Scuttle: Changes are coming

Personally, I feel like the mess in on Polasek's shoulders (this is conjecture, of course, I have no special insight). But he was the guy in charge of what should be 3rd, 4th, and 5th year players anchoring our OL. Those classes are pretty much completely absent.
Polasek was not good, your instincts are correct.
 
Look, you are asking me to defend the indefensible. That offense saturday was about as bad as it could get. I get it. My point is that so does KF. Whether he can fix it or not remains to be seen. I have to believe they will get better as they can't get worse, but I have been saying that all Summer.

Regarding last year, a fair review of the circumstances is that due to injuries, attrition, and misses, the OL was awful, but would be better this year. Petras was serviceable to decent during the COVID year and one would expect that he would take a step forward. But, awful OL play inhibited that. So, if you are KF, you think that if you fix the OL play that you will fix the QB. After SDSU, it is clear that the OL play is not fixed and KF is ready to start benching people to get that right. We will see.

I believe that KF believes that he does not currently have a better option at QB. I think he might be right. Should have he portaled a QB during the off season? Yep. But, that is not the KF way.

As for Brian, look, we have all said this until we are blue in the face. KF has no boss. He loves his son. His son knows the style of football KF wants to play. He believes his son will get better. He aint firing him. Why not try to make him QB coach to see if he can better communicate with the QB? Not saying any of this is right or logical. This is what happens when you are successful at a place for 22 years. You get enough rope to hang yourself. Everyone has blind spots.
Someone that would know better than I would confirm this and say "be careful what you wish for" as #2 is further down the chart and #3 even more so.......... based on practices anyway. With the margin of victory being what it is usually is under Kirk we can ill afford turnovers from a QB especially with how are offense is looking after 1 game.
 
makes sense.

I rewatched "the tape" and noticed that SDSU players simply did not stay blocked. They absorbed blocks, shed blocks, got off the blocks and still made plays. Iowa's blockers sorta did one time big lunge hits and that was it. For this reason we saw L Williams only get to the second level of the defense 2 or maybe 3 times.
A lot of times they just completely missed assignments and ended up blocking wrong guys as well.
 
Someone that would know better than I would confirm this and say "be careful what you wish for" as #2 is further down the chart and #3 even more so.......... based on practices anyway. With the margin of victory being what it is usually is under Kirk we can ill afford turnovers from a QB especially with how are offense is looking after 1 game.
This is on the coaching staff.
Petras has not developed in year 3. He plays as he did his first college game.
Padilla has not developed enough to pass the stagnant Petras.
Labas apparently is also not able to beat out the worst QB in college FB in his second year in the program.
No (apparent) effort to recognize this deficiency and resolve in the transfer portal
 
I've out done most in the belly achin department this week but I really do hope Petras finds his way Saturday. Be happy as heck esp for him. It really is all in his noggin. He can throw the rock.
Petras reminds me of John Lester. Good arm but can't throw to first base even as lefty.
 
A lot of times they just completely missed assignments and ended up blocking wrong guys as well.
Yup. I've been waiting on someone to do a film review/chart plays on the OL and no one has done it, so I started today. Took a solid 45 minutes to get through the first quarter, the offensive line was that bad. On the upside, DeJong (Started out of position at LG) and Beau (Redshirt freshman, backup RG, started RG with Colby over to RT) were easily the best two players along the line through one quarter. Unfortunately, Richman (LT) and Jones (C) absolutely sucked. The coaches raved about Jones in practice, but he did not show up Saturday. Colby shifted over to RT from RG and was decent. I'll see how it turns out when I make it through the second quarter and may throw up my play-to-play thoughts when I do.
 
Look, you are asking me to defend the indefensible. That offense saturday was about as bad as it could get. I get it. My point is that so does KF. Whether he can fix it or not remains to be seen. I have to believe they will get better as they can't get worse, but I have been saying that all Summer.

Regarding last year, a fair review of the circumstances is that due to injuries, attrition, and misses, the OL was awful, but would be better this year. Petras was serviceable to decent during the COVID year and one would expect that he would take a step forward. But, awful OL play inhibited that. So, if you are KF, you think that if you fix the OL play that you will fix the QB. After SDSU, it is clear that the OL play is not fixed and KF is ready to start benching people to get that right. We will see.

I believe that KF believes that he does not currently have a better option at QB. I think he might be right. Should have he portaled a QB during the off season? Yep. But, that is not the KF way.

