Rittenburg just ******* NAILED it

[seepig]

Right, and every other scholarship QB on the roster. They're beating the far bushes for players. I don't buy the relying on development line, I think its been a necessity. It's not been laziness, but I do believe the coaching changes have been overdue and a good part of the reason for that is increasing the effectiveness of recruiting in the richest recruiting areas. This move towards focusing on Texas being one. That's not to say this is necessarily a move that's a slam bang home run. It's still going to be hard going getting kids out of Texas to come to Iowa(I mean, good kids). But, if we can start to pull in 4-5 three star type players a year from there that's likely going to upgrade our recruiting. One of the most underrated aspects of recruiting is less where you recruit that what type of player you are looking for, and if we're going to use more spread plays, and move to more athletic QB's recruiting Texas and the like becomes a necessity. The Midwest produces a lot of quality OL and to some lesser degree DL and LB's but it has a paucity of athletic prep QB players who can also pass the ball. It lacks a lot of the elite speed-quick guys to play the slot positions and RB in a spread set.

A larger question in the Big Ten recruiting struggles is not whether the coaches are doing all they can to recruit, but what are the institutions willing to spend to draw recruits? Are they willing to pay top dollar for assistant coaches, more importantly are they willing to allocate the funds to facilities that will bring kids in. The SEC spends a much larger percentage of their athletic budgets on football...facilities, assistant coaches. Iowa's making some head way in producing better facilities but in the "keeping up with the Jones's" highly competitive world of college football recruiting they have have to be dedicated to having elite facilities. Facilities that can be favorably compared to the top 20 programs. Maybe Iowa can't put together the kind of largesse that UM, OSU, and PSU can to develop top 10 facilities but that 11-20 area in facilities is achievable. It's a big reason why Nebraska has been a national power for the last 50 years(with some dips). Better facilities make a huge difference especially in areas that are relatively recruit poor.

If BArta hadn't given KURT a guaranteed 8 YEAR deal worth $4M yr. we could afford more adornments on facilities and on assitant salaries.

 

[dave3912]

Adam doesn't look like he played much football during his lifetime. Not sure he knows recruiting all that well either.

I used to read his crap on ESPN but it is worthless, he just regurgitates stuff from local writers usually.

Anyone about once a year he gets a comment in his "mailbag" piece about how he doesn't know anything because he didn't play football. He gets all pizzy and says you don't have to play football to form his opinions about B1G/D-1 football.

Considering probably 99% of the people who read ESPN's B1G blog didn't or post on HN.com didn't play D1 football, he kind of has a point.

 

[CAARHawk]

Would you shut the **** up about your pattern prediction already? We get it.

I don't see this program improving anytime soon. I think the game passed Ferentz by a long time ago. He always had Norm Parker to fall back on. He doesn't have that luxury anymore.

They bring it on themselves every time somebody cherry picks some number of years to make some claim about KF's coaching at Iowa.

So, it really isn't up to me to stop it....

But really, I hope KF stops it this year. I just don't see that happening with a completely green QB and the defensive front 7. But still hope it happens.

 

[PJHawk]

Considering Cy Phillips and Herb Grigsby came from Arkansas why wasn't everyone this upset when Ferentz gave up on recruiting Arkansas?

 

[ILHawk]

2012 State 100 meter Track results

Florida Champ: 10:49
Iowa Champ: 11.39

HF talked about the near 1 second gap a lot.

An honest assessment knows that during the last Iowa good run, the defense was quite fast. The speed has really dropped off.

 

[Billso]

Adam doesn't look like he played much football during his lifetime. Not sure he knows recruiting all that well either.

No doubt the guy has a face for radio, but how many sportswriters anywhere played D-1 football?

It's hard to imagine a more irrelevant criticism.

Speaking of which, highly recommended: The Best American Sports Writing of the Century: David Halberstam, Glenn Stout: 0046442945141: Amazon.com: Books

 

[mbchawk]

Actually Hawknick, Rittenberg is a conservative hack.

 

[Hawknick]

Conservatives are not allowed to say anything on ESPN whatsoever or they get the boot. On the other hand Bob Costas can say whatever he wants with no repercussions.

 

[seepig]

No doubt the guy has a face for radio, but how many sportswriters anywhere played D-1 football?

It's hard to imagine a more irrelevant criticism.

Speaking of which, highly recommended: The Best American Sports Writing of the Century: David Halberstam, Glenn Stout: 0046442945141: Amazon.com: Books

Unless he's Bill King, JC Shurbutt or the dudes at 247 sports he's an inferior recruiting guy. Period but in any event my criticism was supposed to be light hearted not serious. Hence the clueless look on your face Les.

 

[seepig]

I used to read his crap on ESPN but it is worthless, he just regurgitates stuff from local writers usually.

Anyone about once a year he gets a comment in his "mailbag" piece about how he doesn't know anything because he didn't play football. He gets all pizzy and says you don't have to play football to form his opinions about B1G/D-1 football.

