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.
