3-2-1: Getting offensive
The Brian Ferentz led offense has taken off in the last month.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport.com
@hawkeyereport
This week in 3-2-1, we discuss the potential decisions that a pair of third year players are going to have to make regarding their future, the growth of Brian Ferentz, the consistency of Phil Parker, and a dive into the Maryland rushing numbers.
BRIAN FERENTZ GROWS AS A COORDINATOR
Any time you start a new job there’s going to be an adjustment period. You have to learn the lay of the land and what the job actually entails. Even if it’s a promotion within the “company”, there are going to be growing pains.
Last year, Brian Ferentz had a few of those in his first year as an offensive coordinator. While he has probably called games in his head many times as an assistant coach and probably offered “suggestions” over the years, last year was the first time he actually made those calls.
As you would expect, there were some bumps in the road. A first year coordinator and a first year starter and true sophomore at quarterback resulted in some uneven offensive performances for the Iowa offense.
The 2018 season actually got off to kind a middle of the road start for the Iowa offense, but starting in the third game of the season, Brian Ferentz, along with quarterback Nate Stanley, have hit their stride.
We are at the halfway mark of the 2018 season, so it’s a good enough sample size to compare Iowa’s 2017 offense to the 2018 version
Iowa's Offense
The numbers make it pretty obvious, Iowa’s offense under Brian Ferentz has grown this season. The numbers that jump out at you are the average passing yards per game, total yards, and average yards per play. The last time Iowa averaged over 250 yards passing and 400 yards of total offense per game in a season was 2005. If you were wonder, Iowa has only averaged 400 yards of total offense twice in the Ferentz era (2005 and 2002).
DON’T IGNORE WHAT PHIL PARKER IS DOING
While much of the focus has been on the Iowa offense exploding the past few weeks, let’s not ignore the job that Phil Parker has done this year.
When Phil Parker took over as Iowa’s defensive coordinator 2012 after the legendary Norm Parker retired, some wondered if he could continue Iowa’s successful run on that side of the ball. Parker had never been a coordinator, but they haven’t missed a beat.
The 2018 season has presented an unusual amount of circumstances for Phil Parker. First, he came into the season having to replace three starting linebackers. Since then, he’s had to bench his initial starter, dealt with an injury to his replacement, their best linebacker missing the last couple of games due to injury, and both cornerbacks getting hurt and being replaced by a pair of true freshmen.
Yet, with all those obstacles, at the mid-point of the season, Parker’s defense is having their best overall season. From 2012-17, Parker’s defense gave up an average of 346.4 yards per game. This year that number is 282.0, which is 5th in all of D1 college football.
They are allowing 81.5 yards rushing per game, which is 3rd in the country. One of the key numbers every year for Iowa is limiting rushing yards to under 125 per game, so Iowa is doing very well this year. Iowa’s pass defense is allowing 200.5 yards per game, which is 37th in the nation. From a season perspective, anything under 200 would be considered excellent.
Parker also places a high level of importance on limiting explosive plays and this year, Iowa has been excellent in this area. The Hawkeyes have allowed one running play this season of 20 yards or more. In the passing game, they have allowed 11 completions of 20 yards or more. Of those passing plays, 6 of the 11 were 20-29 yards and only 2 of more than 40 yards.
MARYLAND’S IMPRESSIVE RUN GAME
Kirk Ferentz threw it out there on Tuesday afternoon and it certainly caught my attention. The Iowa head coach compared Maryland’s run game to the Georgia Tech team that the Hawkeyes faced in the 2010 Orange Bowl.
Of course, if you were around back then, your thoughts go back to the press conference a couple of days before the game to Norm Parker sitting behind a table on state at a press conference using bottles of orange juice and water, and coffee cups showing how the Yellow Jackets offense works and, as Norm would do trying to, in the simplest terms possible, showing how to stop it.
Norm’s plan worked, as it almost always did. Iowa held Georgia Tech to 143 yards rushing on 41 carries (3.5 yards per carry) and Iowa won the game. Of course, Norm had a month to prepare for the Yellow Jacket offense and Phil Parker only has a few days.
Maryland has put up some impressive numbers this year on the ground, but it’s also fair to say their success rate has been hit and miss. They ran over a bad Bowling Green team to the tune of 444 yards rushing. The pounded a Minnesota defense for 315 yards on the ground and last week they ran over Rutgers for 290 yards. Of those defenses only Minnesota’s is what I would call decent and the Gophers did limit Iowa to just 106 yards rushing.
