DuffMan
Well-Known Member
Iowa football is sick. I don’t know there is another way to look at it. Over the past few seasons several disturbing things have come to light regarding the program. Take last year (please).
Last year’s team had the talent, on both sides of the ball, to be a pretty dominant team. They were at times, but more often than not when things got tough Iowa failed the test. That, taken by itself, isn’t necessarily all that bad, in fact you could argue “that’s football”. But when combined with other factors it’s just another brick in the wall.
I can name at least eight running backs who have left the team (Pugh, Brinson, Wegher, Robinson, Coe, Coker, Greene, Jewel) for various reasons. The reasons are varied as some left for personal reasons, some had injury issues, some left for personal reasons, and others left after run ins with law enforcement including one who left after being linked to a sexual assault. A few others on this list left (or never made it to campus) because of grades. Again taken on a case by case or individual basis one could make the argument that there is nothing to see here, that it’s all just part of dealing with college aged kids, and individually they would probably be correct. But taken in its totality you would have to be foolish to think that nothing is wrong. And then of course there’s the fact that our top two RB’s this year are not currently with the team for unnamed violations of the student athlete code of conduct. (As I am writing this KCJJ In Coralville is reporting Coker’s situation is due to a criminal investigation). Meh, it’s just a fluke, and besides it’s only one position… but wait it’s not.
What’s even more disturbing is that this type of thing isn’t limited to one position. Defensive line is another group that has been hit hard by defection. I’m not as familiar with exact numbers or names here as by nature these players are less glamorous than the offensive skill position players listed earlier, but as I recall reading in another article the DL defections are at least on par with those at RB. And of course we could always hit the button on the way back machine to look at a group of WR that also virtually disappeared. Arvell Nelson, Dominique Douglass, and James Cleveland all left the team, and if I’m not mistaken all left for legal reasons. You could also include DJK in that list, but at least he made it through most of his senior year before he got the boot.
Again if you look at all of these on an individual basis it might be explainable, but when you look at the big picture it’s almost intuitive that something is wrong.
Other evidence that our program isn’t a healthy one is plentiful.
Our DL coach that is leaving the team between the regular season finale and the bowl game, can any of you remember anything remotely similar to that happening here at Iowa?
KF and the U are issuing press releases at 10PM on a Tuesday reaffirming KF is the HC at Iowa and has no plans to leave. Can you remember a similar situation, college or pro, in which a HEALTHY team or franchise did something similar?
I’m not ready to say that KF can’t nurse our program back to health as he’s done that before, but the fact that our program is currently sick isn’t really debatable.
Last year’s team had the talent, on both sides of the ball, to be a pretty dominant team. They were at times, but more often than not when things got tough Iowa failed the test. That, taken by itself, isn’t necessarily all that bad, in fact you could argue “that’s football”. But when combined with other factors it’s just another brick in the wall.
I can name at least eight running backs who have left the team (Pugh, Brinson, Wegher, Robinson, Coe, Coker, Greene, Jewel) for various reasons. The reasons are varied as some left for personal reasons, some had injury issues, some left for personal reasons, and others left after run ins with law enforcement including one who left after being linked to a sexual assault. A few others on this list left (or never made it to campus) because of grades. Again taken on a case by case or individual basis one could make the argument that there is nothing to see here, that it’s all just part of dealing with college aged kids, and individually they would probably be correct. But taken in its totality you would have to be foolish to think that nothing is wrong. And then of course there’s the fact that our top two RB’s this year are not currently with the team for unnamed violations of the student athlete code of conduct. (As I am writing this KCJJ In Coralville is reporting Coker’s situation is due to a criminal investigation). Meh, it’s just a fluke, and besides it’s only one position… but wait it’s not.
What’s even more disturbing is that this type of thing isn’t limited to one position. Defensive line is another group that has been hit hard by defection. I’m not as familiar with exact numbers or names here as by nature these players are less glamorous than the offensive skill position players listed earlier, but as I recall reading in another article the DL defections are at least on par with those at RB. And of course we could always hit the button on the way back machine to look at a group of WR that also virtually disappeared. Arvell Nelson, Dominique Douglass, and James Cleveland all left the team, and if I’m not mistaken all left for legal reasons. You could also include DJK in that list, but at least he made it through most of his senior year before he got the boot.
Again if you look at all of these on an individual basis it might be explainable, but when you look at the big picture it’s almost intuitive that something is wrong.
Other evidence that our program isn’t a healthy one is plentiful.
Our DL coach that is leaving the team between the regular season finale and the bowl game, can any of you remember anything remotely similar to that happening here at Iowa?
KF and the U are issuing press releases at 10PM on a Tuesday reaffirming KF is the HC at Iowa and has no plans to leave. Can you remember a similar situation, college or pro, in which a HEALTHY team or franchise did something similar?
I’m not ready to say that KF can’t nurse our program back to health as he’s done that before, but the fact that our program is currently sick isn’t really debatable.
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