This post will probably tick everyone off

You may be the least perceptive person on these message boards. Are you kidding me? Doesn't want to win B1G or NC? Ridiculous.

You can credibly question a lot of things about the coaching staff, but this is not one of them. Again, ridiculous.

2009 OSU Game. Please review the last minute of regulation. B10 Championship on the line and KF decides not to go for the win.
 
2009 OSU Game. Please review the last minute of regulation. B10 Championship on the line and KF decides not to go for the win.

So you don't think he had desire to win that game and the B1G title? That is what the original post to which I responded stated.
 
Thanks for clarifying the massive amount of 'heart attack' games that we have. I know I really enjoy them all.
 
they've changed considerably this year. They have went no huddle, they have went hurry-up, they have passed more than they ever have, they have blitzed more than they ever have, they changed personnell (alvis to end, castillo out, bernstein in, etc.), they are going after some JUCO's for next year which is something they have done rarely. they've made lots of changes....

The special teams have not changed. There has been no adjustment. They continue to get worked every year. That is all coaching. Poor coaching.
 
We all ultimately act in our own self-interest (it's called survival). So I'm not surprised to see this take. Can't bite the hand that feeds you.
 
WOW just WOW.... I am so happy to be .500 over time. Whoohooo we are Iowa we're 6-6 lets roll.

I will give this staff a TON of credit for what they have been able to do with the Bowl Games. Take those stats out and see how the stats change. I would be curious to know.

I think the biggest problem those of us who care enough to post here is the absolute refusal to change.. anything. I will go back to McCann and Christensen for example - the fans had to BOO the coaching staff to force changes.

I like Kirk - my kids like Kirk too. I really don't want to see him go BUT it is obvious the guy is actually playing to be average good... he has no real desire to win a B1G or NC. I honestly believe that he has no real desire, that's not how he is built. He only wants to keep a steady average team on the field.

I'm mostly tired of the mediocre Offense EVERY YEAR. What is the average rank of the Offense production over the KF era - versus Defense? If Kirk didn't have Norm he would have run out of Iowa City a long time ago. I think Norm is tired and ready to let it go, and its probably time for him to do that also.

Seriously? You think Kirk made changes in response to fans booing? Is there any BCS coach that would do this, let alone Kirk? The answer is almost certainly "no". Come on.
 
We all ultimately act in our own self-interest (it's called survival). So I'm not surprised to see this take. Can't bite the hand that feeds you.

Good point. Looks like all those checks the UI mails to Jon are starting to pay off.

I'm outta here. See you guys next week. Maybe.
 
Actually Jon, I was just using an actual set of data that shows a consistent trend throughout KF's tenure.

Not sure how that isn't more sound than considering his whole tenure minus the first two years, looking at only the last five, or just the last three.

Looking at records like that seems akin to the way Clone fans like to chop up history the way they talk about the history of the CyHawk series.
 
Jon. Very insightful post as usual. No one will argue that Ferentz has done remarkably well with the talent at his disposal at Iowa. I'm truly grateful for everything he's done for U of I football program.

i'm not concerned with his record over he past 13 seasons. What concerns me is the game of college football is continually evolving but our coaching staff does not seem to recognize that. I can tolerate the losses to PSU and other programs of that caliber, but a consistent pattern of losing to MN, ISU, and other inferior programs is unacceptable. KF is still the right man for the job, but changes on both sides of the ball are indicated.
 
Firing Ferentz would be a really really stupid move. It's amazing how quickly people forget about winning a BCS game just 2 seasons ago. Ridiculous.
 
Jon - couldn't have said it better myself, so I'm not even going to try.

I'm going to choose to think this is the lunatic fringe (or the "Jihadic wing" as Deace used to put it) using this opportunity to come out in droves and spread their drivel.

I hate to say it because overall I love the site and don't want to punish Jon for the stupidity of a handful of posters, but I'm going to join in with what some other posters around here have said - I'm out of here for a while, because my IQ is getting lowered everytime I read some of these posts (and my IQ wasn't that high to begin with, so I don't have a huge margin to get by on). I'm self-imposing a hiatus.
 
I still don't understand why people call out Jon for being afraid to bite the hand that feeds him.

What hand are you talking about? He's not affiliated with the university in any way. They have HawkeyeSports.com to spread their rainbows and unicorns.

Jon can certainly be accused of being a homer from time to time, but let's not pretend it's because he's scared of getting cut off/blackballed. He's a fan, just like the rest of us.
 
Jon,
I completely agree.

Something to consider... Michigan fired a GREAT coach (Carr) who they fired, thinking they could get someone in there who could do everything Carr did PLUS beat Ohio State. I don't think I need to point out what happened at Michigan the following 3 seasons.

Be careful what you wish for. Ferentz is right... it's not the strategy that is at fault, it's the players' ability to execute it. I'll stick with Ferentz, thank you. I don't want to watch a rebuilding of another Iowa program. The last 4 years of Iowa basketball is enough.
 
Outside of 2009 This is not the Kirk Ferentz of the early 2000;s

I'm greatful for what he has done for this program but really his ability to produce as been slowly declining.

I can accept losing to Ohio State or Nebraska but losing to a horrible minnesota team two years in a row?
 
Thanks,Jon. Very well written.
This was a horrible loss,but KF's body of work speaks for itself.

I found myself thinking about that frigid day in Kinnick in November of 2000,KF's second season,with a 2 win Iowa team taking on #12th ranked NW...and beating them. To NW it was a horrible loss that cost them the Rose Bowl. To Iowa, it was a glorious upset that started Iowa on the path to greatness. Minnesota fans reveled in beating a mediocre Iowa team on Saturday with the same mindset.
We should never lose that type of game and Minny should never upset Iowa like that,but it does happen,sometimes Iowa does it to the other side,like in 2000.

