What is the problem exactly??

dobhawk43

dobhawk43

Well-Known Member
Was wondering if someone could shed some light on this for me. Why do we play such uninspired flat football the last four games of the year and then we play with such heart in the Insight Bowl? Are the coaches uneffective at motivating the players on a consistent basis? I am at a loss on this.
 


really other than the MInny and NW game, Iowa played the same way in the Insight they had all year.

Other than the kickoff coverage--nothing changed. just caught a couple Breaks in the Insight. The dropped TD at the end of the first half and the INT at the end.
 


Honestly I think that some of the things that happened like the arrests and things caused the players to not want to play with other players on the team (ie DJK). When certain distractions were taken off the team it brought the team closer. Could definitely be wrong but that is what I think I saw.
 




I wouldn't say the players came out uninspired against Ohio State or Northwestern. The Minnesota game on the other hand was a little disappointing. Sometimes you just have bad days I guess.
But I would say the time off helped the team more than anything. It gave the team a chance to refocus and get healthy.
 


I agree with you dream. It was a great win but a lot of the same problems the Hawks have had all year were evident in the Missouri game as well. It just comes down to making less big mistakes.
 


dobhawk43 said:
We played horrible against Indiana too.
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We completely outplayed Indiana. Our yards per play was something like 7.2 to 4.8 for Indiana. Hawkeyes couldn't execute in the red zone that day, and it almost cost them the game.
 


You can't help but think that the way the NW and OSU games ended had something to do with what happened in Minneapolis.
 


Foval21 said:
Honestly I think that some of the things that happened like the arrests and things caused the players to not want to play with other players on the team (ie DJK). When certain distractions were taken off the team it brought the team closer. Could definitely be wrong but that is what I think I saw.
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yeah, Adam R and DJK were the only ones on the team who were doing things they shouldnt have done.

Id respond more, But Im waiting for the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.
 


The team had big expectations this year. When those goals were put out of reach it was very hard on them. Look at AC after the Wisky game for proof.

I have the honor of knowing and talking with quite a few members of the team and they all knew it was there for the taking this year. It was Iowa beating themselves. A play here or there that changes everything. So close, but just short that was tough to swallow. They knew they were better, they just lost...
 


Huge expectations and several talented NFL prospects doesnt always equate to victories, look at TCU and Texas, Texas kills TCU in the recruiting wars but Patterson took less heralded recruits and developed them into a machine. Wonder if he will stay at TCU? Give Ferentz and staff some credit for picking the Hawkeyes off the mat and getting them ready to play Mo. We caught some breaks but the Hawks came to play.
 


I thought Iowa played inspired ball during four games this season: Iowa State, Michigan State (first half, at least), Ohio State and Wisconsin. The games against what turned out to be the conference co-champs were there for the taking and were lost on final drives.

It is a mystery why this team seemed flat the other games.

There were good individual performances against Mizzou but IMHO the all-around effort was far from the best of the season.
 


My personal opinion is that KF's coaching philosophy has a lot to do with the reason that we rarely beat anyone convincingly.

KF is definitely a disciple of the NFL style of game - where you try to win every game by 1 point, because in the NFL that is all that matters. In college that is all that matters as well, however, the difference is that there is a lot more parody in the NFL than there is in the college game. KF tells the Iowa players preaches that every opponent should be viewed in the same way and that all we need to do is win by 1....my personal opinion is that philosophy leads to Iowa consistently getting beat by teams the likes of NW.

The thing is, Iowa is a better team than NW. Period. We shouldn't expect to beat that team by 1 point. We should expect to beat them by a couple of TD's. If that was our teams goal, rather than beating them by 1, we'd see a lot fewer close games with the Indiana's/NW's of the world. When your team only expects to win by one, why would they ever perform exceedingly well against bad teams? Couple KF's "always win by one" philosophy with his ultra conservative offensive gameplan and you see why we always let poor teams hang around rather than put them away.

In college football, good teams put bad teams away. Period. KF doesn't do that and it has cost us at least one game every season in his tenure. I'd much rather see KF expect his team to blow out bad teams every week, call a game so that they can, and maybe lose one/two games a year because of underestimating an opponent, rather than trying to beat each team by 1 and letting teams that have no business hanging with Iowa, hang around.

I've always been critical of KF's unemotional demeanor as well. Emotion plays a huge role in how a team plays football. KF seems to altogether ignore that aspect of the game...which I think is a big mistake, and one of the major reasons our guys don't seem highly motivated at times.

Overall, I've always been a fan of KF, however, every coach has his flaws. KF's are that he preaches a very NFLesque style in college without accounting for the fact that there isn't NFL level parody in the FBS. Also, KF seems to refuse to coach to the emotional aspect of football, which I believe does sometimes lead to our guys playing somewhat uninspired.
 






Raziel said:
KF is definitely a disciple of the NFL style of game - where you try to win every game by 1 point, because in the NFL that is all that matters.
Click to expand...

This is true. And it's also lead to other problems, like at the end of this season where the players were basically saying that they weren't having any fun. The NFL isn't fun, but college football, where most of these guys will have to go get real jobs, should be. And teams that score a lot of points, while playing the defense that Iowa can? That would certainly be as much fun to play as it would be to watch.

There's certainly nothing fun in letting the likes of Indiana hang around, losing to Minnesota, and losing more often than not to Northwestern these days.

As for the emotional aspect, I've also criticized that in years past. You only play 12 games, how can you not be motivated for every game? Yet, we've had entire seasons, such as 2006, where the team just didn't look like they cared at all what happened. It happened again at the end of this season.

It's just another of the many things that, after 12 years, Ferentz still hasn't figured out.
 


Bend don't break Defenses can't be played by teams that use up tempo offenses because it means your defense is on the field too much and tires out quickly. This is the reason Iowa lost games in the 4th quarter this year because they didn't sustain drives. Iowa needs to rotate their DL more to keep everyone ready. This I think is where KF has done his most wrong. I know that our DL was solid but if some of the backups played here or there just to give breaks I think they might have given some energy to a DL that seemed to be lacking it at times (outside of Klug who played incredible all year).
 




I think we were mentally "tired" and had a few "distractions".......DJK, AROB, HAMPTON, etc..

I think once the team was rested and had some of the crap gone they were back to work. I was not surprised they played well.

I am stoked for next year.
 


I've said it all year and I think it's a valid view. The team needs to open up (a little) and have some fun. It really seems TOO business like for these kids. The energy and fun is being sucked out of them by not taking a chance here and there. Not going out and winning games by taking chances rather than playing to not lose them.

How many times in the past years have we had 4th n short inside an opps. 40 yard line and gone for it unless we HAD to? That has to suck sone life out of these guys. Show some confidence in your team to make plays. Atleast your telling your defense you trust them if you don't execute.

I'm not calling for spread offenses, coaching changes, etc. I just want to see us play to win games by putting it in our hands to do it...
 


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