How HUGE were the new hires made by KF last offseason?

[Franisdaman]

I will start off with 3 off season hires KF made. I think they were pretty significant.

Our WR's are getting open.

Our OL, with 2 freshmen tackles, is gelling.

I think the KOK hire was HUGE where he is tutoring Nate and Brian Ferentz.

We are in Year 19 of the KF era and it appears there is momentum for this year and the next couple years to come (at the least).

Thoughts?

 

[the24fan]

win me a bowl game first then we can talk about momentum. Jury's out on the new hires. One year not really enough to go on at this point. I would say cautious optimism might be the term most of us fans would use....

 

[bigfridaynite]

I will start off with 3 off season hires KF made. I think they were pretty significant.

Our WR's are getting open.

Our OL, with 2 freshmen tackles, is gelling.

I think the KOK hire was HUGE where he is tutoring Nate and Brian Ferentz.

We are in Year 19 of the KF era and it appears there is momentum for this year and the next couple years to come (at the least).

Thoughts?

I was thinking about this last night I'm guessing KOK spending 5 years with the Dolphins he should know how to attack a 3-4 D

 

[NorthDSMHawk]

I remember quite a few posters saying Kennedy was a step up from Soup and to give GDGD some time to revamp the offense because it was going to be a thing of beauty, NC at Texas, the whole 9 yards.

Best to wait a few years and see how they do. They looked great last week. Much less spectacular during the NW and Minnesota games.

But so far, I like the hires.

***Edit*** I should mention I do love the KOK (re)hire.

 

[hawx]

If we either:
A) Win out
B) Play Wisconsin tough (and lose) and then handle Purdue/Nebraska easily

Then I will be optimistic that we are on the way up. This team is coming off a signature win and I'm excited too but we also have looked like garbage against bad teams for a decent part of the year. Need to see some consistency.

 

[SotaHawk87]

New WR coach has been awesome!!

 

[bojihawk44]

I think we were truly find out next year how big the hires were after they've had time to be with the players and other coaches. It's looking good so far, but the big impact will be seen next fall in my opinion.

 

[icwesthawk]

I would say the oline coach has struggled a little bit. Like the hire but I agree give it some time before evaluating to much.

 

[Hawkeye_311]

OL coach seems to be on the job training for future payoff down the road.

 

[bojihawk44]

I would say the oline coach has struggled a little bit. Like the hire but I agree give it some time before evaluating to much.

In all fairness, we have a complicated blocking scheme with lots of intricacies. If I remember correctly, he hadn't coached the o-line before coming here so he's surely had to do an absurd amount of learning already and probably has a ways to go. I think that has to be expected a little bit.

 

[elipse]

The Hawks have won 1 game we weren't supposed to. The week before - everyone had pretty much given up on the season. Lets see how this ends up...

 

[myteamcanbeatupyourteam]

Ohio State game aside, I am NOT impressed with the O-line coach.

 

[HawkLogic]

I think recruiting has improved---we are going after more speed/quick athletic types. The proof is at OT--- Alaric Jackson and Wirfs could end up being the best set of OT's in KF era. Fant and Hockensen will be best TE pair ever---after you consider the offense is being changed to make use of their talent.

If OL coach hire had little experience coaching OL, then seems more likely his lack of experience slowed the OL development this year.

 

[Mohawkeye]

What year DOESN'T it take our OL several games to "gel". Seems like a yearly issue. I'd say if the trend continues then the OL coach has done his job, especially considering injuries. WRs have definitely been much improved, some of that is personnel. OC has not been as dramatic as I'd hoped, there was a lot of reversion, but I think overall you'd have to say BF has brought more unpredictability and has used our personnel better. Davis was just plain awful.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

OL is the position group with arguably the most "moving pieces." I wouldn't judge Polasek for good or bad based on this season. When Morgan took over the OL in '03, he had to contend with several consecutive years of maddening injuries ... and that led many of the natives to lament about missing Philbin. Subsequently, we've come to learn that Morgan is arguably Iowa's best teacher on the whole coaching staff ... really impressive guy.

If folks would try to throw Morgan under the bus due to "learning on the job" and due to injuries within his position group ... then it's not surprising to see fans try to do the same with Polasek. It goes with the territory, I'd suppose. If I were to point at anything, I'd simply mentioned that Iowa has given up far fewer sacks this year than we have in prior seasons AND our starting 2 freshmen OTs have demonstrated nice improvement. Thus, I don't think that we can say that there haven't been some positives coming out of our OL group.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

As for commenting on the other hires ....

