Who the Hawks are vs. Who Ferentz wants them to be

[homes]

We've seen who this team is. We've heard from the players on who they are and what they like to do. The problem is that self-described team is not in the mold that Ferentz desires them to be. This team is at a crossroads in the season, a season that is almost half over. Will Ferentz play to the team's strength or will he stubbornly try to make them something they are not?

This does not mean that he has to forever scrap his preferred style of playing it close to the vest, taking virtually no risks and playing for the other team to make mistakes or poorly execute often enough to stop themselves. But that is not the makeup of this team, the very guys he recruited. They are not a grind it out, hold them off team, at least I haven't seen it so far this year, and by game 5, I think it would have revealed itself.

Further, I think the fans will give him a lot of leeway this year if he makes the move to what I believe is the team's strength, but it fails. The fans will not give him the same leeway if we see more of the same from last Saturday. I'm hoping for the former, but expecting the latter.

 

[NewMexHawk]

The disappointment is that the coaches have shown that an uptempo offense works and works well. They ran it and were very successful against Pitt and they ran it for a little while against the flunky team.

Suddenly Iowa is back to the old KF style and they can generate no offense nor can they score points. Iowa is back to their seven play playbook that every team knows and can now defend.

I guess scoring points and rolling a team just is not in KFs books...it is unfair apparently to take advantage of the other team.

Northwestern is on route to beat Iowa and fairly easily this weekend. Fitz will pull out all the stops and KF will play his usual seven plays. NW could very well roll Iowa this weekend if KF doesn't change his offense.

I almost wish he would go to the pros.

 

[wardog23]

the up tempo offense is hard to do on the road with a decent defense and 100,000 screaming fans. Plus they wanted that win bad.

I understand your point, but it is hard to do that stuff and communicate when screaming is happening. That has not happened at home when it has worked.

 

[TChawk]

the up tempo offense is hard to do on the road with a decent defense and 100,000 screaming fans. Plus they wanted that win bad.

I understand your point, but it is hard to do that stuff and communicate when screaming is happening. That has not happened at home when it has worked.

Worked great the first series when we passed the 50 they pocketed it agian and saw very little of it after that...

 

[racerhawk]

Maybe this is the year PSU beats Iowa, and Iowa beats NW.

My hope is that we don't have a game plan that goes into "safe mode" like we did at PSU. We're going to have to exploit the other team's weaknesses, and I would think that would mean throwing to our guys who are 6-3 and taller.

I was perplexed that Iowa didn't at least attempt to throw the ball downfield more against PSU. Maybe the line was getting eaten alive and they felt they couldn't?

 

[hawkfan340]

Maybe this is the year PSU beats Iowa, and Iowa beats NW.

My hope is that we don't have a game plan that goes into "safe mode" like we did at PSU. We're going to have to exploit the other team's weaknesses, and I would think that would mean throwing to our guys who are 6-3 and taller.

I was perplexed that Iowa didn't at least attempt to throw the ball downfield more against PSU. Maybe the line was getting eaten alive and they felt they couldn't?

Tough to tell on TV, but it seemed like the PSU d-backs were taking a page out of our playbook; i.e. "keep everything in front of you".