However, when they have faced what I would call ‘better’ competition, the results have been pretty middle of the road. They beat Texas, but only rushed for 143 yards on 46 carries (3.1 per attempt). In their loss to Temple, the Terps ran for 132 yards on 31 attempts (4.2 yards per attempt), and against Michigan, they ran the ball 37 times for 147 yards (4 yards per attempt).
Will Stanley and Hockenson consider a jump to the NFL?
TWO QUESTIONS
WILL STANLEY AND HOCKENSON CONSIDER A JUMP TO THE NFL?
It’s a question Iowa fans don’t want to hear halfway into the 2018 season, but if the year continues to trend in the direction it is currently headed, this is going to become a big topic of conversation.
Now, there’s still a lot of football ahead this year and the season can continue the way it’s trending and there could be bumps in the road that make this discussion look silly. Having said that, I think it’s fair to say that both Nate Stanley and T.J. Hockenson have a future in the NFL. We already know that Noah Fant is on the radar of the NFL, with a few draft experts suggesting he could be a late first round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Stanley was already on the radar of NFL scouts heading into this season. When he started slowly out of the gate with two average performances against Northern Illinois and Iowa State. Since then, he’s been on fire.
In the last four games, Stanley has completed 61% of his passes (81-133) for 1,199 yards (299.75 yards per game), for 14 touchdowns (3.5 per game) and 4 interceptions. Coming into the season, most scouts wanted to see Stanley improve on his accuracy after completing 55.8% of his passes in 2017 and he’s done that. He’s also shown growth in his accuracy down the field, which was another area scouts were hoping to see.
As far as Hockenson, if Fant’s on their radar as an early round draft pick, then Iowa’s other tight end should be as well. He might not be perceived as the explosive athlete that Fant is, but Hockenson is certainly on the plus side in that area. Last year he emerged as a redshirt freshman to catch 24 passes for 320 yards and 3 touchdowns. This year at the halfway mark of the season, Hockenson is on pace 44 passes for 788 yards and 6 touchdowns. For comparisons sake, in 2002 when Dallas Clark won the John Mackey Award, he had 43 receptions for 742 yards and 4 touchdowns. Clark was a fourth year junior that year, turned pro, and was the 24th selection in the NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts.
Like I said, we are still at the halfway mark of the 2018 season and a lot can change, but I think we are going to see this NFL discussion start to pop up for both Stanley and Hockenson.
The Brian Ferentz led offense has taken off in the last month.
Tom Kakert • HawkeyeReport.com
@hawkeyereport
This week in 3-2-1, we discuss the potential decisions that a pair of third year players are going to have to make regarding their future, the growth of Brian Ferentz, the consistency of Phil Parker, and a dive into the Maryland rushing numbers.
BRIAN FERENTZ GROWS AS A COORDINATOR
Any time you start a new job there’s going to be an adjustment period. You have to learn the lay of the land and what the job actually entails. Even if it’s a promotion within the “company”, there are going to be growing pains.
Last year, Brian Ferentz had a few of those in his first year as an offensive coordinator. While he has probably called games in his head many times as an assistant coach and probably offered “suggestions” over the years, last year was the first time he actually made those calls.
As you would expect, there were some bumps in the road. A first year coordinator and a first year starter and true sophomore at quarterback resulted in some uneven offensive performances for the Iowa offense.
The 2018 season actually got off to kind a middle of the road start for the Iowa offense, but starting in the third game of the season, Brian Ferentz, along with quarterback Nate Stanley, have hit their stride.
We are at the halfway mark of the 2018 season, so it’s a good enough sample size to compare Iowa’s 2017 offense to the 2018 version
Iowa's Offense
The numbers make it pretty obvious, Iowa’s offense under Brian Ferentz has grown this season. The numbers that jump out at you are the average passing yards per game, total yards, and average yards per play. The last time Iowa averaged over 250 yards passing and 400 yards of total offense per game in a season was 2005. If you were wonder, Iowa has only averaged 400 yards of total offense twice in the Ferentz era (2005 and 2002).
DON’T IGNORE WHAT PHIL PARKER IS DOING
While much of the focus has been on the Iowa offense exploding the past few weeks, let’s not ignore the job that Phil Parker has done this year.
When Phil Parker took over as Iowa’s defensive coordinator 2012 after the legendary Norm Parker retired, some wondered if he could continue Iowa’s successful run on that side of the ball. Parker had never been a coordinator, but they haven’t missed a beat.
The 2018 season has presented an unusual amount of circumstances for Phil Parker. First, he came into the season having to replace three starting linebackers. Since then, he’s had to bench his initial starter, dealt with an injury to his replacement, their best linebacker missing the last couple of games due to injury, and both cornerbacks getting hurt and being replaced by a pair of true freshmen.
