According to Twitter it's going to be a long year
- Thread starter QChawks
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The amusing thing is that that used to always be the case. Our D used to always be way ahead of the O at this time of the year. I think that it may still be a long year anyhow ... but I wouldn't have expected our O to have the upper hand on our D.
It wasn't a live full scrimmage. The running game can't be measured.
It is one practice and players have a long season ahead.
If Beathard can still walk by the conference opener, consider that a miracle
Hawk + I: that's probably the dumbest thing I've heard on this board and that says a lot. When it's OL vs DL, it's Man against Man, it doesn't matter what the play is, if you're getting your ass kick as an OL you're getting you're ass kicked, nothing else to it.
Yes the D is always ahead if the O this time of year but if a OT is constantly getting beat and harassed, there's no way to spin that as a positive. On pass plays it's man to man and a DE has about 4 options to use to try to get around a OT. The OT knows those 4 techniques and if he can't stop it, he can't stop it.
Yes the D is always ahead if the O this time of year but if a OT is constantly getting beat and harassed, there's no way to spin that as a positive. On pass plays it's man to man and a DE has about 4 options to use to try to get around a OT. The OT knows those 4 techniques and if he can't stop it, he can't stop it.
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I had to visit someone at the hospital this morning then walked over and watched the quote scrimmage. The oline looks 1998 bad. OTs are not good at this point and other then center the guards are adequate. Nothing on offense will scare anyone other then Smith. Ott looks all conference, lbs will be better but still lack that athletic burst. secondary will be fine but zero depth. The kicking game looked very average. This a team who could start Oct 4-0 or 1-3. I"l take 2-2 and run. Just so amazed at the lack of athletes across the board.
lack of athletes across the board= verbals with iowa offer and a bunch of mac offers.
The OL has two more weeks of full Doylization. This team will be awesome in November. It is the Ferentz way.
Wrong.
We have a new run game coordinator and great oline coaching.
The new formations, motion and routes were pro style, the Patriots are envious of our o scheme.
This is the year.
GDGD can't get out of town soon enough for me...
My season ticket buddy was at the full scrimmage went down with a hopeful outlook and came back dejected. He said it's possible this could be a 3-4 win team. He had hard time evaluating the defense because the offense was absolutely terrible.
Here's a summary of what he texted me and then called me afterwards about the offense.
1. First team O Line is small and weak - zero push up front on the D-Line and virtually no running lanes for the backs. On passing plays CJ snapped the ball a number of times and had 4 guys on him immediately. Cannot run the ball at all due to the starting o line was his biggest and most troubling take away so that means huge trouble.
2. Receivers got zero separation on routes all day. When CJ did throw it was often short because no one could get open deep and/or he had no time to wait.
3. Total lack of play makers in general on offense. He came away hoping to see a guy or two on offense to be excited about and found none. He said Wadley's cut back run for 7 yds might have been the best thing he saw. Combine this with an inability to run the ball and look out.
4. A positive is he said both QB's threw the ball ok; CJ when he actually could and Weigerts. He also thought Cook looked decent. Was not sure about Boyle. He said he had an odd hitch or something in his delivery. Also smallest of the QB's.
5. A quasi positive is he said the second team line was bigger overall and got some push on the D line albeit the second string D Line. He said The young Daniels looks the part on the OL. He also said some of the OL youngsters are not ready but look more the part. He noticed Waechter has a good frame just needs to add weight. He said the one Paulsen was the same way. The other twin was a little smaller.
His prediction was downgraded to possibly going 0-2 to start the year and maybe winning 3-4 games overall after what he saw. Unless the defense is truly fantastic or the find the 5 biggest nastiest o-lineman they have and put them in the starting 5. If they trot out what they showed its over. His comment was when Steve Ferentz is your #2 center you have major problems.
I also asked about the LB's and he said nothing really stood out about their play good or bad because the o-line was getting man handled at the point of attack by the D-line. They were not tested and not tested on the edge at all so that's a wait and see for him.
Here's a summary of what he texted me and then called me afterwards about the offense.
1. First team O Line is small and weak - zero push up front on the D-Line and virtually no running lanes for the backs. On passing plays CJ snapped the ball a number of times and had 4 guys on him immediately. Cannot run the ball at all due to the starting o line was his biggest and most troubling take away so that means huge trouble.
2. Receivers got zero separation on routes all day. When CJ did throw it was often short because no one could get open deep and/or he had no time to wait.
3. Total lack of play makers in general on offense. He came away hoping to see a guy or two on offense to be excited about and found none. He said Wadley's cut back run for 7 yds might have been the best thing he saw. Combine this with an inability to run the ball and look out.
4. A positive is he said both QB's threw the ball ok; CJ when he actually could and Weigerts. He also thought Cook looked decent. Was not sure about Boyle. He said he had an odd hitch or something in his delivery. Also smallest of the QB's.
