havent had a Willieshavent thread in a while so thought I'd leave this here. http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...derrick-willies-video-box-jump-twitter-032716
Derrick Willies
- Thread starter Cy'sBigBrother
- Start date
Freakishly good athlete, with good hands, size, speed, agility... these aren't the attributes Iowa looks for in a WR... We prefer small, white deceptively quick intelligent players who like to run block.
Sand in your vagina?
Another Iowa fan that loves every player except the ones that play for Iowa.
Kid quit on his team midway rough freshman season. Even if he thought he wasn't getting enough playing time still had 3.5 years to go. KF said he could rejoin if he did things laid out in front of him which only he and KF really knows what that entailed and he decided not to come back. Yet some people here still blame KF for him leaving. How hard is it to understand he quit and worst part was he did it during the season.
A sad example of the year Ferentz played some high school caliber "blocking" WRs over Willies and Rudock over Bethard. We are so lucky Bethard doesn't hold a grudge like Willies does. Those two could have been a great combo if the staff played the best players rather than favorites.
If a $4 millon coach's job is to be a teacher, perhaps a fraction of that salary should go toward relating to young men, treating them with respect, and understanding where they are coming from. If a potential super star freshmen comes to a coach with gripes about playing time, it is on the coach who convinced him to attend the U of Iowa to lay out a road map of exactly what that kid needs to do to accomplish his goals. Willies was essentially told to "wait his turn" while less talented older guys ate up 1/4 of his college eligibility without any justification. That is the WRONG way for any coach/boss/CEO to handle the situation and it bit us in the butt.
If a $4 millon coach's job is to be a teacher, perhaps a fraction of that salary should go toward relating to young men, treating them with respect, and understanding where they are coming from. If a potential super star freshmen comes to a coach with gripes about playing time, it is on the coach who convinced him to attend the U of Iowa to lay out a road map of exactly what that kid needs to do to accomplish his goals. Willies was essentially told to "wait his turn" while less talented older guys ate up 1/4 of his college eligibility without any justification. That is the WRONG way for any coach/boss/CEO to handle the situation and it bit us in the butt.
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You, my friend, are an idiot! You know very little about what makes a great team culture and why this has propelled Iowa, under KF, to 5 Top 10 finishes.
5 top 10 finishes are great... but some of us idiots want to dream just a little bit higher. Us idiots understand that for Iowa to compete with and beat teams like Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan State, LSU, and Stanford you need difference making athletes. Iowa quite possibly had one on campus and old Kirk let him walk.
No, the kid decided to walk out on his teammates himself. KF gave him options and he didn't want to play along. Iowa doesn't need those types of players on their team no matter good they are. Teams aren't teams with those type of players as they all need to at least respect one another.
Wrong. He quit. Right in the middle of his freshman season,
Ferentz gave him a chance to return. He refused.
Those are the facts.
Your kinds key words - "we want...we dream...". The only other key words you left out are "we deserve..." - then you would the dillusional fan's trifecta.
Do we have to keep hearing about this kid? He's a quitter and a troublemaker.
KF gets paid $4 million a year to make the right decisions. He wants to win (just to shut up a few internet fans
), no he wants to win because he is a competitor. He has to make the tough decisions that he feels is best for the team. We all know we need more talent at WR position. Tired of reading about it. But at the end of the day, KF did what he thought was best for the team, and if he had failed last year, it probably would have been his last year. Fortunately for some/unfortunately for others on this board, his decision "probably" was the right decision.
), no he wants to win because he is a competitor. He has to make the tough decisions that he feels is best for the team. We all know we need more talent at WR position. Tired of reading about it. But at the end of the day, KF did what he thought was best for the team, and if he had failed last year, it probably would have been his last year. Fortunately for some/unfortunately for others on this board, his decision "probably" was the right decision.
To me it says a lot about Willies that CJ spoke about him leaving and didn't want him to go. The same CJ that everyone on here can't say enough good things about his leadership and character. Iowa is lucky that CJ didn't leave too, maybe his Dad going to the press was a good thing?
Willies is obviously and has a lot of potential. CJ isn't stupid and could see that. The fact remains that the kid quit on his team mid-season, attempted to come back, and quit again. I can't think of a situation at any level where a player can quit on his teammates and be allowed to come back without doing a little extra work.
I am just trying to remember the situation accurately, but didn't his father (or father-figure uncle, something like that) have cancer and lived in the southwest? Derrick wanted to be closer to him which is understandable, but then after he left it seemed like the official reason for leaving was more playing time related?
Bottom line for me - you win with hard work, and it sure helps if those hard workers are talented too. When a great talent comes into the program, you have to find a way to give them playing time or else they rot on the bench and could become resentful. Part of the job of a head coach is to manage all of his players' expectations and egos, and I think KF does some of that, but could improve at it. This isn't a slam on him as a coach - he's great at recognizing talent and he's clearly great at building a hard-working, disciplined program. He teaches players how to do it right, and through repetition and hard work, these players / units of players can be great. All the same, sometimes a talented young man can step on campus and just "do it", and Iowa seems hesitant to let that happen.
This is a good example why I never feared KF would leave for the NFL. You have a very talented player that could be a star that happens to be a bit of a crybaby and you have a coach that has a very thin line for those types of players. In the NFL you have 20-30 of those types of players on a team and a handful of those guys ownership would let get away with murder.
Willies is the type of player that has the talent to keep you in almost any game more so when you have a QB like Beathard. I'm not angry with KF and can see and support the why he let Willies go. I wish however this was one time he found a way to keep a talent like Willies, much like other top coaches in college football.
