BSpringsteen
Well-Known Member
1: JVB
The guy was fine. But he wasn't a QB who would go out and win you a game. He also wasn't a QB that would cost you a game with mistakes. But if you look back at the great years of Iowa football. You had Brad Banks (Heisman runner up) Drew Tate (all Big 10 first year starting as a So) and Ricky Stanzi (currently in the NFL and the only Hawkeye QB in the NFL in the KF era.) The one great season we had with a ho-hum QB was Nathan Chandler and that team boasted one of the best defenses of the decade in the Big 10.
For Iowa football to succeed we need either a scary good magician of a QB or a Defense that frightens the fecal matter out of their opponents anuses.
2: Playing to our strength.
I realize that Coker wasn't himself for the first four or five games of the regular season and that we had an injury to our backup. We still had players that proved effective while they were in, specifically De'Andre Johnson who I really liked what I saw.
So I would ask the masses...
If you have a football team with a suspect defense, and a QB who isn't capable of winning you a game, but can certainly manage the offense effectively enough to not lose you a game, how do you gameplan?
Ball control offense.
Some of you might say that we had a huge NFL talent at WR, we needed to find him the ball. You'd be right. But, we needed to be running the ball 40-45 times a game,and throwing 15-20
We had a RB who wasn't capable of hitting a HR but sure hit a lot of doubles. The guy was a given for 4-5 yards per carry. Why not shove it down their throats the entire length of the field? And then when we've beaten up 7 in the box and they put the eighth guy up, is when you hit the PA homerun ball to McNutt.
In 2004, we had a RB who was just barely good enough to make the LB's at least have to guess what the play was going to be. Drew Tate was the weapon. This year Coker and co. were Drew Tate and JVB to McNutt would have been a significant increase in effectiveness over Sam Brownlee.
But the playcalling was too cute. That is ok O'Keefe, and on Ferentz for not giving the directive on the type of team we had to become this year.
3. Iowa getting beat by opponents playing Iowa's scheme.
This goes off the last point. Opponents were scared out of their minds of McNutt. They doubled, they brought safety help. This may have allowed the Coker and RB machine to really get into high gear.
So opponents conceded the running game, much like Iowa concedes the short passing game. They dared us to march down the field 4-5 yards at a time, and we failed. Just like we dare opponents to dink us down the field with underneath passes. It shows how hard it is to be patient.
Had we been patient though and relied on what we had the entire drive rather than getting cute, I think at the very least, we win both the Minnesota game and the ISU game.
The guy was fine. But he wasn't a QB who would go out and win you a game. He also wasn't a QB that would cost you a game with mistakes. But if you look back at the great years of Iowa football. You had Brad Banks (Heisman runner up) Drew Tate (all Big 10 first year starting as a So) and Ricky Stanzi (currently in the NFL and the only Hawkeye QB in the NFL in the KF era.) The one great season we had with a ho-hum QB was Nathan Chandler and that team boasted one of the best defenses of the decade in the Big 10.
For Iowa football to succeed we need either a scary good magician of a QB or a Defense that frightens the fecal matter out of their opponents anuses.
2: Playing to our strength.
I realize that Coker wasn't himself for the first four or five games of the regular season and that we had an injury to our backup. We still had players that proved effective while they were in, specifically De'Andre Johnson who I really liked what I saw.
So I would ask the masses...
If you have a football team with a suspect defense, and a QB who isn't capable of winning you a game, but can certainly manage the offense effectively enough to not lose you a game, how do you gameplan?
Ball control offense.
Some of you might say that we had a huge NFL talent at WR, we needed to find him the ball. You'd be right. But, we needed to be running the ball 40-45 times a game,and throwing 15-20
We had a RB who wasn't capable of hitting a HR but sure hit a lot of doubles. The guy was a given for 4-5 yards per carry. Why not shove it down their throats the entire length of the field? And then when we've beaten up 7 in the box and they put the eighth guy up, is when you hit the PA homerun ball to McNutt.
In 2004, we had a RB who was just barely good enough to make the LB's at least have to guess what the play was going to be. Drew Tate was the weapon. This year Coker and co. were Drew Tate and JVB to McNutt would have been a significant increase in effectiveness over Sam Brownlee.
But the playcalling was too cute. That is ok O'Keefe, and on Ferentz for not giving the directive on the type of team we had to become this year.
3. Iowa getting beat by opponents playing Iowa's scheme.
This goes off the last point. Opponents were scared out of their minds of McNutt. They doubled, they brought safety help. This may have allowed the Coker and RB machine to really get into high gear.
So opponents conceded the running game, much like Iowa concedes the short passing game. They dared us to march down the field 4-5 yards at a time, and we failed. Just like we dare opponents to dink us down the field with underneath passes. It shows how hard it is to be patient.
Had we been patient though and relied on what we had the entire drive rather than getting cute, I think at the very least, we win both the Minnesota game and the ISU game.
