Winning not not main focus to Kirk & program?

If kirk really wanted to win he would change. Careful kirk will not do that because he only wants to win his way. Kirk would play the best player not just his favorite player if he really wanted to win.

Unless you are constantly trying new things until you have found the right way you are not really trying. Right now with no consequences to making the same mistakes careful kirk has plenty of time to just do what he wants.
 
Knight78 said:
You don't understand. As a player you can't control who wins or loses a game. You can only control what YOU do. No successful coach talks about winning or losing. What they all talk about is getting each player to play their best. THAT is a goal you can control. THAT is the emphasis of any good player and good coach. THAT is what Kirk is talking about. The thing is, if each player plays his best then the team plays its best... then can you really ask for any more?

Now I'm not saying this has happened this fall. I don't know the exact reason why it hasn't happened this fall. But that is the goal - to get each player to play his best every Saturday.
Click to expand...


knight, I disagree with you. The ONLY goal is to win EVERY game and you have the best chance of doing that when all players and coaches perform at their best. Winning should not be accidental, it should be the only thing that matters and victory can be taken. kfootball did his coach speak routine and danced around saying anything close to "winning is the only thing that matters on game day." It is his coach speak that invites exasperation from the fans that eventually helps lead to discontent; along with losing so, so many games that we shouldn't.
 
I will simply point to Gary Patterson at TCU and I've heard him interviewed about their lousy season 2 years ago. He said CFB has just changed that he couldn't sit on his old ways. So, he went out got the best OC he could buy and those guys roll up points and DON'T lose games.

NUFF SAID!
 
Just listened to his presser on hawkeyeinsider.com...interesting. KF was very matter of fact interesting that he says he understands you don't win enough EVENTUALLY you will get asked to move along but he wasn't worried about that. Mentioned something about that's why we have contracts.... Bingo he hit that one right on the head...way to go Bary Garta! Nice job with that lifetime contract.

He's such and idiot.
 
seepig said:
Just listened to his presser on hawkeyeinsider.com...interesting. KF was very matter of fact interesting that he says he understands you don't win enough EVENTUALLY you will get asked to move along but he wasn't worried about that. Mentioned something about that's why we have contracts.... Bingo he hit that one right on the head...way to go Bary Garta! Nice job with that lifetime contract.

He's such and idiot.
Click to expand...

The only thing he is good at is being a ____________ to the media and fans.
 
Last edited:
ArvadaHawk said:
knight, I disagree with you. The ONLY goal is to win EVERY game and you have the best chance of doing that when all players and coaches perform at their best. Winning should not be accidental, it should be the only thing that matters and victory can be taken. kfootball did his coach speak routine and danced around saying anything close to "winning is the only thing that matters on game day." It is his coach speak that invites exasperation from the fans that eventually helps lead to discontent; along with losing so, so many games that we shouldn't.
Click to expand...

But winning depends upon a lot of factors that are ultimately out of your control (the quality of the opponent, the odd bounces of an oblong ball, officiating, weather, etc.). While their goal is certainly to win every game, you do not accomplish that goal by focusing on the importance of the outcome. You accomplish that goal by focusing on things you can control; the winning is a by-product. People who are successful in any walk of life tend to be very process-driven, not results-driven. Focusing on results can be distracting and counter-productive.
 
Look, people forget what it was like back in the day when abraham lincoln was president and Iowa was terrible. Im just glad we can field a team with all of iowa's disadvantages.

Also, todd Lickliter.....,..
, #blessed
 
CP87 said:
But winning depends upon a lot of factors that are ultimately out of your control (the quality of the opponent, the odd bounces of an oblong ball, officiating, weather, etc.). While their goal is certainly to win every game, you do not accomplish that goal by focusing on the importance of the outcome. You accomplish that goal by focusing on things you can control; the winning is a by-product. People who are successful in any walk of life tend to be very process-driven, not results-driven. Focusing on results can be distracting and counter-productive.
Click to expand...

I agree. But... when those processes don't continue to produce the results you seek (i.e. winning), you change or tweak the process.

What processes has KF changed in the last 5-10 years to adjust for the lack of winning? Let me preempt the typical first response of changing Offensive Coordinators. The person may have changed, but the plays and play calling have not changed significantly. Whoever takes over in 2016 as OC will still call the same type of game plan.
 
I made no evaluation of this staff's ability to effectively control the necessary processes to achieve success, I merely pointed out that anyone getting bent out of shape because the head coach's focus is on process rather than results does not understand what it takes to achieve success while leading a team.

That said, I agree with your main point, and I think if you objectively evaluate this staff's performance as a whole over the past 5 years, they come up short in quite a few areas, even if you neglect win/loss. Their success in recruiting, development, retention, game-planning, and producing an exciting on-field product has been average to poor.
 
