Gronowski has QB rating of 58.3. Good for13th
Gronowski stats. 58.3 qb rating good for 13th in big ten. 6 touchdowns and 5 Interceptions. 63% completions. 133 yards per game. Just what they are. I think most were hoping for a little better
Will Iowa ever have a QB that can throw
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SCHawkeye2
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Do you think Gronowski is intending to throw the ball that poorly on purpose?
HawkPowerlifter
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We just got a UCLA de-commit out of Florida, Xavier Stinson, who is a receiver. 6'3/205. I think he's a 3 star, but seemed to have a few other notable offers. I do know we have some decent O-linemen coming in too. Also throw in a stacked tight end room. I think we are turning the corner.
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HawkPowerlifter
Well-Known Member
I really wonder how much this labrum injury has affected his ability to throw. You watch old vids of him and he definitely can throw the ball. I also recall him mentioning the knee brace affects his ability to throwing.
I make no excuses though. I think our expectations were much higher for his ability to pass, but I think some of that has balanced out with his run ability and his leadership and moxie. Tough kid and he's got guts and is a winner. I think some of that is hard to quantify.
HawkeyeHypnosis
Well-Known Member
Gronowski said in post game that he threw the ball too late on the tip pick. He said a half a second earlier and it’s a catch.
Not a chance. And no one is instructing our QBs to throw the ball at receivers feet
FWIW, both the ANF and HawkCentral podcasts believe that Hecklinski or Brown will be Iowa's starting QB next year with the early edge to Hecklinski. Tim Lester really seems to like him. Gronowski has been a huge improvement at the position this year but I think either one of those two could be a better passer.
SCHawkeye2
Well-Known Member
Also late with the final pass to Wetjen - out of bounds
SCHawkeye2
Well-Known Member
We are seeing the impact of his shoulder and knee injuries.
I was at birthday party so checking scores by phone not watching. Early in game Mark was 0 for 4 for -5 yards and a pic, He sure found his stroke late and just in time, wow. He’s a winner warrior as the record clearly shows. There is a thrower in there we just haven’t gotten to see it a lot this year. Kudos to the winner in there though
HawkPowerlifter
Well-Known Member
Love his mentality. Humble. Positive and a winner. The kid is a leader. There's a reason why he has the locker room. He may not have insane numbers, but he plays within the system and makes plays when needed. I still think he has cemented his name as a legend with the Hawkeyes for what he has done.
I don't disagree, terribly.
He's good because a QB that purposefully gets 30 yards rushing in a game (not exclusively from scrambling on a broken play) is an offense that can get first downs. If you string together enough first downs, you score points. If you score points with some regularity, you are "in the game".
Remember, I don't truly know how football works. I don't know how long you can change a team. I don't know if they are trying. I don't know what it takes to....
But, I wondered the other day in a thread if Gronowski was the perfect pick for year 2 of Tim Lester. For the most part, the upperclassmen receivers and tight ends were all recruited by a different coach. I don't even remember the timing of when Lester came aboard or if it would have made a difference with Van Der Zee. But the others? Might not have been Lester's choice. The offensive line and tight ends, same thing.
I mean, one thing we know is that QBs known for throwing the ball did not exactly fare all that well with teams made up and developed by previous coordinators/coaches. So maybe they look at Gronowski and say "well, he can throw the ball and should be able to wayyy better than Deacon Hill and at least as good as McNamara. But, he can run. The offense line can run block. Let's just get some first downs and see if he can throw enough when he has to. Get through the season as strong as possible and then we'll have some of "our guys" playing in "our system" and we can run an offense that's a little more balanced with a little more passing.
To a degree Growowski's been able to throw when he HAD to. What he hasn't been able to do with any consistency is thrown the ball when it would be "really good" to do so. He seems to run awfully hot and cold.
Maybe Lester is sitting there with some confidence in Hecklinkski (sp?) and the scheme/players he'll have on offense and that they'll either develop or portal in some receivers for next year and actually TRY to rely on having both a running and passing game? Gronowski being like the perfect stopgap?
Then again, with the average being 2-3 years for an OC, you'd have to argue that the cupboard was absolutely bare in the passing game. Which, seeing the performance of the previous OC in the passing game over the last 6 years, one could maybe argue that the cupboard was indeed...that bare.
Again, having a QB averaging 38.8 rushing yards, much of them being outright designed is a plus.
Outliers being 130 against PSU, and 9 and 7 against Wisconsin and Indiana respectively.
39,37,12,55,7,9,130,24,25,32,57
That's his rushing yardages. 124 yards avg passing. So, a combined 162 yards average per game isn't boatloads. But a heckuva lot better than 10 yards rushing on a busted play and only 124 yards passing. How many of his rushes were for first downs.....or setup a 2nd or 3rd and short that Iowa runningbacks could get pretty reliably?
I remember one of the old handheld football games. The thing with the buttons and the little red LED tickmarks. It wasn't the Coleco one, that was the superior handheld and was the first to allow passing. I don't think it was the Mattel one, but it could have been or maybe an earlier version of it pre passing. If on every play, you just ran the ball straightforward you would gain 3 yards on every play. Rarely, you would only get 2. But if all you did was run forward and went for it on 4th down, you would get 11-12 yards per four downs. So at that point, you would take the ball down to the ~10 yard line. Then you would try to run a play that got you about 7 yards. Then you had two plays to try to waste as much time by avoiding the defenders as possible but still only need 2 yards for a score whereupon you would run that play to run out the clock and use an entire half by running up the middle on all but two plays. We got so damn good at that, it would aggravate anyone we played against. It became like tic tac toe where if someone takes the center square, it ends in a tie. We had so many 7-7 games it became unfun.
I think Gronowski gave us some semblance of that. Obviously, not every game and not against every defense. And obviously, you can't do that same thing every time in real football or it wouldn't work anymore. But enough.
Ain't saying he's the greatest. But the dual threat in anything but the NFL is still a viable option. He might have been just what we needed to give Lester (or anyone else, for that matter) a little breathing room.
