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Cooper DeJean as a mild-mannered U. of Iowa student or as a Football SuperStar

Jeezus, let him play quarterback at Iowa. Kinda serious.
DeJean is one of those gifted once-in-a-generation natural multi-sport athletes, a rare combination of speed, agility, power, and instinct who can excel at just about any sport. I'm really looking forward to watching him play for the Hawks this season; I think he finds a spot somewhere in the secondary. He has all the tools to be All-B10.
 
DeJean is one of those gifted once-in-a-generation natural multi-sport athletes, a rare combination of speed, agility, power, and instinct who can excel at just about any sport. I'm really looking forward to watching him play for the Hawks this season; I think he finds a spot somewhere in the secondary. He has all the tools to be All-B10.
This was said about another Iowa kid back in the early Hayden Fry days - Lon Olejniczak. Went down with a leg injury early on and never was able to come back. He probably would have been able to today with the same injury - things have improved exponentially medically since then.
 
He's a very rare and gifted athlete and apparently also a very hard worker and is serious about achieving continual improvement. I've also heard he's a very nice young man, no surprise there.

Lonny O. was another good one, he was a Swiss Army knife kind of guy in football, could do a lot of different things very well and it is a shame he was never the same after the leg break. Very good basketball player as well. I'm not sure if he ran track or not in HS, but I know he never won any individual events at the state meet. Great guy as well. He was a couple of years older than me and I ran around at Iowa with a boatload of people from Decorah, so I ran into him quite a bit over the first few years in Iowa City.
 
Jeezus, let him play quarterback at Iowa. Kinda serious.

I think he would make a great Wildcat. He can throw and run. That would require some outside the box thinking that might not appeal to the buttoned-down Iowa football offices. I think it would be a master stroke that would also bring a ton of attention if it worked.
 
I think he would make a great Wildcat. He can throw and run. That would require some outside the box thinking that might not appeal to the buttoned-down Iowa football offices. I think it would be a master stroke that would also bring a ton of attention if it worked.

Iowa used the wildcat during the covid year. Last year it would've been dumb to use it with our ol.
 
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This was said about another Iowa kid back in the early Hayden Fry days - Lon Olejniczak. Went down with a leg injury early on and never was able to come back. He probably would have been able to today with the same injury - things have improved exponentially medically since then.
Olejniczak, from Decorah, was not nearly the QB or athlete as is Cooper. Not even close enough to be in the same conversation.

IMO, not taking a close look at Cooper at QB is an epic mistake. Not only because of his attributes, but also because we can find and develop DBs, but QBs, not so much.

It's those kind of decisions, throughout the offense, that have contributed to our pattern of offensive ineptness over the years.
 
Olejniczak, from Decorah, was not nearly the QB or athlete as is Cooper. Not even close enough to be in the same conversation.

IMO, not taking a close look at Cooper at QB is an epic mistake. Not only because of his attributes, but also because we can find and develop DBs, but QBs, not so much.

It's those kind of decisions, throughout the offense, that have contributed to our pattern of offensive ineptness over the years.
I fear you might be right. IIRC, Hayden Fry publicly admitted that he regretted not better utilizing Tim Dwight’s once-in-a-generation talent. I’m not saying Cooper is at Tim Dwight’s level, but there’s no doubt he has the athleticism and ability to be a playmaker.

Maybe they will consider at some point throwing him into the offense. Whether to do some sort of RPO plays or whatever, I would hope they’d try to get creative. The offense needs a lot of new energy and imagination injected into it.
 
I fear you might be right. IIRC, Hayden Fry publicly admitted that he regretted not better utilizing Tim Dwight’s once-in-a-generation talent. I’m not saying Cooper is at Tim Dwight’s level, but there’s no doubt he has the athleticism and ability to be a playmaker.

Maybe they will consider at some point throwing him into the offense. Whether to do some sort of RPO plays or whatever, I would hope they’d try to get creative. The offense needs a lot of new energy and imagination injected into it.
The use of Dwight was criminal. That was at the end of Hayden's time when the offense was stagnant and out-of-date.

They used Dwight on offense as a traditional wide receiver and basically would only throw deep routes to him and otherwise would just run him on wide-receiver reverses that became comically easy to see in advance and were usually blown up.

If only Bill Snyder had still been at Iowa during the Dwight years, I'm sure he would have used him effectively. You wanted to get Dwight in space, it's just crazy that I don't think they ran a single screen pass to Dwight his entire career at Iowa. Criminal misuse of a generational talent.
 
Olejniczak, from Decorah, was not nearly the QB or athlete as is Cooper. Not even close enough to be in the same conversation.

IMO, not taking a close look at Cooper at QB is an epic mistake. Not only because of his attributes, but also because we can find and develop DBs, but QBs, not so much.

It's those kind of decisions, throughout the offense, that have contributed to our pattern of offensive ineptness over the years.
If Cooper wanted to play QB, he would have gone elsewhere.
 
If Cooper wanted to play QB, he would have gone elsewhere.
Yeah, that's the thing. I'm sure Phil Parker sold Cooper on his fit with Iowa's scheme and past success. Frankly, that's an attractive pitch. Still, it is tempting to imagine his skill and athleticism at work with the ball on his hands.
 
It was on the sainted John Hayden Fry and not the OC. When Hayden retired Don Patterson (I think that's the name) moved into I think Southern Illinois and threw the ball like 45 times a game.
 