Just reminiscing -- watching all of the games (except NU) it felt like I dreaded every time an opponent scored a TD because I didn't know if the Hawkeyes had it in them to respond. Even going back to Stanzi, who would throw a pick six in the first quarter and you'd groan . . . but then sort of realize that he could still throw 3 TD's and win the game.

Our defense was porous and inconsistent where it was always a hallmark of our good Ferentz teams (had a lot to do with the other Coach Parker). Likewise, and I never thought I would say this, our offense was just not as well executed as it was under O'Keefe. At least KOK knew when to run a play-action naked bootleg and hit the tight end.

Overall just not very Hawkeye-like.
 
CP87 said:
But winning depends upon a lot of factors that are ultimately out of your control (the quality of the opponent, the odd bounces of an oblong ball, officiating, weather, etc.). While their goal is certainly to win every game, you do not accomplish that goal by focusing on the importance of the outcome. You accomplish that goal by focusing on things you can control; the winning is a by-product. People who are successful in any walk of life tend to be very process-driven, not results-driven. Focusing on results can be distracting and counter-productive.
Click to expand...

This is a loser's mentality.

Yes, there are a lot of things that go into winning a game, but if you don't win then you don't accomplish your goal. The problem with Kurt is that winning seems to be a tertiary goal.

Sure successful people are process driven, but they don't say results aren't important. If a plastix salesman has the best process in the world but never makes a sale, he will be reffing highschool girl's games in NJ instead of being the greatest salesperson that the southeast mid size plastics company has ever seen.
 
KnightHawk26 said:
This is a loser's mentality.

Yes, there are a lot of things that go into winning a game, but if you don't win then you don't accomplish your goal. The problem with Kurt is that winning seems to be a tertiary goal.

Sure successful people are process driven, but they don't say results aren't important. If a plastix salesman has the best process in the world but never makes a sale, he will be reffing highschool girl's games in NJ instead of being the greatest salesperson that the southeast mid size plastics company has ever seen.
Click to expand...

Nor did Ferentz say that results are not important. As a matter of fact, he went out of his way repeatedly to say that in the end it is results that matter, and to suggest that results do not matter to coaches and players would be insulting. What he did say is that they don't focus on results, they focus on what they can control, which is the process of improving.

To call this approach a "loser's mentality" is ignorant, as every successful coach approaches things this way. You can jump and scream all you want about the "importance of winning," and it does not accomplish a thing. You get better by focusing on winning every day by controlling the processes that make you better as a player, a coach, and as a team.

This is not to say that the staff has done a good job of effectively controlling these processes, as the results would indicate. But to criticize for the area of focus is way off base.
 
It's not always bad to be in last place. Here's some things we can focus on:
One, we tried hard. And two, we're still dear friends.
 
The truth is that there is nothing that KF or Barta could say that would satisfy some posters.
 
Haven't read the thread, and I'm on the Fire Ferentz bandwagon, but I don't have much problem with being process driven, rather than results driven in general. Lots of successful people/athletes have this MO.

That said, results need to be used to evaluate your processes, especially in a (mostly) non-random endeavor like football.
 
CP87 said:
Nor did Ferentz say that results are not important. As a matter of fact, he went out of his way repeatedly to say that in the end it is results that matter, and to suggest that results do not matter to coaches and players would be insulting. What he did say is that they don't focus on results, they focus on what they can control, which is the process of improving.

To call this approach a "loser's mentality" is ignorant, as every successful coach approaches things this way. You can jump and scream all you want about the "importance of winning," and it does not accomplish a thing. You get better by focusing on winning every day by controlling the processes that make you better as a player, a coach, and as a team.

This is not to say that the staff has done a good job of effectively controlling these processes, as the results would indicate. But to criticize for the area of focus is way off base.
Click to expand...

I disagree. The ones that are the best in sports either as players or coaches absolutely HATE to lose. Kurt doesn't, because if they play hard and lose, then that's football. Sorry, that doesn't cut it for most competitive people. His words indicate that he would like to win, and isn't a big fan of losing, but it doesn't sway himm much one way or the other.
 
hawkfan340 said:
Haven't read the thread, and I'm on the Fire Ferentz bandwagon, but I don't have much problem with being process driven, rather than results driven in general. Lots of successful people/athletes have this MO.

That said, results need to be used to evaluate your processes, especially in a (mostly) non-random endeavor like football.
Click to expand...

Why work on perfecting a process if it isn't implied that the goal is to reduce mistakes which means fewer widgets rejected which leads to better earnings. That's corporate talk for winning. In football perfecting people and processes should be the means to which the end is WIN freaking football games. I can hire a six sigma expert to improve our processes for a helluva lot less than Kirk makes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Top