We'll have Noah Fant on the Radio Tonight
- Thread starter RobHowe
- Start date
okeefe4prez
Well-Known Member
Call in number, por favor. Thx.
tksirius
HN's Love Doctor
Rob said all juniors and Hockenson are declaring for the draft.
RobHowe
Administrator
He’s feeling some regret after reading some criticism on this board.
hawkdrummer1
Well-Known Member
you serious, Clark?
hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
I thought he sounded like a guy who is ready for NFL media. I felt like his answers, especially for the more controversial questions, were very measured and he was saying all the right things...but I just got the feeling there has to be something more there. Just a feeling I got based on 1 radio interview, so grain of salt...
Regret playing for the Hawks? If he had a do over, where would he have liked to go?
RobHowe
Administrator
No, regret over skipping bowl and leaving early for the NFL.
GesterHawk
Well-Known Member
Does he have an agent yet?
RobHowe
Administrator
He was meeting with one last night.
BTW, I'm kidding. I didn't sense he had any regrets.
I thought the most telling answer for me was when I asked what his relationship was like with the coaches, particularly BF, who was his position coach and OC. NF said he understands they have a job to do. He side-stepped talking about their relationship.
I don't think he was pleased with his playing time this season. I don't blame him. He was criminally underused.
hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
That's what I was getting at with my above post. I think he actually said more by what he didn't say than by what he did.
kameltoez102
Well-Known Member
Any sense from anyone that has any people inside the program that he was in the doghouse for some reason or were they trying to leverage his playing time into curbing him to stay because they thought his numbers would force him into another year of college production?
The thing that is strange is how much both he and Hockenson were off the field at times. One of this guys should have been on the field at all times. I am still trying to wrap my brain around if there was something else to the story with Fant or if it was just incompetence and if it was, who is to blame BF or KF
hawkdrummer1
Well-Known Member
There go your press credentials, Rob.
That criminal under-use is so fascinating. What could be the possible explanation? I have seen several theories floated:
- The coaches were offended by Fant's unhappiness with PT (we would have to surmise that Fant was unhappy, Fant never publicly vocalized such notions) or his family's social media behavior and sat him as part of a petty revenge strategy. While some seem to love this as it gives them an opportunity to impugn KF's character, it seems highly unlikely that someone like KF with so much to gain by winning would intentionally sabotage his team to prove a point.
- There were certain team standards, relating either to the preparatory week leading to games or within the games, that Fant was not meeting to an adequate level. As playing time is really the only true "carrot" a coach has to offer, his underuse was part of a larger plan to not only motivate him to reach his potential, but also to maintain team-wide standards. We have no way to know if such a thing could be true because generally KF does not discuss such issues in public. Some may argue withholding playing time to a super-star like Fant, even in the face of hypothetical shortcomings of standards, would be ridiculous. However, the effect of any person being held to a different standard can be highly detrimental to culture, and culture does like to eat strategy for breakfast after all. I think this explanation is more likely than the 1st, but from what we have seen and heard about Fant, it seems unlikely as well. But it works for those that feel more comfortable impugning the character of a student-athlete than impugning the character of the coach.
- The 3rd explanation is that coaches were not innovative enough to find ways to maximize the potential of the person who was at the very least the 2nd best skill position player on offense (I would argue behind Hock). I think this is the most likely as we fall back on Hanlon's razor: never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Yeah I'm afraid we'll never honestly know... Best chance if with Fant down the road telling us after he's long gone. However there's a good chance he may not know the real reason anymore than we do and it's between the Ferentzs. I like you think KF has been around way too long to purposefully sabotage both he and his teams best chance of winning games over some invisible back and forth with Fants family... I just can't see that at all. I don't remember DJKs usage being affected a whole lot. When he was suited up and on the field we used him and they had their well documented rounds almost his entire tenure at Iowa. So whatever their 'logic' was it was pretty darn flawed.
I dunno they sure were out thinking themselves is all I know. To steal a line they 'let them off the hook' and by they I mean the other teams coaches. Every one of them came in with Fant as their main focus of trying to stop us and for a big chunk of the year he was hardly that. And that's on our coaches plain and simple.
HawkleberryFinn
Well-Known Member
At this point I don't see how the Ferentz crew has a good excuse for keeping Fant off the field. Fant's misuse hurt us while he was here and will hurt us in the future.
