Why I think the season played out why it did (Assigning Blame)

spudhawk

Well-Known Member
Some of you will see some of the reasons I list here as excuses. Some of you won't. Some of you will see me unfairly criticizing coaches and some of you won't think I am going far enough. A lot of things happened this season that led the Hawkeyes to this point and not all of it was the fault of the team.

Something that is always out of the staff's control is injuries. Iowa lost these key players this season to injuries for varying length- Jewel Hampton, Jeff Tarpinian, Tyler Nielsen, Adam Gettis, Nolan MacMillan, Shaun Prater, Adam Robinson, Marcus Coker, Jeremiha Hunter, and Daniel Murray.

To me the biggest injuries of the season were Nielsen and Tarp. There play was scrutinized while they were healthy but there production was outstanding and Iowa held a potent Arizona team to 20 points in unfavorable conditions. The linebacker play has been unsteady this season. Hunter has not been his normal self since he suffered a knee injury and has not shown his normal physicality or closing speed since injuring it. Obviously I think that Morris and DiBona have bright futures but I don't think that they were playing at the level of Nielsen or Tarp.

Losing Hampton was also a big blow and not having Coker for the early part of the season was like thousand paper cuts. He could have gotten early playing experience in the blowout games like EIU and ISU. That would have certainly eased the loss of Hampton and eased the load on Robinson all season.

Murray was an enigma throughout his Iowa career. I personally didn't trust him. I am not sure how I feel about how the Iowa staff has handled Mossbrucker. I think they have screwed with his head and wouldn't be surprised if he transferred. Meyer certainly has the potential to handle the role for the next three seasons.

Now on to the staff. Under Ferentz Iowa has struggled when they have entered a season with high expectations. That may be an understatement. This was certainly his most veteran and talented team in his 12 seasons. Iowa will probably send a record number of players on to be drafted from this team. In 20 years people will wonder how a team this talented will have sent so many players on to the NFL and had such a paltry 7-5 in the regular season and 4-4 in the Big Ten. Iowa's coaching staff had its own issues to deal with losing Norm Parker mid- season, however they have been dealing with that issue since the ISU game. That is no longer an excuse to me. This defensive staff has been basically intact for 4 seasons. Coach K (can't think how to spell his name right now will edit it in later) was a grad assistant before taking over. The last in game adjustments I really noticed was in versus Arizona. Iowa's blitzes are terrible in design and do not fool a veteran QB, which Iowa's schedule was littered with this season. Accounting for player development Iowa should have had an even more talented defense this season than last. For this defense to struggle this season the way it has, especially in the fourth quarter is on the coaches. They have consistently struggled to put their players in winning positions. They have rarely tried something that a common opponent had success with. PSU consistently contained Prior by blitzing an OLB extremely wide and coming at him from behindand looping the DE and DT on that side. I never once saw anything like this from Iowa. Minnesota was having success running the ball to the short side over and over in the first half, send Hunter from the weak side. Adjust, do something other than expect your guys to play better.

Offensively more of the same. Iowa does what it does regardless of what the defense struggles to defend. Iowa attacks the teams best corner even if the opposing corner couldn't cover his A** with two hands. Iowa's gameplans in the first 8 weeks were well conceived and very well executed. Even when the doors fell off against Arizona Iowa managed to adjust on the fly and claw back into the game leading at one point in that game. In the 9th game and onwards something happened. Either the staff didn't trust Coker enough or the loss of Gettis and MacMillan coupled with the injury to Robinson was just too much for the offense to overcome. KOK was very inconsistent with what he seemed to be trying to establish. Iowa has forgotten about the screen game which this o-line has excelled at all season. If they are available to the press conference I beg someone to ask him a specific play called that was designed or put in the plan based off the previous week's film study. Again Iowa does what it does because that is what they do. That is a great way to build a team. When you have the pieces put in to place you can do more with them. It was nice to see the slant return this week however.

Finally I could care less if Kirk is emotionless on the sideline. Players at this level should motivate themselves. Leadership at this level generally comes from the players. Obviously the loss of Angerer and Edds was more than just their athletic gifts. They were never adequately replaced for their heart.

I will love these Seniors, I love all Hawkeyes. But my heart is broken today.

Patrick Webb
 


While I agree that injuries are a major factor in the season I disagree with an item in your post. DiBona is slow. He simply needs to get faster or he will never see major time unless there are injuries in front of him. Morris will be very good with playing time and another 20-25 lbs of muscle. He simply got ran over too much but for a freshman he sure made some plays.
 


DiBona is not cut out for the LEO. He will be fine at the WILL. I disagree with your assessment that he is slow. He looks slow running with wide receivers. He was playing out of position. Getz will be the back up LEO next year. He is more suited to the position.
 


I do think injuries have had a considerable toll on this team - particularly on defense.

I am most disappointed in the offense. We lost to the bottom three teams in the league... teams that allow an average of 34pts per game? We can only score 17,18, 20?

Something is not right about that
 


Morris will be fine...we miss Davis who got injured early in the season and Tarp never mended. Morris looked much like a freshman today he got sucked in several times and ran himself out of plays. I feel for the Coker kid because he is going to be really good.
 




Great post Patrick. Iowa can be tough to beat because they are technically sound. Ironically, they can be easy to beat because they do not do anything that an opponent doesn't expect. The good coaches and veteran QBs know exactly what to expect.
 


I have a much simpler view. Coaches. We lost several games do to coaching and I think the indiana game is where they lost the players. Everyone played hard for sr day for the seniors not for the coaching staff. Unless we blowout a team in the post season (currently I'm predicting a L regardless of opponent) ill change my prediction for next year. Currently I don't believe we will be bowl eligible next year.
 


Excellent post. I do agree injuries are always bad, but the key with me is I had no idea how much we would miss Angerer and Edds. Even with Tarpinian, Neilsen and Hunter 100% healthy, they wouldn't have came close to filling those guys shoes. Coming into this season, I never had a clue of the deficit we had at LB and in the secondary, but especially at LB.
 


Great post Patrick. Iowa can be tough to beat because they are technically sound. Ironically, they can be easy to beat because they do not do anything that an opponent doesn't expect. The good coaches and veteran QBs know exactly what to expect.

I agree, great assessment of a terribly disappointing season. My question is pretty basic: has the college game passed Kirk Ferentz and his staff by? They seem stuck in a 80s/90s mindset that is not well suited to short passes, mobile quarterbacks, wildcat formations. Bend, don't break, seems, well, badly broken.
 


No I don't think it has passed him by Tweeter, I think he has to adjust his mindset to play meaner- score more trust his defense less and pull back the reins on offense more. Iowa is getting very good talent. Use it. Use the same base schemes just use them more aggressively. Disguise your blitzes because you actually have the better athletes now. Your Will can run fast. Your Safeties are fast they can blitz. Torry Campbell is fast, Shaun Prater is fast. James Morris is fast. Blitz them from where they usually line up. They don't need to show they are coming. They aren't Grant Steen (no offense to Grant Steen) they don't need an extra yard or two. Surprise the other team. Deception is rewarded in football.
 


I agree, great assessment of a terribly disappointing season. My question is pretty basic: has the college game passed Kirk Ferentz and his staff by? They seem stuck in a 80s/90s mindset that is not well suited to short passes, mobile quarterbacks, wildcat formations. Bend, don't break, seems, well, badly broken.

I would say yes. Some would point out how many players Iowa puts in the NFL but whats the goal here? Getting kids ready to play in the NFL or winning college football games?

It's pretty obvious that playing the vanilla offense paired with a non-dynamic defense is not how CFB is going in the future.
 




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