JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
I want to reiterate that I am not white washing this year's results....its far beneath what this team should have accomplished. And we'll keep hashing it out for weeks and months.
I don't particularly like KF's football philosophy's. I don't have a problem with a ball control offense - but it doesnt particulary match up with the defensive philosophy.
The Indianapolis Colts have a similar def strategy but they have an offense that can put up points and allow the cover two shell defense to waste time and effectively win games.
A low scoring offense doesn't match up well with a cover 2 type defense. Also (like this year especially) if our defensive line is getting 0 pass rush we are in big trouble - and we have no plan of attack to supplement the lack of pass rush - hence why during certain years we can have very poor pass defense.
From day 1 I never was gung ho on Kirk and his old school strats, but I don't care if we win.
I dont need an Oregon duck offense to be happy, but I just wish we would stop playing football in 1987 sometimes.
I'm not saying Kirk being gone would be better, because he has done a great job here, but for 3 million dollars a year we could get talented coaches (if we are willing to spend that kind of cheddar)
We just have to see what the next couple years bring. Hopefully Kirk kicks some people in the *** over the next few months.
He adamantly refuses to believe there is anything wrong with this philosophy.....instead blaming "execution". And since it's the players executing the plays, then by default, he's saying it's their fault.
Whenever he's questioned by a reporter about the offense, he always has some snide remark......the other week it was about how they were going to switch to Oregon's offense, until he saw they only scored 14 points. Kirk, I hate to break it to you, but Oregon averages over 50 points per game.....you averaged 17 against IU, NW and Minn. In addition, your offense is perinnially in the bottom 25% of all of FBS football. Yet every year he trots out the same offense. What's the old saying......insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? That sums up Kirk's philosophy to a "T".
Same thing with the defense. It's always someone or something else's fault. It's either injuries, or the other quarterback had a phenomenal day (isn't it weird how every QB we played had a "phenomenal day"?), or the players just didn't execute. Last I looked, Wisconsin lost a helluva lot more talent to injuries this year than we did, but they're going to a BCS bowl.....somehow most other teams didn't let Persa have a "phenomonal" day against them.......Arizona's O has looked downright pedestrian against everyone but us.......and most defenses in the country don't "execute" to perfection like this staff expects of their defense. In fact, most coaches in the country are able to mix it up on defense when it's apparent something isn't working in order to make the "execution" better. Ours, of course, don't.
Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, Kirk just came out and said he and his coaches flat-out sucked this year and, come he!! or highwater, there WILL be improvements in their coaching next year and then list off 3 or 4 things that everyone will see improvement in?
I want to reiterate that I am not white washing this year's results....its far beneath what this team should have accomplished. And we'll keep hashing it out for weeks and months.
Then who gets fired? Special Teams coach(s)? Ken O'Keefe? What is accountability mean if no one is actually held accountable? If a player were to consistently underperform year-after-year-after year how long do you think he'd still be starting?
How many years of underperformance by the Offense do we have to expect before the OC in charge of the Offense is replaced with someone who can productively run KF's Offense?
If KF held KOK as accountable as he holds DJK I wonder what kind of an Offense we'd have?
KF doesn't agree with the premise, I'll bet.
Offensive production - in his view - is most effectively measured by win's & losses. In that view, our offense is solidly above average.
So, you're barking up the wrong tree.
Just take these last 3 games, for example. They were all team losses, period. Did the offense play well? Absolutely not...However, they played well enough to have us leading by more than a FG in the last 6 minutes of the game with a long field in front of the opposition.
Given those parameters, we are supposed to win about 90% of the time when you have a defense as highly thought of as ours.
I'll never understand the line of thinking that the only way to hold someone accountable is to fire them. Well, Ron Zook thinks that way, so you're not completely without company.
Then who gets fired? Special Teams coach(s)? Ken O'Keefe? What is accountability mean if no one is actually held accountable? If a player were to consistently underperform year-after-year-after year how long do you think he'd still be starting?
How many years of underperformance by the Offense do we have to expect before the OC in charge of the Offense is replaced with someone who can productively run KF's Offense?
Raw:
I've been 100% in your camp up to this point.
I believe Kirk does, in effect, do the things you talk about. But, the problem is, you want to HEAR him say it. He's not going to say it publicly. But can't you read it on his face? The guy looks like he's aged 20 years over the last 10 weeks.
At this point, KF is accountable. He's accountable for win's & losses. He's not accountable for how he manages the public & the media when it comes to pinpointing everything that has gone wrong this year. If we go 3 years of dramatically underperforming on a W's & L's basis -- He's out of a job. THAT is accountability.
Another thing that I suspect is that he's at a bit of a loss as to exactly what has gone wrong. I think he's a man honestly befuddled by what has transpired -- especially Saturday. So, why start making statements about what has gone wrong, when you're not even sure what actually HAS gone wrong. What exactly caused Clabyborn, Ballard, & Klug to get pushed around Saturday??? Be real careful how you answer -- see what I mean?
