First off, I want to give some praise to Kirk:
- I recognize that coaching can be a thankless job at times because it is a lot easier to criticize coaching decisions than it is to recognize all the good things a coach does to prepare a team day-to-day. Kirk has done an incredible job, especially since the summer of 2020, at keeping everyone on the team engaged and bought in even though there's been a lot of frustration. They've dealt with a pandemic, racial bias investigation, offensive struggles that have made Iowa a media spectacle, a gambling investigation, and numerous injuries. You see how easy it is for coaches to lose the locker room and have the players effectively quit once things get hard.
- We already saw Miami blow a game this year where they could have just taken a knee. Instead they tried to run the ball, fumbled, and gave up a game winning touchdown. Mario Cristobal must be a huge idiot, right??? Well, yes that was dumb. But..
- In the very same weekend, Alabama got a first down with less than 2 minutes left, a 6 point lead, and their opponent (Texas A&M) was out of timeouts. Alabama could have taken a knee and ran out the clock. But they pass the ball on first down and throw an incompletion! Luckily for them, they could still run the clock out by running the ball on 2nd and 3rd down, winding the clock down to 7 seconds for 4th down. They then had their QB roll out of the pocket, launch a deep pass into the sidelines to run out the clock. This is Nick Saban we're talking about. Probably the best college football coach of all time. This was every bit as dumb as Cristobal's decision, but nobody noticed because it didn't end up hurting Alabama.
- Fast forward to Iowa vs. Illinois last Saturday. Kaleb Johnson ran for first down with 2:50 to play and Illinois was out of time outs.
- With 4 fresh downs, a running clock, and an opponent that is out of timeouts, you can run a bare minimum of 2:40 (i.e., 160 seconds) off the clock. You can kneel the ball 3 times, and each time take about 4-5 seconds before taking a knee and having the 40-second play clock start again. On 4th down, you can have your QB roll out and throw a deep pass out of bounds and run off at least 7 seconds. Add all this up, and anytime you have a first down with a running clock and an opponent out of timeouts, you should always be taking a knee with anything less than 3:00 minutes left.
- Yet Iowa ran the ball two times before taking a knee on third down. Not incredibly risky, but this is exactly what everyone blasted Mario Cristobal for. You're risking a fumble and giving your opponent a chance to score again, when it is completely unnecessary to do so.