I understand that we're not going to hear KF talk about the next opponent in any detail, other than to highlight what has been working for them thus far. If you asked him what he had seen on tape that he thinks can be exploited and how they plan to do it, he's not going to answer that question. But if you asked him the same question about the prior week's opponent, what would stop him from spelling it out for everyone so they had an idea of what our game plan was designed to exploit?
Look, football is not rocket science and you don't need to be a PhD to understand the basic fundamentals of preparation. You look at the opponent's formations, how they execute from those formations, their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies when confronted with certain situations. So what does the coaching staff do? In a nutshell, they structure their plan to exploit the opponent's weaknesses, try to avoid playing into their strengths, and try to learn their tendencies. And on the flip side, they recognize where they need to work to address their own weaknesses, they reinforce their strengths, and decide how to do a better job of decoying or mixing up their own tendencies.
Why can't Coach Ferentz give us a taste of the preparation that went into the previous week's game? Why can't he give us some insight into what they are trying to do? Look, none of that is going to be a revelation to the opposing coaching staff - they know what Iowa is trying to do already - so what's the harm in explaining it in a coherent way? It would sure give me a boost of confidence if I heard something along those lines, then I would be more willing to agree that it is just a matter of execution. But the way it stands now, I'm uncertain they have done the proper preparation, thus our questions regarding the offensive performance to date are justified.
Note: I wrote this comment in September 2014, it still applies. (sigh)