Yet, with all those obstacles, at the mid-point of the season, Parker’s defense is having their best overall season. From 2012-17, Parker’s defense gave up an average of 346.4 yards per game. This year that number is 282.0, which is 5th in all of D1 college football.
They are allowing 81.5 yards rushing per game, which is 3rd in the country. One of the key numbers every year for Iowa is limiting rushing yards to under 125 per game, so Iowa is doing very well this year. Iowa’s pass defense is allowing 200.5 yards per game, which is 37th in the nation. From a season perspective, anything under 200 would be considered excellent.
Parker also places a high level of importance on limiting explosive plays and this year, Iowa has been excellent in this area. The Hawkeyes have allowed one running play this season of 20 yards or more. In the passing game, they have allowed 11 completions of 20 yards or more. Of those passing plays, 6 of the 11 were 20-29 yards and only 2 of more than 40 yards.
MARYLAND’S IMPRESSIVE RUN GAME
Kirk Ferentz threw it out there on Tuesday afternoon and it certainly caught my attention. The Iowa head coach compared Maryland’s run game to the Georgia Tech team that the Hawkeyes faced in the 2010 Orange Bowl.
Of course, if you were around back then, your thoughts go back to the press conference a couple of days before the game to Norm Parker sitting behind a table on state at a press conference using bottles of orange juice and water, and coffee cups showing how the Yellow Jackets offense works and, as Norm would do trying to, in the simplest terms possible, showing how to stop it.
Norm’s plan worked, as it almost always did. Iowa held Georgia Tech to 143 yards rushing on 41 carries (3.5 yards per carry) and Iowa won the game. Of course, Norm had a month to prepare for the Yellow Jacket offense and Phil Parker only has a few days.
Maryland has put up some impressive numbers this year on the ground, but it’s also fair to say their success rate has been hit and miss. They ran over a bad Bowling Green team to the tune of 444 yards rushing. The pounded a Minnesota defense for 315 yards on the ground and last week they ran over Rutgers for 290 yards. Of those defenses only Minnesota’s is what I would call decent and the Gophers did limit Iowa to just 106 yards rushing.
However, when they have faced what I would call ‘better’ competition, the results have been pretty middle of the road. They beat Texas, but only rushed for 143 yards on 46 carries (3.1 per attempt). In their loss to Temple, the Terps ran for 132 yards on 31 attempts (4.2 yards per attempt), and against Michigan, they ran the ball 37 times for 147 yards (4 yards per attempt).
Will Stanley and Hockenson consider a jump to the NFL?
TWO QUESTIONS
WILL STANLEY AND HOCKENSON CONSIDER A JUMP TO THE NFL?
It’s a question Iowa fans don’t want to hear halfway into the 2018 season, but if the year continues to trend in the direction it is currently headed, this is going to become a big topic of conversation.
Now, there’s still a lot of football ahead this year and the season can continue the way it’s trending and there could be bumps in the road that make this discussion look silly. Having said that, I think it’s fair to say that both Nate Stanley and T.J. Hockenson have a future in the NFL. We already know that Noah Fant is on the radar of the NFL, with a few draft experts suggesting he could be a late first round pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.
Stanley was already on the radar of NFL scouts heading into this season. When he started slowly out of the gate with two average performances against Northern Illinois and Iowa State. Since then, he’s been on fire.
In the last four games, Stanley has completed 61% of his passes (81-133) for 1,199 yards (299.75 yards per game), for 14 touchdowns (3.5 per game) and 4 interceptions. Coming into the season, most scouts wanted to see Stanley improve on his accuracy after completing 55.8% of his passes in 2017 and he’s done that. He’s also shown growth in his accuracy down the field, which was another area scouts were hoping to see.
As far as Hockenson, if Fant’s on their radar as an early round draft pick, then Iowa’s other tight end should be as well. He might not be perceived as the explosive athlete that Fant is, but Hockenson is certainly on the plus side in that area. Last year he emerged as a redshirt freshman to catch 24 passes for 320 yards and 3 touchdowns. This year at the halfway mark of the season, Hockenson is on pace 44 passes for 788 yards and 6 touchdowns. For comparisons sake, in 2002 when Dallas Clark won the John Mackey Award, he had 43 receptions for 742 yards and 4 touchdowns. Clark was a fourth year junior that year, turned pro, and was the 24th selection in the NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts.
Like I said, we are still at the halfway mark of the 2018 season and a lot can change, but I think we are going to see this NFL discussion start to pop up for both Stanley and Hockenson.
