Wadley: More Proof That Ferentz Doesn't Put the Best Players On the Field

[iowalaw]

Uhhh, "greatest playmaker in college football?" Are you literate? What part of this thread says anything about Wadley being the greatest playmaker in football. To be the best RB on the Iowa roster and deserving of carries, one need not even be the best RB in the state of Iowa or one of the top 10 RBs in the Big 10. It does not negate the fact that Wadley deserved to have more carries than Damon Bullock.

His sample size is too small to say he is fumble prone? But it is not so small that we can't all conclude that he is the greatest playmaker in college football?

 

[Eda]

There's also a difference between a guy like Meier taking over a starting spot from an older player, and a guy like Wadley or Willies doing so. Meier is a junior, while the other two are freshmen.

I'm looking at the depth chart and these are the guys who unseated an incumbent, either before the year or since.

Tommy Gaul (technically unseated Walsh in the reshuffling of the line) - Sr. unseating a Jr.
Macon Plewa over Adam Cox (injury) - Jr. over a Jr.
Nate Meier over Mike Hardy - Jr. over a Sr.
Josey Jewell and Bo Bower over Travis Perry and Reggie Spearman - Freshmen over a sophomore and junior
Greg Mabin over Sean Draper and Reece Flemming - Sophomore over a sophomore and junior
Dillon Kidd over Connor Kornbrath- Junior over Junior
Matt Vandeberg over KMM - Sophomore over Senior (punt returns)

One thing that stands out here is that the majority of the guys "stealing" a starting spot are juniors or seniors. Of the three positions that have seen an underclassmen emerge, two were considered wide open competitions from the get go, as there was no returning starter. The third doesn't really count, since Vandeberg was put at PR either to help prevent KMM from getting injured on special teams or because he's better at ball security than KMM. He's not a dynamic punt returner, not even more so than KMM.

I could be missing one or two positions, but I think this pretty much covers all of them that have seen challengers take a starting spot.

Thx Tork, I got a little busy the past couple days to respond...
thats pretty much the list OnIowa had too. Also, King is on the list as well as Lowdermilk (took the spot from Law).

 

[Eda]

I understand Dean's logic but I'm big time with you on this one. We needed more out of our running game too badly to let a higher risk of fumbles get in the way. We know exactly what we are getting with Weisman and it's not enough. We've seen enough from Wadley to know that he has what we've been missing.

I believe the thought process is that the defense isn't good enough this year to constantly be put into a tough situation.

 

[tm3308]

I believe Sean WELSH was the odd man out on the line. He is a RS Freshman

Maybe something happened this past week that I missed (injury to Walsh?), but Welsh was starting at right guard against Nebraska and got absolutely abused by #7 on the DL. I'm pretty sure he's been starting there ever since they put Gaul at center and Blythe at LG.

 

[tm3308]

I believe the thought process is that the defense isn't good enough this year to constantly be put into a tough situation.

We finished 7-5 by playing it safe. At that point, there's not a whole lot to lose by being a little more aggressive. It'd be different if we were 10-2 and played it safe, where being more aggressive could have landed us at 7-5 or worse. But going 5-7 or 6-6 wouldn't feel a whole lot different than going 7-5. Especially with this schedule, where 7-5 is a pretty colossal failure.

 

[iowalaw]

Actually, we did not finish 7-5 by playing it safe. We finished 7-5 by scheduling 7 cupcakes to go along with some teams with winning records.

We finished 7-5 by playing it safe. At that point, there's not a whole lot to lose by being a little more aggressive. It'd be different if we were 10-2 and played it safe, where being more aggressive could have landed us at 7-5 or worse. But going 5-7 or 6-6 wouldn't feel a whole lot different than going 7-5. Especially with this schedule, where 7-5 is a pretty colossal failure.

 

[iowalaw]

Well, getting a January 2 bowl game means that our true and redshirt freshmen have had more time with the coaching staff than in virtually any year in the past. As they say, this time of year, freshmen are no longer freshmen. They are battle tested and are sophomores. Hopefully they are playing above their grade level at this point in the season and are being evaluated on an even playing field with the mainstays like Weisman and KMM. May the best man win. If CJ has performed equal to or better than Jake over the past month, every coach on the staff and every player on the roster has seen it with their own two eyes. If the best player sits on game day, there are going to be some major hard feelings in the locker room and you are going to be looking at more transfers than just CJ.