As for Brian, look, we have all said this until we are blue in the face. KF has no boss. He loves his son. His son knows the style of football KF wants to play. He believes his son will get better. He aint firing him. Why not try to make him QB coach to see if he can better communicate with the QB? Not saying any of this is right or logical. This is what happens when you are successful at a place for 22 years. You get enough rope to hang yourself. Everyone has blind spots.
2 opportunities to get a better qb in off-season:

1. Recruiting
2. Portal.

Even IF you wanted to go with Petras, you need a capable backup. Which we apparently do not have. That alone is damning. We need another center and a guard too - but apparently those are not things we recruited in or out of the portal either! Nor did we take any 1 of our 11 dlinemen or backup defensive backs and move them to line/WR, respectively.

It's like the entire offensive side if the ball is a complete afterthought. Holy hell there's some kids in FCS that could have completely changed things for us, I guarantee it.
 
A few thoughts.

1. - It was Tonya Harding, not Tanya.

2. - Harding wasn't injured by the sneak attack, it was Harding's rival, Nancy Kerrigan, who was attacked.

3. - The attack only caused bruising and did not break Kerrigan's knee or leg bones.
A decent grasp of history is increasingly hard to find...
 
Never played line or coached it, but I was wondering. A lot of times when the QB or RB plays poorly, the blame is put on bad OL execution. But can it actually be the opposite? Meaning, in Iowa's case, the opposing defense knows that Petras is not going to throw it more than 10 yards downfield so safeties can crowd the line of scrimmage. And the defenses know that Petras has the speed and quickness of a 70 year old Carver Hawkeye security guard, so they can sell out knowing he is not going to break containment and make big plays with his legs. So to fans, it looks like the OL is bad, but it's really more a product of the defense not having to play conservative against our QB.
Totally agree, the first half they pass blocked pretty well, usually one guy got through, which is usual for most plays. The QB has to adjust. Petras just can't. There will be very few if any plays where every blocker wins every battle on the same play. Waiting for that is like waiting to win the lotto.
 
Someone that would know better than I would confirm this and say "be careful what you wish for" as #2 is further down the chart and #3 even more so.......... based on practices anyway. With the margin of victory being what it is usually is under Kirk we can ill afford turnovers from a QB especially with how are offense is looking after 1 game.
You know what kind of T/O's I could stand, deep balls thrown 30 to 40 yards downfield. I would accept a number of them if Iowa was trying to be aggressive. Not a bad gamble with our defense.
 
You know what kind of T/O's I could stand, deep balls thrown 30 to 40 yards downfield. I would accept a number of them if Iowa was trying to be aggressive. Not a bad gamble with our defense.
Agree totally if only for the pass interference possibility for this struggling offense.
 
This is on the coaching staff.
Petras has not developed in year 3. He plays as he did his first college game.
Padilla has not developed enough to pass the stagnant Petras.
Labas apparently is also not able to beat out the worst QB in college FB in his second year in the program.
No (apparent) effort to recognize this deficiency and resolve in the transfer portal
Lol. True when u think about that. Apparently not one QB at Iowa can better 121 in national QB rankings. WTF!!
 
This is on the coaching staff.
Petras has not developed in year 3. He plays as he did his first college game.
Padilla has not developed enough to pass the stagnant Petras.
Labas apparently is also not able to beat out the worst QB in college FB in his second year in the program.
No (apparent) effort to recognize this deficiency and resolve in the transfer portal
Actually, Petras played pretty well his first college start: 250+ yds vs Purdue. Regression is undeniable: 3 of his last 4 games have included the lowest completion % of his entire career.
 
Chad texted that it sounds like Brian is setting the stage for a QB change soon if performance doesn't improve, possibly early on Saturday. Brian was fairly critical of Petras in his comments.
I'm not sure a change in QB will make much of a difference at this point, unless there's a dramatic increase in the # of misdirection plays -- which would be a shocking change indeed. Iowa's offensive scheme does make you wonder how much other college football KF watches.
 
Actually, Petras played pretty well his first college start: 250+ yds vs Purdue. Regression is undeniable: 3 of his last 4 games have included the lowest completion % of his entire career.

Do you remember that Purdue game, though? That was a pretty bad Purdue D, and Petras was not sharp. Two fumbles killed us in that game, but Petras wasn't out there making plays.
 
I want Ferentz to scrap everything and implement the KC Chiefs playbook before the game on Saturday. We have just as much offensive talent as them and our playbook should reflect that.

BF & KF evaluating the Chiefs' playbook:

"FOUR guys have deep routes?!? That can't be legal!"
"< snort > Most of these plays don't even use a fullback!"
"It's like they're TRYING to confuse the defense!"

Maybe they could try something more like the Indiana / Purdue playbook. Might help recruit receivers at their level...
 
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