1. The O'Keefe hire was pure gold. No doubt that Stanley is a talented kid ... but his productivity and development is no doubt linked to O'Keefe's coaching.
2. Copeland has been working with very little returning experience at WR ... and yet Iowa seems to be fielding a reasonably competent passing attack. Copeland definitely deserves a tip of the cap here. The bigger measure of his impact will be seen in the coming years based on the development we see with the young guys who are seeing action now.
3. Nobody has mentioned him .... but Kirk's addition of Kevin Spencer as a special teams advisor seems to have been paying some dividends too.

 

[nu2u]

ghostofHomer beat me to - knives were out for Reece Morgan early in his stint as OL coach. Now he is widely regarded as one of the best position coaches to ever serve at Iowa.

The OL has struggled. Some criticism is valid. But you lose me when you are unwilling to acknowledge that losing two veteran senior OTs during the season will have a major impact. Jackson and Wirfs look to be progressing nicely - credit for that.

 

[Hawk in SEC Country]

OL is the position group with arguably the most "moving pieces." I wouldn't judge Polasek for good or bad based on this season. When Morgan took over the OL in '03, he had to contend with several consecutive years of maddening injuries ... and that led many of the natives to lament about missing Philbin. Subsequently, we've come to learn that Morgan is arguably Iowa's best teacher on the whole coaching staff ... really impressive guy.

If folks would try to throw Morgan under the bus due to "learning on the job" and due to injuries within his position group ... then it's not surprising to see fans try to do the same with Polasek. It goes with the territory, I'd suppose. If I were to point at anything, I'd simply mentioned that Iowa has given up far fewer sacks this year than we have in prior seasons AND our starting 2 freshmen OTs have demonstrated nice improvement. Thus, I don't think that we can say that there haven't been some positives coming out of our OL group.

OMG.....people wanted Morgan gone during those years.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

OMG.....people wanted Morgan gone during those years.

3 first round OL draft picks later ... and a group of D-linemen that consistently show improvement ... the natives have finally grown wise to Morgan's wily ways.

 

[rchawk]

OMG.....people wanted Morgan gone during those years.

That is true. Joe had left and there was a drop off in line play. Now people want Morgan to stay on the staff as long as he can.

 

[illhawkdvv]

3 first round OL draft picks later ... and a group of D-linemen that consistently show improvement ... the natives have finally grown wise to Morgan's wily ways.

OL is something that takes a group a while to jell. Injuries will always slow development.

 

[milehighhawkeye24]

win me a bowl game first then we can talk about momentum. Jury's out on the new hires. One year not really enough to go on at this point. I would say cautious optimism might be the term most of us fans would use....

To me it depends on the bowl game-if we win out and a bunch of crazy things can happen and boom we are playing a top 10 team.....really do need to win a bowl game but at least making a game out of it would be positive because last 3 years......not so good.
Lets also understand the BigTen almost every year plays teams ranked higher than them and are under dogs in many games because of the success of getting a team or teams into the playoffs which means lower tier teams play in big ten bowl games- that will not be the case year due to probably not having team in playoff

 

[scotthawk1964]

OMG.....people wanted Morgan gone during those years.

Well, every time Iowa loses a game fans here want somebody fired. LOL But as far as the line goes, its been inconsistent, but that should be expected when your starting two freshman.

 

[paladinhawk]

As for commenting on the other hires ....
Nobody has mentioned him .... but Kirk's addition of Kevin Spencer as a special teams advisor seems to have been paying some dividends too.

There seems to have been a lot more trick plays this year (Mich St; Ohio St). I wonder how much (if at all) this is related to Brian and the other new hires.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I went into this season with higher expectations than many, based to a large degree on the new hires that I think were really postive hires. I was starting to wonder about Pelesek...thinking maybe o-line wasn't a good fit and wondering how much experience he had with zone blocking. Youth and injuries are obviously an issue, but the o-line seemed particularly disjoint. They seem to be gelling now and it may be that they're all (o-line and coach) growing together, or it may just be the youth and inexperience. My qualm was that even the interior seemed to struggle.

It's obviously too soon to tell, but this still feels like an all star cast to me. If we keep this team together, I think there's some serious potential. This could be KF's Hayden-esqe coaching tree at inception. Big dreams and radically premature, but I have a feeling about this group.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

There seems to have been a lot more trick plays this year (Mich St; Ohio St). I wonder how much (if at all) this is related to Brian and the other new hires.