5. A quasi positive is he said the second team line was bigger overall and got some push on the D line albeit the second string D Line. He said The young Daniels looks the part on the OL. He also said some of the OL youngsters are not ready but look more the part. He noticed Waechter has a good frame just needs to add weight. He said the one Paulsen was the same way. The other twin was a little smaller.
His prediction was downgraded to possibly going 0-2 to start the year and maybe winning 3-4 games overall after what he saw. Unless the defense is truly fantastic or the find the 5 biggest nastiest o-lineman they have and put them in the starting 5. If they trot out what they showed its over. His comment was when Steve Ferentz is your #2 center you have major problems.
I also asked about the LB's and he said nothing really stood out about their play good or bad because the o-line was getting man handled at the point of attack by the D-line. They were not tested and not tested on the edge at all so that's a wait and see for him.
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Solid recap. Sounds like what we've been watching for 4-5 years now.
We have no identify anymore. We used to be smash mouth football but now we are soft and easily pushed around.
4-8. The nightmare ends after this year.
Welcome to the mismatched coaching styles of a "finesse" coach like GD and a "power" based coach like KF. Lack of recruiting at the OT position mixed with a lack of playmakers needed to fit in GD's offense will lead to a not so stellar year. A year when the schedule is gift wrapped for them. It sucks that they can't capitalize on such a weak schedule. This has the makings of a 5-7 win season.. I know many will disagree. It's just my useless opinion...
So it's sounding like we're not ol university anymore. Our coaches didn't even recruit what we're known for, awesome.
All goes back to poor recruiting over the past several years. Limited talent and no depth. 5-7 may be optimistic. Ferentz has to go. I stand by my prediction of Illinois St 24, Iowa 14.
Surprised???? All of our tailbacks combined had two power 5 conference offers. We'd go .500 against Davenport Central's schedule.
I'm not trying to defend the turdfest that is the current Iowa offense, but D Mitchell had 5 power 5 conference offers alone... Daniels had 1, Joly, I think had 3,. Granted the ofers were prolly at other positions, but these guys are currently at tailback for the Hawks.
Our recruiting has been a joke for years. With our new recruiting coordinator, it has gotten worse. I may have to revise my original 5-7 prediction to 3-9.
I know. Pretty sad that this is all Iowa can throw out there. Recruiting has been pretty much a disaster the last few years. Not much at OT, barely anything at rb, Te recruiting has fallen off, etc...KF dicked up when he hired some of these new coaches. GD is useless on the trail, L Woods still hasn't accomplished much,if anything, etc...
I'm not going to pretend like I know how the year will play out, but after we went 4-8, the kids day practice the next year had these very same type of posts. Offense sucks, very underwhelming, we won't win 5 games this year. We ended up 8-4. I don't know how the season will play out, but I chuckle when I read posts from fans who watched 1 practice claim how things are going to play out this year. For the most part fans are pretty much idiots when it comes to football. In the words of Jim Mora, "You don't know what happened, you really don't know, you think you know, but you don't know and you never will."
There was too much chatter about fundamentals and technique and not enough emphasis on size and physicality to knock our opponent's off the ball. Remember all that bogus stuff about moving a car? Instead we need more guys in the mold of Scherff that have size and bring a mentality. Do not recruit any offensive lineman if they are not 6'4" or taller so you have a frame to add weight. In todays world how hard is that? I do not understand how we keep bringing in small guys and think they are going to move the line of scrimmage.
Then talk about mismanagent in recruiting. A year ago when Scherff said he was coming back at that very point you knew you were replacing him and Donnal(both tackles). Why did we not pound the JUCO ranks for a tackle or two given what you had behind them?
Then talk about mismanagent in recruiting. A year ago when Scherff said he was coming back at that very point you knew you were replacing him and Donnal(both tackles). Why did we not pound the JUCO ranks for a tackle or two given what you had behind them?
They didn't go hard after many Juco LB's in the same situation a couple of years ago... That is how guys like Jewell and Bower were forced to play when they obviously weren't in anyway prepared for what was in front of them...It is mindboggling. Why doesn't Iowa pursue 4 year transfers? The last player to start a game at Iowa that earned a scholarship after transferring from another 4 year university was Ol-David Walker? How many years ago was that? Limited use of Jucos, not accepting 4 year transfer combined with lackluster high school recruiting= what you have now. A program stuck in a mediocre, at best, status. At a place like Iowa, all avenues in recruiting, need to be utilized and pursued hard.
Click on the roster link at the top of the page and tell me how many Iowa O-linemen are under 6ft4. Godallmighty. Not many and the players who are like Blythe and Daniels are two of the best talents.
Defense will be salty but we will be out-schemed so it won't matter. Unless Phil implements more nickel packages, good coaches will take advantage of what we've always done. I still have nightmares seeing OSU's Anthony Gonzalez destroy us with linebackers trying to check him...
Look at Iowa's O back in 2003. Once Mo Brown went down ... it wasn't like we were swimming with playmakers. The 2015 Iowa squad will only go as far as the D can take it ... and that is still predicated upon continued development on the OL.