I get the sense that some of our fanbase feels entitled to answers. Well, you're not. You're entitled to win a bunch of games -- we're paying our coach $3mil a year -- and 7 wins per year isn't sufficient. But your not entitled to KF bareing his soul in a post-game press conference. Believe me...I'm as frustrated as you are, but I don't expect answers. We might even get some candor from him a year or two down the road....but we're not going to get it in the heat of the moment. And that's one thing I admire about him.
I don't particularly like KF's football philosophy's. I don't have a problem with a ball control offense - but it doesnt particulary match up with the defensive philosophy.
The Indianapolis Colts have a similar def strategy but they have an offense that can put up points and allow the cover two shell defense to waste time and effectively win games.
A low scoring offense doesn't match up well with a cover 2 type defense. Also (like this year especially) if our defensive line is getting 0 pass rush we are in big trouble - and we have no plan of attack to supplement the lack of pass rush - hence why during certain years we can have very poor pass defense.
From day 1 I never was gung ho on Kirk and his old school strats, but I don't care if we win.
I dont need an Oregon duck offense to be happy, but I just wish we would stop playing football in 1987 sometimes.
I'm not saying Kirk being gone would be better, because he has done a great job here, but for 3 million dollars a year we could get talented coaches (if we are willing to spend that kind of cheddar)
We just have to see what the next couple years bring. Hopefully Kirk kicks some people in the *** over the next few months.
again, all that is being said is moot; there is no fair weather, nor is there a bandwagon; there would be accountability if Barta didn't have such a great view through his navel. Ferentz has pulled one of the slickest deals in recent Iowa memory; he holds the whole state hostage while he behaves as he pleases. Time for a change.
Judging by your Nov 2010 join date and level of posts, I'm assuming you joined this board as a way to voice your frustration over our struggles.
You're not alone.
But to think it's time for Ferentz to go is asinine.
Iowa is one bad hire away from being in the same or worse position that Michigan, Tennessee or Notre Dame is in right now...Traditional power houses with national title history, that are floundering badly.
If things can change that dramatically at places that have deeper pockets than Iowa, bigger recruiting advantages than Iowa, a better platform for success than at Iowa, they sure as hell can happen at Iowa real quickly.
People assume that this is the new 'floor'...that winning 27 games over three years is the baseline of what we should expect every year.
Sorry, but you are creating your own problem and you are emoting it to everyone else, then you need to check yourself.
That doesn't mean that this year wasn't a disappointment. It also doesn't mean that last year is some norm, either.
Georgia barely got to 6-6 this year after a disappointing season last year. Florida is 7-5. Texas is 5-7. Tennessee is 6-6. Notre Dame is 7-5. USC is 7-5.
These programs have so many more advantages than Iowa it would choke a billy goat. Their fans are disappointed too, but these are not apples to apples comparisons. Iowa is the interloper, in a pure college football aristocracy point of view, on this list.
For a number of reasons, this team didn't have it this year. I am writing up as many things as I can think of as to why that might have been, and then we can look at it and talk about what we think the real problems were, etc.
But I remain steadfastly convinced, as do most people I speak with that live in the football world, that Kirk Ferentz is in the cream of the crop, and especially for Iowa.
Some will scoff at this, some will say I am kissing his *** or whatever. I really don't care what you think of me, otherwise I would have been long gone by now doing something else. It's what I believe, given the obstacles Iowa has to overcome in this sport, and how well they have done that under Ferentz.
You can hope for more, but when your basis for expectations is on a foundation of hope with little material evidence beyond speculation, that's on you.
It still doesn't white wash this year; things were set up to do much better than they did, and they didn't get over.
But people are acting like this program has been a chronic disappointment under Ferentz, which is BS, plain and simple.
Yeah, probably. However, it is time for a change - a change from the incompetent OC who has been running the Offense these last pathetic several years to one who can translate talent on the team to points on the board and production on the field.
He adamantly refuses to believe there is anything wrong with this philosophy.....instead blaming "execution". And since it's the players executing the plays, then by default, he's saying it's their fault.
Whenever he's questioned by a reporter about the offense, he always has some snide remark......the other week it was about how they were going to switch to Oregon's offense, until he saw they only scored 14 points. Kirk, I hate to break it to you, but Oregon averages over 50 points per game.....you averaged 17 against IU, NW and Minn. In addition, your offense is perinnially in the bottom 25% of all of FBS football. Yet every year he trots out the same offense. What's the old saying......insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? That sums up Kirk's philosophy to a "T".
Same thing with the defense. It's always someone or something else's fault. It's either injuries, or the other quarterback had a phenomenal day (isn't it weird how every QB we played had a "phenomenal day"?), or the players just didn't execute. Last I looked, Wisconsin lost a helluva lot more talent to injuries this year than we did, but they're going to a BCS bowl.....somehow most other teams didn't let Persa have a "phenomonal" day against them.......Arizona's O has looked downright pedestrian against everyone but us.......and most defenses in the country don't "execute" to perfection like this staff expects of their defense. In fact, most coaches in the country are able to mix it up on defense when it's apparent something isn't working in order to make the "execution" better. Ours, of course, don't.
Wouldn't it be nice if, just once, Kirk just came out and said he and his coaches flat-out sucked this year and, come he!! or highwater, there WILL be improvements in their coaching next year and then list off 3 or 4 things that everyone will see improvement in?