There's just something not right about this team....

SpiderRico

SpiderRico

Well-Known Member
When you go 12-0 in the previous year and return an All Big 10 QB, 2/3rds of your RBs, 3 of 5 of your OL, your leading pass catching WR, your leading pass catching TE, both DTs, 2 of 3 LBs, and 3 of 4 DBs....there is an expectation that you should come out of the gates for the next season pretty good.....developmental program or not. That this shouldn't be the "typical" September where they spend the first month trying to "fit the pieces together".

However, that hasn't been the case at all. In what is most certainly the easiest part of our schedule (the 1st 4 games), we have given up an avg of 180yds/game on the ground and none of those yards have been "gimmicky"....they've pretty much been right at the heart of our defense. In addition, we are DEAD FREAKING LAST in the number of offensive plays run in all of FBS. On top of that, our best returning starter just had his captain title removed. And multiple times during the last couple of broadcasts there has been talk of Iowa's sideline being "dead" and void of emotion.

NONE of the above is Iowa football as we have grown accustomed. Even in our worst years we never gave up this many rushing yards on defense. And I read somewhere that there hasn't been a mid-season captain replacement since 2012 when Micah Hyde was arrested for DUI and he was put back as captain a month later.

I've heard rumblings that King lost his captainship due to issues surrounding his desire to want to do a National Anthem protest and that it may be dividing the locker room currently. Who knows at this point.....but the fact remains that this team looks nothing like it should be looking when you factor in the amount of impact players that returned, the fairly pedestrian schedule at the beginning of the season and the momentum from last year.

So something definitely appears to be "off" right now....
 
SpiderRico said:
When you go 12-0 in the previous year and return an All Big 10 QB, 2/3rds of your RBs, 3 of 5 of your OL, your leading pass catching WR, your leading pass catching TE, both DTs, 2 of 3 LBs, and 3 of 4 DBs....there is an expectation that you should come out of the gates for the next season pretty good.....developmental program or not. That this shouldn't be the "typical" September where they spend the first month trying to "fit the pieces together".

However, that hasn't been the case at all. In what is most certainly the easiest part of our schedule (the 1st 4 games), we have given up an avg of 180yds/game on the ground and none of those yards have been "gimmicky"....they've pretty much been right at the heart of our defense. In addition, we are DEAD FREAKING LAST in the number of offensive plays run in all of FBS. On top of that, our best returning starter just had his captain title removed. And multiple times during the last couple of broadcasts there has been talk of Iowa's sideline being "dead" and void of emotion.

NONE of the above is Iowa football as we have grown accustomed. Even in our worst years we never gave up this many rushing yards on defense. And I read somewhere that there hasn't been a mid-season captain replacement since 2012 when Micah Hyde was arrested for DUI and he was put back as captain a month later.

I've heard rumblings that King lost his captainship due to issues surrounding his desire to want to do a National Anthem protest and that it may be dividing the locker room currently. Who knows at this point.....but the fact remains that this team looks nothing like it should be looking when you factor in the amount of impact players that returned, the fairly pedestrian schedule at the beginning of the season and the momentum from last year.

So something definitely appears to be "off" right now....
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You may be on to something regarding King. It sure makes sense.

Iowa is a mess right now.
 
across the board we are SLOW (esp. still positions), WEAK (both lines), and out-of-position. If those were legit BIG teams, we easily lose all four. Team looks NOTHING like last year. Playing with no inspiration either. Mind boggling right now.
 
Don't you think our opponent has figured out by now what we run offensively and defensively,we've been doing it for a few years now. We change players but not the system it's just that some years we have better players to make it better.JMO
 
Let's see what happens Saturday before writing the epitaph. They've played 4 games and scored 40+ points in two of them. ISU is not Alabama, but Iowa looked pretty damn good there. The NDSU game--don't care what they said pre-game, they simply did not match the intensity of that team. No excuse, but was just one of those games that happens to Iowa in most seasons. The fact that Iowa didn't lose in similar fashion to UNI in 2009 is nothing short of divine intervention and that team certainly turned out okay. As for Rutgers, I was there. It was just a bizarre game, bizarre feel, strange surroundings, definitely did not have a conference game feel. When Rutgers took the field the stadium was about 35% full and the place had the energy of a Drake game.

I think Saturday will be really telling for these guys. They've now had two weeks of hearing that they suck. Back at home playing a "traditional" B1G team. With the losses Iowa has endured to NW in the past and the rhetoric coming from NW about Fitz' feelings about Iowa, they have seemed focused when this game comes around. Time will tell, as it always does.
 
If the players are reading these boards....the time to show up is now. Get your head together and get things clicking this Saturday. You got MInny up next on the road and one more tune-up against Purdue on the road before the showdown with Wisky. You need to get the crap worked out before going up to Gopher land. Time to put up 35+ on the scoreboard again.

If you desire the West title and another shot in the Big Ten Title game, you have to all start looking the part.
 
It's just too hard to predict anything yet. The first game we looked great early then did nothing (something you can chalk up to all Ferentz coached teams). Then we looked great against ISU (a sign that we are a really good team). Then we looked very meh against 2 bad teams (something that we also see all the time with Ferentz coached teams). I won't be too worried until we get run over by a team we should be pumped up for.
 