On-side kick versus Illinois too.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

I went into this season with higher expectations than many, based to a large degree on the new hires that I think were really postive hires. I was starting to wonder about Pelesek...thinking maybe o-line wasn't a good fit and wondering how much experience he had with zone blocking. Youth and injuries are obviously an issue, but the o-line seemed particularly disjoint. They seem to be gelling now and it may be that they're all (o-line and coach) growing together, or it may just be the youth and inexperience. My qualm was that even the interior seemed to struggle.

It's obviously too soon to tell, but this still feels like an all star cast to me. If we keep this team together, I think there's some serious potential. This could be KF's Hayden-esqe coaching tree at inception. Big dreams and radically premature, but I have a feeling about this group.

The most important feature of the assembled staff is that the guys really fit the culture and identity of the program. That's not to say that there wouldn't be a transition. However, thus far ... things have, by and large gone much more smoothly than I would have anticipated.

If anything, I would surmise that Polasek has place a much larger emphasis than usual (compared to prior Iowa OL coaches) on winning 1-on-1 blocking situations. The result seems to have paid some dividends on pass-pro ... however, such an emphasis runs counter (to a degree) to what is necessary for Iowa's run-blocking. Of course, even in pass-pro ... there's still the need to communicate and pass-off blocks and the need to communicate and pick up blitzers. In our zone-blocking scheme ... guys need to step together well ... they need to get to their responsibility and they need to be able to adapt on the fly to account for how Ds are defending against them. Of course, I'm not suggesting that Polasek is failing pick up the intricacies of how Iowa likes to block. However, like anybody .... I think that he can and will improve how he teaches/coaches our schemes. He has an excellent football IQ and seems to be a good motivator to his guys ... so my guess is that our OL still will ultimately be in good hands.

 

[LeroyHawk]

Didn't seem too huge before last week... Ask us again after this week!

 

[cecilB]

As for commenting on the other hires ....

1. The O'Keefe hire was pure gold. No doubt that Stanley is a talented kid ... but his productivity and development is no doubt linked to O'Keefe's coaching.
2. Copeland has been working with very little returning experience at WR ... and yet Iowa seems to be fielding a reasonably competent passing attack. Copeland definitely deserves a tip of the cap here. The bigger measure of his impact will be seen in the coming years based on the development we see with the young guys who are seeing action now.
3. Nobody has mentioned him .... but Kirk's addition of Kevin Spencer as a special teams advisor seems to have been paying some dividends too.

Naming LeVar as ST coordinator trumps Spencer’s advisory role.

 

[Muskie5]

win me a bowl game first then we can talk about momentum. Jury's out on the new hires. One year not really enough to go on at this point. I would say cautious optimism might be the term most of us fans would use....

I love when people think they speak for others? I don't remember us voting on this 'term'.

 

[iowa surfer]

Agre

The Hawks have won 1 game we weren't supposed to. The week before - everyone had pretty much given up on the season. Lets see how this ends up...

Agree.Hawk players will take task to higher level.Cap will let KOK and bf open up!! Yes on execution Yes,but common sense will now show.Mr.Akrum HELLO open space.Cap must allow! And dline breathing fire.All DOUABLES! Hawk players tough.SOUNDS promising no?

 

[Eternal Return]

So far so good. Before the Ohio State game I wasn't so sure we upgraded at all, though. But considering first season for BF and historical beatdown of OSU, looks pretty good right now. But I have to point out that a roadkill raccoon would have been better than GDGD.

 

[Hawks_Rock_12]

Lot's of football left to be played. We normally beat a team we're picked as the underdog (OSU) and lose a game we're picked as the favorites ( ???).

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Agre

Agree.Hawk players will take task to higher level.Cap will let KOK and bf open up!! Yes on execution Yes,but common sense will now show.Mr.Akrum HELLO open space.Cap must allow! And dline breathing fire.All DOUABLES! Hawk players tough.SOUNDS promising no?

Anyone else look at the time stamp expecting to see 4:20?

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Naming LeVar as ST coordinator trumps Spencer’s advisory role.

I don't know that I'd say that it trumps it as much as saying that it complements it. Spencer gets to play the role of mentor to LeVar ... and also can be a sounding board to LeVar to bounce ideas from. Also, if I recall correctly, LeVar's dad had a special teams background too ... hence part of LeVar's prior connection to special teams?

 

[INXS83]

I think recruiting has improved---we are going after more speed/quick athletic types. The proof is at OT--- Alaric Jackson and Wirfs could end up being the best set of OT's in KF era. Fant and Hockensen will be best TE pair ever---after you consider the offense is being changed to make use of their talent.