Considering probably 99% of the people who read ESPN's B1G blog didn't or post on HN.com didn't play D1 football, he kind of has a point.

You don't have to play D-1 football...D1 football isn't the only good football being played I'm not sure he played flag football in elementary school. But YES it does make a difference if you've been in and around organized football I played NAIA and I believe I DO know more than Adam.

 

[tm3308]

Nobody knows now to build a B1G contender like this guy.

Seriously, though. I'm definitely not a KF fan. He's grown fat and happy with his multi-million dollar contract, and now the program is on a slow slide into obscurity.

But in this case, I agree with KF. A coach dedicated to recruiting FL is a waste of resources. With the attrition this program has suffered recently, we need recruits who are going to stay with the program. I believe we can get all we need from Texas, Ohio, Chicago, St Louis, Pennsylvania, areas.

And generally, I don't even care much anymore. KF has pretty much Licklitered this program as far as I care. Which is about as far as one of GD's patented 3 yd outs.

Throwing Bielema in Florida was a major reason for the success of 2002-04. Quite a few Floridians played major roles on those teams. That's not a waste of resources unless the level of recruiting we've seen lately is the model for efficiency.

 

[seepig]

XACTLY tm3308

 

[seepig]

EVeryone needs to remember that dolt Coach Kaz was down there recruiting nobodies. We'll see if Daumauntas Venkus- Cicc or whatever is a player.

 

[Billso]

Unless he's Bill King, JC Shurbutt or the dudes at 247 sports he's an inferior recruiting guy. Period but in any event my criticism was supposed to be light hearted not serious. Hence the clueless look on your face Les.

Strangely, my expression never changes

I took it as light-hearted, and am not picking on you. I've enjoyed making fun of Adam-the-geek too. But again: you'd be hard-pressed to name many (if any) sportswriters who played D-1 ball, including the great names in the Halberstam anthology. The profession is sportsWRITING not sports-playing.

For recruiting analysis, I believe coaching (not just playing) experience definitely helps... but again, there are many fine recruiting analysts who never played college ball. Including several I could name at 247, Rivals and Scout. Some of those did coach high school, however, and placed kids in D-1 programs and thereby saw the "recruiting game" from that perspective.

 

[FreedComanche]

The guy is a nerd. SO WHAT??????????????????????????????????

He states something that is true about Iowa and it happens to be negative and a lot of you guys attack him because he looks like he should have been on "Revenge of the Nerds".

Attack his claim. You can't because he's right. You should be ashamed of your childish attacks. It's like saying, "he said something bad about our team. He looks like a nerd so it's not true." Geez. I'm embarrassed to breathe the same air some of you fools breathe.

FreedComanche

 

[hoffahawk]

The guy is a nerd. SO WHAT??????????????????????????????????

He states something that is true about Iowa and it happens to be negative and a lot of you guys attack him because he looks like he should have been on "Revenge of the Nerds".

Attack his claim. You can't because he's right. You should be ashamed of your childish attacks. It's like saying, "he said something bad about our team. He looks like a nerd so it's not true." Geez. I'm embarrassed to breathe the same air some of you fools breathe.

FreedComanche

Actually he is wrong we are still recruiting there in more of a case by case basis just not putting a coach FT down there.

 

[mccarthyizm]

Actually he is wrong we are still recruiting there in more of a case by case basis just not putting a coach FT down there.

No kidding. This whole capitulation argument is so over-blown.

There are finite resources when it comes to recruiting. If anything, Iowa coaches probably took a long look at the amount of hours they've put into FL and decided they could get a better return on those hours elsewhere.

Most of the recent players from FL haven't worked out. Why travel halfway across the country to try to convince some kid to go to Iowa when you could put more time in recruiting grounds that are closer to home?

It's not like Iowa coaches are going to refuse to recruit a FL kid they think they can land. If the opportunity arises, they'll pursue it.

 

[hawkdrummer1]

I used to read his crap on ESPN but it is worthless, he just regurgitates stuff from local writers usually.

Anyone about once a year he gets a comment in his "mailbag" piece about how he doesn't know anything because he didn't play football. He gets all pizzy and says you don't have to play football to form his opinions about B1G/D-1 football.

Considering probably 99% of the people who read ESPN's B1G blog didn't or post on HN.com didn't play D1 football, he kind of has a point.

It doesn't take a weatherman, to know which way the wind blows.

 

[vosov]

Actually he is wrong we are still recruiting there in more of a case by case basis just not putting a coach FT down there.

Thank you Hoffa.

In regards to some other posts in this thread. I think Rittenburg does a nice job covering the B1G. However, his opinions should be taken no more seriously than anyone on this message board.

 

[HawkeyeMHA]

I think having been a former athlete can help provide certain perspectives and provide a certain level of credibility to an analyst. But at the same time, it is not a requirement and you can be a good analyst w out having been an athlete yourself. You wouldn't say that every athlete is a good analyst because there are a lot of athletes that would be very bad analysts. No fine line here gentlemen.