There's a lot of talk about how nepotism played no role in Brian's unprecedented meteoric coaching rise at Iowa. It is said that his "superior coaching" or his "great recruiting" is why he leap-frogged all other qualified OC candidates. Shills like Jon Miller are spouting such nonsense, and I'm hoping it is just because they profit from toting the company line.
Now that the dust is starting to settle from our coaching shakeup, what must guys like Reese Morgan be thinking? Morgan has been climbing the coaching ranks since the 1980s, led them to class 4A state championships in 1995, 1998, and 1999 as their head coach/OC.
Morgan came to Iowa when his HS team was on a 3 year winning streak, and became one of the most respected OL coaches in the Big 10. Under Morgan, our OL that was known as the "bullies of the Big 10." He coached two Outland Trophy winning left tackles, plus All Americans Bulaga and Yanda. He even coached Brian Ferentz up to becoming a solid contributor at Iowa.
How was Morgan rewarded his contributions as a top OL coach? Was he ever promoted to "run game coordinator?" Never. Was he considered for OC when O'Keefe left? Nah. Instead, our 17 year veteran coach was demoted to DL coach almost 5 yrs ago. Why? Because 28 year old Brian wanted to come home and his dad had to find a job for him.
Has Brian been on the same level OL coach as Morgan? Well, in his first year, 2012, the OL was an absolute disaster. The Hawks went 4-8 and Brian learned how to coach OL on the job. Yet just two years later, Kirk rewarded him with a huge pay raise and promotion to "run game coordinator." Even the Iowa media questioned the promotion (we have never had such a position before and our OL wasn't all that good.) Kirk said it was merely a "ceremonial" title that didn't change anything, as we still had a good RB coach who would coach the running backs and an OC who called the plays.
Over Brian's 4+ years as OL coach at Iowa, we have had decent run blocking and one of the worst pass blocking OLs in the Big Ten. Unlike when Morgan was OL coach, we are no longer churning out 1st round draft picks in the NFL, our OL recruiting has been way down, and our zone blocking scheme is no longer a thing of envy.
Some justify Brian's promotion because we had a "great" running game this year. I would contend that having the Big 10s 8th ranked rushing offense would not merit promoting the RB coach (let alone the OL coach), and the fantastic play of Wadley should be more attributed to the coach who actually coached him, not Brian? Esp considering many of Wadley's (and LeShun's) runs had nothing to do with the OL and everything to do with his God given abilities. It's a nice story that our OL had a lot of injuries and played with good teamwork and sportsmanship, but they weren't very good at blocking.
Our highest performing units (special teams and RBs) just saw their coach fired. One of our lowest performing units (the OL, which was the preseason #1 OL in the nation staring two of our highest rated recruits) just saw their coach promoted. Then there's Reese Morgan, who coached up the DL, but received no pay bump or promotion of any kind during this shakeup.
Since coaching success does not seem to have anything to do with promotions, demotions, and firings (and personnel decisions, but that's another topic) at Iowa, the only other explanation for Brian's promotion must be that Brian is the best recruiter on the staff and therefore invaluable in that regard? After all, I have read several threads touting what a huge recruiting bump our 53rd ranked class will get with Brian as OC. In my opinion, promoting an existing staff member on a poor recruiting staff would seem to be a horrible way to improve recruiting compared with the bump we would get bringing in a hot shot OC who can recruit.
In any event, let's see if we can confirm that recruiting is Brian's strength, and a justification for his promotions/the firing/demoting of other coaches . Here are all of the commits received by the named coaches since Kennedy and White arrived in 2013:
Commits Obtained '14
Morgan - Reynolds, Hesse, Nelson, Render, LeGrand, Scheel
Ferentz - none
Kennedy/White - Taylor, Kidd, Joly, Jackson, Harris, Ellis, Outsey, Hilliard, Truitt
Commits Obtained '15
Morgan - Wilson, Jansen, Nelson, Waechter, Reiff, Boyle, Paulson, Paulson, Cook, Newborg
Ferentz - Daniels, Vejvoda, Hockaday,
Kennedy/White - Garbutt, Smith, Falconer, Ogwo, Jinning
Commits Obtained '16
Morgan - Beyer, Fant, Schulte, Hockinson, Banwart, Williams,
Ferentz - Rugamba, McNight, Jones, Niemann, Wade
Kennedy/White - Simon, Young, Taylor
In short, anyone who thinks our poor recruiting will suddenly get better because Brian got a raise, give it some thought. Brian has not yet proven to be an above average recruiter. His credibility with out-of-state kids is diminished by being a small town Iowa rich kid who works for his dad and had just a cup of coffee on an NFL practice squad. Next, since recruiting isn't his strong suit, anyone who thinks Brian is more qualified to improve our passing game and coach up our QBs than any other potential OC candidate, I would love to hear why you think that way. Finally, why didn't Morgan get a shot? He's a recruiting machine and has called more plays in his career than Kirk Ferentz himself.