Willies is the type of player that has the talent to keep you in almost any game more so when you have a QB like Beathard. I'm not angry with KF and can see and support the why he let Willies go. I wish however this was one time he found a way to keep a talent like Willies, much like other top coaches in college football.
So basically you are saying you need to bend the rules and expectations,adjust the morals and values that KF find import.....I am sorry but no. I am just fine without the DJK's and Willies of the world, would rather see Iowa with players that share the Iowa value system of hard work > talent like the Daniels brothers, drew ott, etc than to have a freak athlete like Willies but a cancer on the team. You see we don't win 12 games last year with drama from frosh pre madonnas who feel they are entitled to play as opposed to earning.....stop being a pussy and block somebody then you can play
I think that was the story, or excuse, that originally came out. I don't know the validity of it.
I can buy the 'When a great talent comes into the program, you have to find a way to give them playing time or else they rot on the bench and could become resentful' sentiment if the kid had been on campus for more than a couple months. The thing is that he is one of the few true frosh at any position that did get playing time.
Maybe it's me getting older and different priorities in life ... but I see Willies and all I see is a former player ... He's not on our roster ... So he's not part of our team ... So good luck to him in whatever path he chooses in life ... I'm more interested in the guys who ARE wearing the black and gold ...
I think you are overstating his talent. There are only so many receivers that can keep you in a game because of their talent. And Derek Willies isn't one of them.
Beat me to it. Willies had played in 5 of the 7 games he was eligible........ but somehow he was entitled to play ahead of one of Iowa's all-time leading receiver (KMM) and other more experienced upper classmen WRs (Tevuan Smith, Damond Powell). Fact of the matter is he was getting playing time. Fellow freshman WR Derrick Mitchell (a much more accomplished recruit) received zero playing time - he didn't quit the team. Same goes for freshman WRs Jonathan Parker and Andre Harris.
No player is handed a starting position based on talent alone. I don't care how talented you are, you will not get major playing time if you run sloppy routes or fail to execute blocking assignments.
Willies was a prima donna who demanded additional playing time before he earned it. Instead of fighting harder to prove his worth he committed the ultimate mistake - he quit on his teammates in the middle of the battle.
Surprisingly (to me) Ferentz gave him an opening to rejoin the team. He rejected the offer...... thereby reinforcing the point that he was unwilling to undertake the work necessary to be a team player. For his sake, I hope he doesn't pull the same crap at TT because he is running out of eligibility.
2 types of talent - physical talent n mental talent - Willies only had one of these! Canzari had both, Ott has both - this is what makes great team cultures!
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anon_i8nzeu2gbf0ba
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Some might wonder if Willies was such a prima donna, such a head case, such a weak character kid, how he managed to fool KF and the rest of the Iowa staff into giving him a scholarship in the first place. Maybe Willies is not only a great athlete but a great actor.
Being I being Iowa was 1 of a few offers at P5 level, especially early on, maybe one should commend staff for identifying a talent such as Willies. His talent is not in question, maybe KF and staff thought the Iowa culture could help him. Heck maybe it could have or maybe this incident opened his eyes and he matured because of it. All I know is you do not expand nor change expectations bc a player is talented if you want a winning culture
True character is often times revealed during challenging times. Sometimes this isn't as easy to identify when things are going a players way in high school. Maybe the staff took a chance in hopes they could mold him? Don't know - what we do know is that he quit on the team twice! He is at TT and hopefully matures and has a wonderful career and life!
You are right the last thing we need is another DJK type who is going to break receiving records. DJK screwed up in the end but he was part of the program four years.
Milehigh just curious if CJ falls into the pre madonna definition for you since his Dad went to the press and talked about him transferring? I love CJ and thought he should have been the starter anyway, but this definitely caused some of the drama that you don't like and could have ended being a cancer on the team.
Could be as soon as today or tomorrow. Or it could be after a season or two of really productive football leading to a career in the NFL. One never knows about these things.
I thought I heard the Iowa staff continued to pursue Willies after he left Iowa. Does anyone know if that's true ?
Those two scenarios are apples and oranges my friend. For one completely different positions in which only 1 QB plays at a time, that means if CJB didn't play he would only have one year on the field. He put his time in worked his butt off and if he decided to transfer (after the season I might add) I would completely understand, much like i understand JR transferring. Willies was a redshirt Freshman WR who was part of the rotation, so if you want more playing time perform better and earn it, it is as simple as that. Instead he packs up his bags and leaves in the middle of the season=pre Madonna by definition. Its not like he gained anything by it, he still lost a year of eligibility for it....things were so bad that he had to leave in the middle of the season and bail on his teammates? Really we now support and condone that today?!?! Now if he decided after the season to transfer, so be it and I can understand that. But to do what he did, when he did, and how he did is just not something I personally can not condone. But if our society has come to place that because a kid uber talented that we should just bow down to his wishes, than my friend we are in some serious trouble
Wonder why the Iowa staff was going to allow such a pre Madonna back on the team ? Willies decided he wanted a fresh start. Looks like a lot of teams were willing to give it to him. He would be the best WR on Iowa's roster and it's not even close. Iowa will be fine and so will Willies I moved on a long time ago.
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He is a frustrated 18 year old kid that may or may not have made a bad decision. As far as the apple and oranges CJ had received playing time too if I remember right. Just for the record you are ok with a players Dad lobbying the press for more playing time? Yes I am playing devil's advocate, but you are so over the top sometimes. And by the way it is prima donna according to Webster's.
Can we all acknowledge that there is nothing new to be said about Willies? I think everyone has already made up their minds as to whether it was his fault or Coach Ferentz' fault. The only thing that will change from here on out is whether Willies' performance on the field at TTU makes him more or less forgettable.
