question marks for football
- Thread starter DuffMan
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Hawkfromnorwalk
Well-Known Member
If the schedule was harder I will tend to agree. However a bowl game should still be easily attainable.
I know, it is really weird to realize that this team is going into a Soldier Field game against Northern Illinois in maybe worse shape than the last time they went into a Soldier Field game against Northern Illinois.
That was the last losing season for Iowa - 2006, 6-7 with 2 conference wins. Quite easy to imagine this season could be worse.
That was the last losing season for Iowa - 2006, 6-7 with 2 conference wins. Quite easy to imagine this season could be worse.
Section136
Well-Known Member
2007 is the year we played at Soldier Field. The JC year. We finished 6-6 that year with the Western Michigan debacle keeping us from going to a bowl game.
2006 was Tate's Senior year.
AHawk1
Well-Known Member
Hopefully that will energize and re-focus the entire staff.
Hawkfromnorwalk
Well-Known Member
Too many people looking at everything negatively. I think the changes in coaches will revitalize the team. It's not like 99-2000 when the staff was rebuilding the team from scratch. There are some damn good pieces to the puzzle for the staff to work with. I'm not saying we're going to be world beaters but this under .500 talk is crazy.
shuman346
Well-Known Member
The last time the Hawks played Northern Illinois in Soldier Field we had Jake Christianson as QB. Vandenberg is light years ahead of Jake. We are better off if for no other reason than that. I for one am damn curious as to how Davis is going to tweak the offense. Granted we don't have what appears to be as strong on offensive line as a year ago and we don't have McNutt but the line does have experience across the board and Keenan Davis and KMart will hopefully step up. AS everyone has stated in here, I don't expect Davis to go all out spread but hopefully if the line does have trouble with protections he will use Vandenbergs strengths more often than O'Keefe did.
spudhawk
Well-Known Member
Our receiver situation is one of the stronger depth charts in recent seasons. We have been a bit spoiled by the emergence of McNutt and the production of DJK for his 4 seasons previous to last season. In terms of raw numbers what Iowa brings back in terms of receptions, yards and TDs would be considered a strength before the last two seasons.
Offensive line is another unit that I am confident will suffer little to no drop off. Iowa has recruited extremely well at that position over the last three classes and you have a lot of competition to fill the three spots. I think Brian Ferentz will be an excellent teacher and coach a senior center will help transition the line into a solid unit by mid season- especially given the early schedule.
Finally health at the TB position will be critical, but although their isn't a ton of experience returning their is at least three quality players vying for carries I really like what I have seen from Garmon's highlight tapes heading into fall. D. Johnson, J. Canzeri, and possibly even Andre Dawson could push for time and Iowa has been here before (basically the last three seasons).
The defense has me worried however, but the growing pains of the last season and the upcoming one should lead to a big step up in 2013.
Offensive line is another unit that I am confident will suffer little to no drop off. Iowa has recruited extremely well at that position over the last three classes and you have a lot of competition to fill the three spots. I think Brian Ferentz will be an excellent teacher and coach a senior center will help transition the line into a solid unit by mid season- especially given the early schedule.
Finally health at the TB position will be critical, but although their isn't a ton of experience returning their is at least three quality players vying for carries I really like what I have seen from Garmon's highlight tapes heading into fall. D. Johnson, J. Canzeri, and possibly even Andre Dawson could push for time and Iowa has been here before (basically the last three seasons).
The defense has me worried however, but the growing pains of the last season and the upcoming one should lead to a big step up in 2013.
I think the hawk defense will be above average. We have athletic young d-linemen who can maybe make a big splash.
linebackers should be solid
And if lowery can fill prater's spot we dont lose out in secondary. Will we have a good safety replacement for bernstein.
But the way the hawks really stifled OU's offense for much of the insight bowl just shows me the defense can be good.
iahawks912
Well-Known Member
I honestly think we will be making another trip to Arizona to play in the Insight bowl as bad as that would stink for the Juniors same bowl game 3 years in a row.
bb4hawks
Well-Known Member
Offensively, I am worried about the WR position because it is an unknown. We need Keenan and KMM to step up in a big way. I am curious about the Hillyer kid and what kind of player he is. I wish Grant would have stayed. He would have helped. I wouldn't be surprised to see a true freshman steps in and plays. I hope Davis uses our TE's more. I think that is an area that we have some experience (CJ, Derby) and some young talent (Hamilton, Duzey). We saw glimpes of Bullock and Canzeri last year. We will see a lot more of them this year.
Defensively, I think we will be fine.
The thing that is scary is we have seen very little of most of the guys that will be playing. We know the name and their star level but little else. I am really excited to see what these guys can do. Time for them to make names for themselves!
Defensively, I think we will be fine.
The thing that is scary is we have seen very little of most of the guys that will be playing. We know the name and their star level but little else. I am really excited to see what these guys can do. Time for them to make names for themselves!
DarthKinnick
Well-Known Member
The team has also been hobbled by special teams that are wandering out in Siberia or Greenland somewhere. You forgot those.
Iowa football right now reminds me of my neighbor's motorcycle. He fires it up and revs it every Spring right after I throw the battery in mine and he's like "Let's ride". His bike misses on one cylinder, so it's like put-put-cough-put, one of his turn signals works, no brake lights, squeaky brakes, and threadbare tires, but he's always like "this is the time I take you off the line".
At least it runs. He's always got that.
At least Iowa has a few NFL prospect OLs on roster who are always in demand since they carry unnatural amounts of mass and shred knees after about 5 years or so. Anything else? Not so much.
But in Kurt we trust.
DarthKinnick
Well-Known Member
If this is true then I suspect we learned everything we need to know about the likelihood of this happening last season.
Reminds me of Sarge back in boot camp. With the worst marksmen, I mean the really poor ones who missed the target with a majority of their shots, Sarge would always hope and pray and kick some arse to make them improve. Normally they simply regressed with the extra attention and pressure and actually got worse.
You really think throwing more balls at Davis will solve anything?
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
To call those positions question marks is optimistic. Our only hope is that we can squeak out 4 non-con wins and get lucky in a game or two in conference play to hopefully get to 6 or 7 wins.
vegashawki
Well-Known Member
I'm not concerned about defense as much as last year even with change at DC. Offense worries me, new system, no proven RB (since McCall left and all), and departure of Marvin. I worry a lack of offense could hurt our mediocre but better defense than last year by being on the field too much... Hope I'm wrong.