If OL coach hire had little experience coaching OL, then seems more likely his lack of experience slowed the OL development this year.

Have you forgotten the loss of 2 - 5th yr SR OT's for the season? Jackson & Wirfs had to be force-fed in their development. Lack of proven depth at OT going into the season became a glaring problem.

New OL coach didn't cause this. He inherited it from KF & BF.

 

[iowa surfer]

Have you forgotten the loss of 2 - 5th yr SR OT's for the season? Jackson & Wirfs had to be force-fed in their development. Lack of proven depth at OT going into the season became a glaring problem.

New OL coach didn't cause this. He inherited it from KF & BF.

Bf left situation.Injuries occur.Yes but poor recruiting by him.1 more 3 star makes huge difference.But wisc here.Coach fry said Depth! Improvement not hard.Go Hawks

 

[INXS83]

Bf left situation.Injuries occur.Yes but poor recruiting by him.1 more 3 star makes huge difference.But wisc here.Coach fry said Depth! Improvement not hard.Go Hawks

Yes. OL recruiting misses 2-4 years ago and Brett Waetcher's career ending injury left a hole.

 

[cecilB]

I don't know that I'd say that it trumps it as much as saying that it complements it. Spencer gets to play the role of mentor to LeVar ... and also can be a sounding board to LeVar to bounce ideas from. Also, if I recall correctly, LeVar's dad had a special teams background too ... hence part of LeVar's prior connection to special teams?

Um, yes it trumps it. And, no - lots of other misreads in your take. Not to get too personal, but LeVar's dad isn't a football coach, or even in the family picture.

LeVar is the special teams Coordinator - think Off/Def Coordinator for the special teams. Spencer is similar to a really experienced Graduate Assistant. He definitely would breakdown film, identify tendencies and supply info....a good resource.

LeVar played D1 ball, 8 years in the NFL, and has been responsible for certain aspects of STs at Iowa over the past 6 seasons. He is plenty experienced and that is where credit and critique lies - good and bad over the past few years. What you're seeing is a team that is completely less risk adverse than we've historically been...going for it on 4th down, Off play calling(when not handcuffed by field position), and some special teams risk taking. Woods and others have earned trust and have growing influence with each passing year.....as anyone would hope, including the head coach.

In the past this was handled by committee. Woods and Wallace, White, Kennedy. Woods is now in charge and 'coordinating'. Arguable only weak spot is a talent deficiency at punter, and they have creatively worked around this as best they can.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Um, yes it trumps it. And, no - lots of other misreads in your take. Not to get too personal, but LeVar's dad isn't a football coach, or even in the family picture.

LeVar is the special teams Coordinator - think Off/Def Coordinator for the special teams. Spencer is similar to a really experienced Graduate Assistant. He definitely would breakdown film, identify tendencies and supply info....a good resource.

LeVar played D1 ball, 8 years in the NFL, and has been responsible for certain aspects of STs at Iowa over the past 6 seasons. He is plenty experienced and that is where credit and critique lies - good and bad over the past few years. What you're seeing is a team that is completely less risk adverse than we've historically been...going for it on 4th down, Off play calling(when not handcuffed by field position), and some special teams risk taking. Woods and others have earned trust and have growing influence with each passing year.....as anyone would hope, including the head coach.

In the past this was handled by committee. Woods and Wallace, White, Kennedy. Woods is now in charge and 'coordinating'. Arguable only weak spot is a talent deficiency at punter, and they have creatively worked around this as best they can.

Thanks for the correction. I could have sworn that I remembered reading that LeVar had some other family connection to special teams. Obviously, by being a long time NFLer, he largely buttered his bread from ST play.

Previously, White was largely hired onto the staff as a ST 'expert' ... but obviously his recruiting shenanigans led to him not being retained. However, at the same time, LeVar was still a rather new coach. Thus, obviously LeVar has learned from all the people he's worked with.

Given the great work that LeVar had been doing with the TEs ... and, at least with his end of the ST, it was certainly a very good strategic move by Ferentz to assign LeVar as the ST coordinator. However, the point of this thread was to highlight NEW HIRES. Thus, while the responsibilities of both Brian and LeVar shifted ... neither were technically "new hires."

I still do not think that it's a stretch to believe that Spencer has been a valuable resource for LeVar in his ST coordinating efforts. Thus, wouldn't that still make Spencer a "good hire?"