PCHawk said:
It's just too hard to predict anything yet. The first game we looked great early then did nothing (something you can chalk up to all Ferentz coached teams). Then we looked great against ISU (a sign that we are a really good team). Then we looked very meh against 2 bad teams (something that we also see all the time with Ferentz coached teams). I won't be too worried until we get run over by a team we should be pumped up for.
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Did we really play that great in total against ISU? CJ & Vandy executed some nice throws and catches but I did not come away feeling like we physically man-handled them. I came away thinking ISU was really, really disorganized and bad. It looked like a new staff trying to figure out their team. Lanning had guys open but consistently fired 105 MPH fastballs over their heads. We did play a very clean game and played with good energy but again I did not think we manhandied them to the degree we should have despite the score.

We gave up 130'ish yards on the ground to ISU and rushed for 170'ish ourselves. ISU had only rushed for 50 the week before against UNI and UNI rushed for 230'ish.

The point is I am not certain we have played a truly good and complete game yet.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
Did we really play that great in total against ISU? CJ & Vandy executed some nice throws and catches but I did not come away feeling like we physically man-handled them. I came away thinking ISU was really, really disorganized and bad. It looked like a new staff trying to figure out their team. Lanning had guys open but consistently fired 105 MPH fastballs over their heads. We did play a very clean game and played with good energy but again I did not think we manhandied them to the degree we should have despite the score.

We gave up 130'ish yards on the ground to ISU and rushed for 170'ish ourselves. ISU had only rushed for 50 the week before against UNI and UNI rushed for 230'ish.

The point is I am not certain we have played a truly good and complete game yet.
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Good point. But you have to remember,how the team plays has a lot to do with what the score is. If we are up big, we probably won't play that well from that point on. Also, the backups were in for the 4th quarter so those stats were pretty much over 3 quarters.
 
PCHawk said:
Good point. But you have to remember,how the team plays has a lot to do with what the score is. If we are up big, we probably won't play that well from that point on. Also, the backups were in for the 4th quarter so those stats were pretty much over 3 quarters.
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Fair point on the backups and operation shut it down was in effect to start the 4th quarter. I know it makes no sense when you win 42-3 but it just did not seem to be a result of a physical domination. I've seen us be much more dominant in victory many times even with a score not that impressive.

In 2010 it felt a lot different. We came out and laid the wood to them on both sides of the ball building a 28 or 35-0 lead before shutting it down. You could feel the domination.

My post is less about the ISU game and more about it just has not looked that impressive this year in any of the games even with some high score numbers in the first 2 games.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
Fair point on the backups and operation shut it down was in effect to start the 4th quarter. I know it makes no sense when you win 42-3 but it just did not seem to be a result of a physical domination. I've seen us be much more dominant in victory many times even with a score not that impressive.

In 2010 it felt a lot different. We came out and laid the wood to them on both sides of the ball building a 28 or 35-0 lead before shutting it down. You could feel the domination.

My post is less about the ISU game and more about it just has not looked that impressive this year in any of the games even with some high score numbers in the first 2 games.
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You're thinking we needed rare, hard to complete, perfect passes to blow them out, which is tough to replicate. As opposed to 8-10 yards per carry because they couldn't even stop us stacking the box. That's true.
 
HaydenHawk56 said:
If the players are reading these boards....the time to show up is now. Get your head together and get things clicking this Saturday. You got MInny up next on the road and one more tune-up against Purdue on the road before the showdown with Wisky. You need to get the crap worked out before going up to Gopher land. Time to put up 35+ on the scoreboard again.

If you desire the West title and another shot in the Big Ten Title game, you have to all start looking the part.
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"If the players are reading these boards...." Bahahahahaha..One of the funniest things I've EVER read on a message board, lol....Yeah, because the players want to listen to 'your' expert analysis of what's going on, Bahahahaha..........You folks are HILARIOUS!!!
 
I agree there seems to be some internal strife going on with the team. What it is hasn't come out yet, and maybe it never will. There are some seniors that aren't getting the job done. Whereas Juniors they did good. Johnson and Ekakitie are getting blown out like a couple of newbie freshmen. In the last two games CJ is missing throws. He's playing like he has a concussion. I hate to say it but I think he needs to sit out a game. The WR's aren't getting open. Maybe it's time to push some Freshmen in there. Or anyone who wants to catch the ball.

Last week there was almost no emotion on the field. Like they were worked to hard and had dead legs on Saturday. The defense in spite of the lack of line production has done a good job the last two weeks. Albeit against lesser competition than what is coming up.
 
GrandpaHawk said:
Don't you think our opponent has figured out by now what we run offensively and defensively,we've been doing it for a few years now. We change players but not the system it's just that some years we have better players to make it better.JMO
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YOU ARE SPOT ON, Grandpa!!! Lol....They ALL have it figured out, lol...We should totally change our schemes every year to keep them guessing!!! Lol......Do you people actually take yourselves seriously??? Lol... I hope not.........
 
HawkeyeDenis said:
I agree there seems to be some internal strife going on with the team. What it is hasn't come out yet, and maybe it never will. There are some seniors that aren't getting the job done. Whereas Juniors they did good. Johnson and Ekakitie are getting blown out like a couple of newbie freshmen. In the last two games CJ is missing throws. He's playing like he has a concussion. I hate to say it but I think he needs to sit out a game. The WR's aren't getting open. Maybe it's time to push some Freshmen in there. Or anyone who wants to catch the ball.

Last week there was almost no emotion on the field. Like they were worked to hard and had dead legs on Saturday. The defense in spite of the lack of line production has done a good job the last two weeks. Albeit against lesser competition than what is coming up.
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Man, you nailed it!!! Lol..I forwarded this post to the coaches so they know what to do this week!!! LOL!!!
 
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