Frankly, folks are completely underselling Ott. Look at Ott's productivity last year ... and that was with him changing sides AND with him playing on a D where Carl Davis would take off plays in order to not get injured. Quite apart from what some seem to think ... Ott will be one of the better DEs in the entire B1G. He's a guy who got battle tested last year going against the best LT in the nation. Of course Boone Myers doesn't stand a chance. The question is whether he can learn from the experience!
Frankly, folks are completely underselling Ott. Look at Ott's productivity last year ... and that was with him changing sides AND with him playing on a D where Carl Davis would take off plays in order to not get injured. Quite apart from what some seem to think ... Ott will be one of the better DEs in the entire B1G. He's a guy who got battle tested last year going against the best LT in the nation. Of course Boone Myers doesn't stand a chance. The question is whether he can learn from the experience!
That team had J Lewis and F Russell at rb. Gallery at LT, Sanders at Safety and Kaeding at Kicker. Kaeding was a big weapon for the team that year. Notice the difference in that team vs this current team? That staff also included Carl Jackson.,Ron Aiken,Norm Parker, etc.. and didn't include GD. That is a huge difference between then and now.
Ott is a damn good player, but the offense is going to have to accomplish something if this team is going to get to 8+ wins. With this schedule,anything less than 8 wins has to be considered a major disapointment.
I'm sorry, but so far, the Ot's have been quite atrocious, no matter who they are lined up across from. They didn't have a clue on what to do when Parker called a corner blitz today. The Te's were even attempting to help them and they still were lost quite abit of the time. Ot recruiting has been a weakness and you are now witnessing the results of these failures. When you have walk ons backing up walk ons at one of OT positions- there is a problem that has not been addressed..
So offenses will either double team Ott or go the other way. Not enough Otts on the team.
Couldn't agree more on the worthless assistants. When KF said he needed to spend more time watching film, that could be interpreted to mean a lot of things. To me it smelled of incompetent assistants. Even though KF is the HC, I can't put it all at his feet. What has "fire in his belly" Brian done, how in the hell do we windup with three walk-on for OT? Same for Phil, three walk-on at LB? Even some who live here in Iowa thought Phil was Norms brother....and frankly even he was surprised when he got the promotion to DC. Reid, his assistant (who imo should be the DC) has been the lead recruiter for both the O and the D.....where's all the rest??
Doesn't matter much I guess as this is probably their last year here, but good luck to the new guy coming in with this roster.
You do realize that a number of the heights are inflated, especially when a guy is undrsized,
I'm not going to claim that Iowa will be "all right" at OT this year ... that would be unfair to the new OTs, because they still have A LOT to learn and A LOT to improve upon. I'm not going to heap undue expectation on those guys.
However, equally unfair to the OTs is to assume that they're not going to be particularly good simply because they weren't highly recruited (or were walk-ons). It wasn't that long ago when Tobin was Scherff's back-up at LT. When Scherff got injured ... Tobin took over at the spot and didn't do too badly. He's an example of a walk-on who developed into a NFL caliber player.
Thus, while Iowa definitely whiffed on some of their OT recruits over the last several years ... they weren't really recruiting the position with all that much urgency either. Why? Because they already knew about who they had on campus. Regardless of whether we had 4-star guys or no-star guys ... this year would be a "transition year" on the OL for the sole fact that we were replacing 2 talented, senior starters at OT.
I will hold fast to two primary premises here ... quite apart from what others would whine about. Firstly, Iowa would be hurting at OT this year ... even if we HADN'T whiffed on all those highly ranked OTs. Secondly, I have great confidence that Iowa's current OTs will develop into excellent talents as they first learn their craft ... and then gain the confidence to refine their craft. However, that will not happen overnight. After all, Ike and Boone are only just SOs. Back in '07, Calloway was a first year starter at RT and essentially was a human turnstile. The following year, he was A LOT better ... and he was even better after that!
Sometimes football fans forget that these guys are essentially just students ... and they have to learn their game before they can be dominant at it.
Tobin had good measurables but did make good on his opportunity.
Two things, KF does not have time to be 'dinking' around with on-the-job training. We need to win and win now to restore hope and energy in his program. If we open 2-2 or 1-3 in the non con and the line is abysmal it is over. The first two games matter and will dictate the season.
Second, how could KF have not seen this coming last year? You knew you were going to have to replace 2 OT's. We were struggling last year at the guards. Would it have not made sense to get Myers and Boettger into the playing rotation with Welsh and Walsh last year so they would come back at least with some experience instead of moving Blythe to guard and bringing in Gual who adds no value for this season? How about recruitung a JUCO tackle? It's just things like these that leave you shaking your head. Zero foresight or there is no sense of urgency to produce.
That hasn't been true for several years.
Until the Illinois State game, its pointless to assess. Defense is always ahead of offense at this point. I am not saying its all rainbows and unicorns, but nothing surprises me. We knew the young tackles would struggle at times. Its good experience for them playing against Ott in practice. They wont face many better guys during the season if any.
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