eveningnewsteam
Well-Known Member
I don't agree with quitting midseason, I think that's ********. Don't leave teammates hanging. Stick it out and leave after the season.
Willies Gone?
- Thread starter CPHAWK82
- Start date
homes
Well-Known Member
How does a guy go from killing it in Spring Drills and the Fall practice to barely seeing the field in the games? Yes, there's a comment in my question, but I'd also like to hear an answer to the question. It seems like the little he did play he did fine, including the all-important blocking part (sarcasm intended).
What? Not throw the ball? Iowa is 5th in the conference in pass attempts so far this year. There are only 2 teams (IL and PSU) that have thrown significantly more passes.
NEIChawk
Well-Known Member
I totally agree, that bush league in my opinion...and maybe you could visit w/your HC or receivers coach at least....too easy for kids quitting nowadays....I'm not saying he's wrong and maybe we don't have the full story, and maybe Jake needs to step up and visit w/him as well.....you know, being the leader of the offense and all....just a thought...
homes
Well-Known Member
This is a legitimate point to make. I think it could hurt him too as he looks to join another program. Unless, of course, things were so lousy he couldn't take it. Barring that, it won't look good to another coach that he quit the Hawks mid-stream, i.e., if he's done it once, why wouldn't he do it again if things don't go his way at the new school - a coach may not want to take that risk.
CPHAWK82
Well-Known Member
Hawks have attempted more passes than your average Hawks team, but about 70% of them are check downs. I would think that every receiver on the team isn't happy with the scheme being used for the receivers. T. Smith expressed as much during the iSu game when he yelled at Coach Kennedy after making his first catch late in the 3rd quarter and expanded on that frustration in his post game interview. I can only imagine what these young receivers are thinking when they see the guys ahead of them aren't even getting the ball thrown their way. They want to wait their turn for that? Playing time might not be as big an issue as the the system itself is.
kicker22
Well-Known Member
I'm not faulting the guy its his decision, but what I don't understand is if it's a football related issue regarding playing time why say something like this mid season? It basically guarantees that he will not be seeing the field again this year and then on top of that since he's already burned the redshirt he'll have to sit another year on top of it. He's basically giving up a year and a half of 4 years that he'd see playing time. Surely he wouldn't transfer down for eligibility purposes. Regardless of the factors involved, like many, I don't understand the timing to make such an announcement.
Maybe a parallel would be the guy who "kills it" at the Senior Bowl and NFL combine and then turns out to be a complete dud in the NFL. Maybe this is the situation with Willies? At this point, do we really know?
CPHAWK82
Well-Known Member
With Willies leaving, I'll be curious if they activate a guy like Derrick Mitchell Jr. or Andre Harris. Both of those guys looked the part in the Spring as well. Will these guys look at this as an opportunity to play sooner and get on the two deep or will they leave like Willies? I'm hoping they see this as an opportunity cause those guys have some talent that Iowa is really going to need. That's why the OL was robbed to get these guys. Davis said he needed speed and Kirk obliged. If they all leave, Hawks will really be hurting. the OL next year already is looking thin so if they lose these WR's it'll all be for not.
allup86
Well-Known Member
How many of those pass attempts are to the WR's and how many are 2 yard outs to a TE and a swing pass in the flat?Considering Iowa didn't complete a pass to a WR until the 3rd quarter of the Maryland game, he can be ****** off all he wants. This offense is absolutely horrible and I don't blame him for transferring. As far as when it happens, does it really matter? If he's gone, he's gone. Sure, it could be seen as bailing on his teammates. But if that was the case, would they really be liking his Instagram "goodbye"? I'm guessing most don't blame him either.
CPHAWK82
Well-Known Member
UNI probably beats Iowa without Willies making an acrobatic catch of an overthrown ball by Rudock. Ball State probably beats Iowa if Willies doesn't get that TD in the 4th quarter. His limited play was in critical situations to start the season and then nothing but a single catch against Purdue which was a 6 yard catch on a horizontal pass.
hawkfan2679
Well-Known Member
I was interested to see how the catch allocation went this year compared to the rest of the conference as well. Here's something I pulled from the stats page at ESPN:
Code:
Team........ WR TE RB OTH
Illinois..... 62.9% 10.2% 26.9% 0.0%
Indiana...... 69.7% 7.3% 22.9% 0.0%
Iowa......... 51.8% 23.8% 21.3% 3.0%
Maryland.... 74.3% 2.7% 23.0% 0.0%
Michigan.... 75.0% 14.2% 10.0% 0.8%
Minnesota... 50.7% 30.7% 17.3% 1.3%
MSU......... 77.6% 14.0% 7.7% 0.7%
Nebraska.... 78.3% 5.0% 15.0% 1.7%
NW.......... 81.0% 0.0% 18.3% 0.7%
Ohio State.. 42.6% 16.4% 41.0% 0.0%
Penn State.. 64.3% 22.8% 12.9% 0.0%
Purdue....... 46.4% 24.8% 28.1% 0.7%
Rutgers...... 63.2% 11.2% 17.6% 8.0%
Wisconsin... 52.8% 27.0% 19.1% 1.1%CPHAWK82
Well-Known Member
That's a good point. You'd think that someone leaving midseason would irritate their teammates. They obviously can see his point of view and are wishing him well.
This looks bad. But we need some context. I wonder how this compares to other Big10 teams?
I'm not going to disagree with anything you say here, but we still do not know the whole story. Maybe the guy is a "locker room lawyer". Maybe he screws up routes a lot. Who knows?
What I've heard is that he wasn't getting along with Kennedy... Team wasn't surprised. They are that he's leaving now and not the end of the year. But not that he's leaving in general. I figured the boards would be hot and heavy over this and ya'll haven't let me down. Pretty bad deal. Program gets a kid that they can use for 4 years to be a stretch the field stud and they go running him off. Watch him go team up with Lazard at ISU.... I'll puke all over myself if he does that.
I can't believe that anyone would want this to happen. Too much potential for this leading to very long down period for the program. I leaning toward wanting KF out, but let's make it as clean of a break as possible.
What if he is done with football? Maybe he couldn't do both school and football. Maybe he has the same issues the kid from isu and wisky had. Maybe he he is mad at someone or something. Perhaps he pulled a wegher with a girl back home. Perhaps he is giving up. Or maybe he got the boot.
maybe he will call home and his guardians will tell him to cool down.
No one knows here, but everyone assumes they do.
hawkdrummer1
Well-Known Member
It's also clearly against Jon's policies for the board. Not to mention that I wouldn't do that to a kid/family still in the program or the insider that shared the info with me. (I indicate WRs and from there it didn't take much to narrow it to a couple of names)
As for the "number of times we passed", as others have pointed out it's where those passes went. If you've been watching the games and don't understand that... there's no explaining it.
Billso
Well-Known Member
Fully appreciate his frustration, but unless something's going on we don't know about, you don't quit on your teammates.
Teammates wishing him well tells us nothing. Even DJK had supporters. The players aren't manic-depressive the way we are. They see adversity, they wish their friend well, they move on. Northwestern awaits and they have work to do.
