I quit reading this thread after two (2) posts because I already knew what I was going to say....and this will be about the 1000th time I've said it. Go back to the 2002 Orange Bowl and look at all the talent Iowa had on both sides of the ball....while VERY talented, they STILL could not match up to the athletes that SC threw at Iowa. SC's speed absolutely KILLED Iowa on the corners all day long....same goes for the speed that killed Iowa on the corners all three (3) Rose Bowl losses under Hayden. If you like 7-5, 8-4, or the occasional Orange Bowl victory over a "meh" ACC team, keep doing what you are doing. I personally think that Kurt's stance on recruiting is more out of laziness than any kind of high and mighty stance on "quality kids" he may be trying to pass off on Iowa fans. I honestly believe that he has NO CLUE how to deal with the blue chip inner city athlete. Kurt would have made a much better coach 50 years ago when kids were pretty much kids no matter where they were from or what color their skin was....sorry, just my opinion. I've always thought that he gets a bigger charge out of seasons like 2009 going 11-2 with a bunch of over achievers, than he would going 13-0 and winning a NC with no-brainer Nick Saban type talent. He would get no satisfaction out of that, because it would steal his spotlight.
I agree we where nowhere near their talent level in 2002. About 5 teams in the history of college football have been at that talent level. That was maybe one of the most overall talented teams Iowa has had in the history of the program, and as you said, we weren't close in terms of pure talent.
As a side note, that extremely talented 2002 team (as well as '03 and '04)was not made up of a single elite recruiting class. Now, the success of those teams did result in 2 elite classes in '05 & '06, and either due to attrition or poor personnel management and game day coaching, or both they resulted in poor results.
While you may be correct that KF may have no idea how to deal with blue chip inner city talent, I would argue if they are truly blue chip 5*, and don't have a direct tie to Iowa, that they would not come to Iowa, I don't know that anything short of getting back to sustained success like '02-'04, that they ever will....and there's the dilemma...we have to have development, retention, some luck, and yes improved coaching (especially offensively) to ever get there.
I would like to see recruiting, retention, and depth improve, and I certainly won't argue game day coaching has been very poor at times.
With all of KF's shortcomings, i dont think being lazy is one of them.
At the end of the day, Iowa will rely on development, year in and year out, and will have a very small margin for error in attrition and poor in game coaching. When you have both happen, dissappointing years like '06, '07, 08, '10, '14 happen, and at its worst, '12 happens.
A fresh new coach, with an aggressive style may help in offense and recruiting. But they will also need to be great with development, or we could end up with the same .600-.700 results we've aggregated over the last 100+ years, with streaks of outliers.
Many folks sight Wisconsin as a program to emulate, with solid reasons to do so. I personally would love to emulate Stanfords style and method.
Regardless, Iowa will need to "do more with less" in terms of talent, to get where we would all like to be.