I fear you might be right. IIRC, Hayden Fry publicly admitted that he regretted not better utilizing Tim Dwight’s once-in-a-generation talent. I’m not saying Cooper is at Tim Dwight’s level, but there’s no doubt he has the athleticism and ability to be a playmaker.

Maybe they will consider at some point throwing him into the offense. Whether to do some sort of RPO plays or whatever, I would hope they’d try to get creative. The offense needs a lot of new energy and imagination injected into it.
You do realize the run part of RPO isn't about the QB running, right?
 
Just playing at Iowa was what was important to Cooper. It was then up to Iowa
to utilize him in the most optimum way, IMO, they have failed.
Okay, this is one of the most confusing posts I've read on here in years, (and thats REALLY saying something). So the kid played as a true freshman and made significant gains in playing time toward the end of the season. He's one of the most talked about players in this off season going into just his soph year. And yet "it was THEN up to Iowa to utilize him", "and they have failed"? Really? First off, none of us know what they'll do with the young man the next THREE years, defense, offense, special teams, so its pretty premature to be putting some black mark on the staff. Second, even if he only played defense and became an AA and say was another, in a line of Thorpe award winners for Iowa, it would hardly be a waste of his talent.
 
You do realize the run part of RPO isn't about the QB running, right?
Yes. He either hands it off to the running back or throws. But many quarterbacks also keep it themselves. There are many options depending on what the defense gives you. My point was it would be an upgrade from the Wildcat, since Ferentz apparently likes adding new wrinkles now (albeit a decade and a half from when it was en vogue).

Also, it was a compliment to Cooper in terms of his passing abilities, as many of his throws looked pretty good.
 
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Agreed. It amazes me how often posters throw around terms that have little if anything to do with what they are talking about.
From you, el oh el. Oh, the irony.

And it’s amazing the usual band of mental midgets assume what they assume, as if they are the font of football acumen.

Carry on.
 
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Why wouldn't an RPO package of 3 or 4 plays or options built around Cooper. That surely wouldn't prove a disruptive distraction on defense.

Line up with a QB and Cooper at WR. Motion Cooper to QB, QB to HB and get the HB into a good blocking position. Cooper takes the snap, hands it back to the QB and hopefully he connects with the receiver that has to be open. That'd be a hell of a trick play, especially if Cooper had seen a play or two at WR or maybe as a wildcat or lined up in a pistol.

That is the kind of fun shit that the kids would enjoy and if it worked would bring Cooper and Iowa a lot of positive publicity. It just couldn't be that hard for good players to learn a 4-5 play package, although not professing to be the font of football knowledge, for the record.
 
This was said about another Iowa kid back in the early Hayden Fry days - Lon Olejniczak. Went down with a leg injury early on and never was able to come back. He probably would have been able to today with the same injury - things have improved exponentially medically since then.
Lon was from Decorah and recruited (according to the media) as a QB in Hayden's first class in 1979. Coaches Fry and Snyder had other plans for him, and he became a big WR. Versatile, talented, a good blocker who had very good hands.

Broke his leg in the 1981 UCLA game and never recovered to 100%. Spent the rest of his career as a talented backup tight end, but the injury must have been pretty bad.

If DeJean is as good as Olejniczak ()without the injury) Iowa fans should be very grateful.
 
Lon was from Decorah and recruited (according to the media) as a QB in Hayden's first class in 1979. Coaches Fry and Snyder had other plans for him, and he became a big WR. Versatile, talented, a good blocker who had very good hands.

Broke his leg in the 1981 UCLA game and never recovered to 100%. Spent the rest of his career as a talented backup tight end, but the injury must have been pretty bad.

If DeJean is as good as Olejniczak ()without the injury) Iowa fans should be very grateful.
Lon had permanent nerve damage as a result of the injury. That hampered his career more than anything.
 
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It was on the sainted John Hayden Fry and not the OC. When Hayden retired Don Patterson (I think that's the name) moved into I think Southern Illinois and threw the ball like 45 times a game.
Western Illinois as HC, then Buffalo and UConn. He works as a consultant for a lot of D1 teams, even now in his true retirement days. He also regularly appears on the Hawk Fanatic podcast/YouTube KCJJ livestream every Monday morning during the season after Iowa games to give his breakdown of the last game and the upcoming matchup for Iowa. He's a gem, entertaining and highly knowledgeable.
 
Lon had permanent nerve damage as a result of the injury. That hampered his career more than anything.
I didn't know about the permanent nerve damage BBHawk.

I do remember being close to the field for one of Hayden's latter spring games. Lon was a volunteer ref. A penalty (PI?) happened right in front of him and Lon didn't call it. A guy sitting near me hollered "Nice call Olejniczak!!" Lon looked up toward the stands and grinned.

I suspect Hayden had rules for officials at spring games.

Edit: Don Patterson was head coach at Western Illinois, which I have since learned has a reputation as a party school.
 
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Western Illinois as HC, then Buffalo and UConn. He works as a consultant for a lot of D1 teams, even now in his true retirement days. He also regularly appears on the Hawk Fanatic podcast/YouTube KCJJ livestream every Monday morning during the season after Iowa games to give his breakdown of the last game and the upcoming matchup for Iowa. He's a gem, entertaining and highly knowledgeable.
Oblivious, if I recall correctly Coach Patterson is also a West Point graduate. That would suggest he is pretty intelligent- more so than many or all of us.
 
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