team together, but admittedly we won all our close games and that's the difference between 2015 and, say, 2010, or 2009 when we also won all our close games until Ricky Stanzi got hurt. We operate on a thin margin, always, between going 6-6 and 12-0.
However, we do need to make a change at OC. Watching Stanford's offense, not set up much different than our own, was an eye-opener. I don't know what we're afraid of, but never in a million-jillion years would we run a fake-fumble play like they did, in a Rose Bowl. We don't consistently put our talent into space like they do with McCaffrey, on swing passes and those little slants across the middle. We don't mix things up well, with counters and runs from the shotgun and play-action passes. I saw about six different plays from Stanford in about seven offensive plays at the start of that game, whereas we just get so stuck in off-tackle/stretch play/pass play mode with entirely predictable personnel on the field.
I'm no football genius by any means, but when an ignoramus like me is making in-game comments about our offense, and then I see a bona fide FB genius like HawkeyeGamefilm making the same comments in his twitter feed, that's saying more about our offensive play-calling and scheming than it is about my FB knowledge, since I don't know hardly anything. But I do know how to tell the forest from the trees, which our OC seemingly does not much of the time.
I am ready for someone like BF to take over the offense, since I see him champing at the bit to mix things up a la Stanford's offensive philosophy. I'd like to see what he could do for a few years, starting in 2016.