Fans seem to want to forget that Iowa lost more starters than any team in the league,and 2nd most among all BCS schools. A bumpy season is always possible under those circumstances. Go Hawks...BEAT BLUE!
 
You can talk about recruiting disadvantages and past winning percentages until you're blue in the face. It doesn't matter. It's all a bunch of rationalizing bs.

This team should be 7-1 right now, with a reasonable chance of being 9-3. They may still finish 9-3 and everyone will be happy, but no one is expecting it to happen, at least based on the performances to date. Losing to ISU and Minnesota this year is unacceptable - no recruiting disadvantages there. That's what irks me. Giving away games they have no business losing. Frankly, beating Michigan and Michigan State the next 2 weeks will not make it less painful, it would only underscore an endemic problem with this football program - consistently losing games they shouldn't.

Losing games all too often you should be winning. You can't do that and call yourself a top flight football team, unless someone wants to make the case that our collective expectations are unreasonable. Good luck putting that toothpaste back in the tube, they primary squeezer of that tube being the athletic department over the past 10 years.
 
I can't figure out why so many people are stuck on what KF has done in the past. I am grateful for what KF has done over the course of the years, but it is becoming more clear that SOMETHING has to change. I'm not saying we should fire KF, but there is a problem when a team like Minnesota beats us 2 years in a row... We may not be a great team with a lot of talent this year, but the gophers were terrible last year and beat us... and they were ever worse this year and beat us. This gopher team might be the worst football team we have played in the past 10 years and we LET them beat us... again.

I live in Minnesota and I have many friends that are Gopher fans and go the University of Minnesota and even talking to them before the game this is what they were saying:

"Iowa is going to absolutely kill us this year."
"Last year was just a fluke and I still don't know how we won. We are even worse than last year so this will be a blowout."
"Last year we were bad, but this year we are even worse. High school teams would beat us."
"I'm going to watch the game even though we are going to get killed. I just want to see how many touchdowns McNutt will score on us."

I kid you not, these are not things I made up. This is almost word for word what they were saying. Even after the game I got texts that said:

"How did you guys lose to us?? I'm not going to lie... that is pretty embarrassing."
"What the heck happened to Iowa?"
"What happened? How didn't you guys kill us?"
"Dude, we are terrible. I can't believe we won again."

I mean, really? Really?? I tried to convince myself after last year that it was a fluke and that we wouldn't let that happen again, but it is obvious that the staff is not preparing this team well enough. We shouldn't consistently lose to god-awful teams or even barely win.

It is obvious that it is a lack of preparation. That is on the coaches.

I love KF and I don't want to fire him, but I'm not going to sit here and act like he is raising the bar for this program and taking us to the next level anymore. At one point what he was doing was working, but now it isn't. He needs to learn to adapt and realize the game is changing.

I expect the coaching staff to strive for greatness. A coaching staff that is expecting B1G championships. I'm not ok with a coaching staff that is ok with being average.

I will continue to watch my Hawkeyes, win or lose, but I'm not going to look at the past and say "I don't care if I ever see the Hawks win a B1G championship or get to the NC game for the rest of my life, because Ferentz did a good job in the past."

If anyone should be raising the bar and setting higher standards and expecting greatness out of this program... it should be the staff. They should constantly be trying to take this program to the next level and expecting championship results.

I understand that there will be down years.
I understand that we can't win the Big Ten championship every year.
I don't understand why we constantly play to our opponents level. Are we worried about hurting our opponents feelings by coming out on the field and giving it 100% and getting a 50 point lead by half?

I've accepted the loss to MN and really last weeks game is just a small part of my frustration. I'm more concerned about the future and the big picture.

tl;dr version:

I don't care if we lose football games if the team and staff are going out there giving it 100% and doing everything they can to win, but I do care that we lose games due to lack of preparation and poor coaching. (Lack of preparation=poor coaching)
 
This team's downfall started last year and it looks like it is going to continue until at least 2013. Yes 2013. In 2012 Iowa once again has a favorable schedule, but as we are seeing this year, a favorable schedule only takes a team so far. Once Iowa as gets past September they will have to earn every win. And with the coaching we have seen so far this year that may not happen.

The Minnesota game points to a lot of problems we(the fans) were hoping the team would be able to over come this year. We hoped that the experiance drain from last year would at least be overcome with good coaching. So far that has not happened. This team has looked unprepared at times this year. An example of this is the Iowa State game.
Losing to Minnesota for the second year is for lack of a better word; rediculus. Iowa was out coached. There is no other way to look at it. We the taxpayers are paying premium prices for bottom tier results.

I don't advocate coaching changes but from this point on I am off the KF bandwagon and content to watch as the wheels fall off.
 
Denis:

The 2013 date is expected based on the overall trend of KF's tenure, which is three off, three on. It can also be expected based on personnel turnover, which everyone points to Iowa returning few starters but fail to acknowledge the situation will be the same, if not worse, next year.

This year Iowa returned two highly successful DL and 4/5's of the Oline. Next year Iowa returns one serviceable DLine starter and some reserves, and 2/5s of the Oline. Add to that a QB who is not strong on handling pressure and without his top receiving target and it is a recipe for disaster.

In 2013, the Hawks will be breaking in a new QB, but will have some good experience across the field. Expect that team to lose some early games from cautious coaching and QB nerves, then things should start rolling. In 2014, watch out.
 
2013 is my earliest guess when Iowa gets out of the B10 middle of the pack. Its tough to speculate two years out but here is what happens next year. Numerically there is a big gap between the top three classes and the freshmen on this team. It could be 2014 before this team is back near the top of the B10.

After this year Iowa loses; Prater, Binns, Nielsen, Daniels, Nardo, Bernstine, Donatell and possibly Hyde off of the defense.
 

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