Imagine you're on Michigan's 13-1 team of superstars recovering from injury after leading them to a Big 10 title the year before. You played against Iowa's putrid offense and hear about how they were even worse in 2022, seeing their highlights on tv a few times throughout the year. You've been passed on the Michigan depth chart so you have a decision to make. You take a leap of faith and commit to Iowa on Day 1 of the transfer portal. You do so with reasonable optimism that three important things will happen upon arrival: (i) offensive coaching staff upgrades; (ii) playbook upgrades; and (iii) skill position upgrades.
Unfortunately, since Cade's commitment, virtually every variable needed to improve the offense has gone against Iowa:
-Doh! Zero changes in the coaching staff. Not at offensive coordinator, QB coach, or OL coach. No new blood, no new ideas, no new play callers to draw up a run up the middle on 3rd and 6 for no gain.
-Doh! Despite Cade's attempts to use his clout to recruit talented WRs to play with him at Iowa and a reasonable expectation that at least a few talented D1 transfer WRs might take a chance on Iowa for the lure of instant playing time, zero even visited Iowa, let alone committed.
-Doh! Iowa's top 2 WRs on last year's roster, sophomores Johnson and Bruce, never even considered sticking around to play with the upgraded QB. They were fleeing the abysmal system and the offensive coordinator.
-Doh! The only portal WR Iowa was able to land was role player Seth Anderson, a 0 star recruit who didn't make all conference at his D 2 (smaller than UNI) school. Not exactly an upgrade.
-Doh! It turns out, Seth Anderson is injured and will not practice all spring. His first reps at Iowa will be right around when the season starts.
-Doh! Iowa's most hyped redshirt freshmen WR, Jacob Bostick, who was hurt all year last year but expected to be the "playmaker" this year is injured yet again. He too will not practice all spring. The first catches he receives from Cade will be in the fall.
This week, practice has officially started. Cade is wearing a Hawkeye jersey for the first time. It must be sinking in that instead of throwing passes to NFL bound WRs like Cornelius Johnson, Donovan Edwards, Mike Sainristil, Ronnie Bell, Roman Wilson, and Heisman Trophy caliber RB Blake Corum, he's going to finish his career throwing to the likes of Diante Vines (10 receptions and 6 drops in his entire career), Nico Ragaini (his claim to fame in 6 years at Iowa is not correcting people for mispronouncing his name for 4 years before finally saying something about it), and…checks notes, 5’11 freshmen walkon Reece Osgood & 6'0 walkon Alex Wick, who are listed as the backups on the spring depth chart. 🤦🏻♂️ Not only is this a downgrade on last year's WR corp, but it may be the worst in Kirk's entire career.
Similarly, it's sinking in that instead of receiving throwing tips and guidance from a former NFL QB / NFL head coach Harbaugh and a former NFL offensive coordinator calling plays, he's being tutored on throwing mechanics by Brian Ferentz, the laughing stock of the college football world. Can you imagine the difference in the pointers he's receiving? How does Cade expect to improve his game given the downgrade in coaching and downgrade in talent around him?
The optimist in me believes some of this can be alleviated. Iowa must aggressively throw A TON of money at any remaining transfer portal WR out there this spring. All it takes is one go-to receiver (like Charlie Jones was for Purdue after committing last spring). If not, I don't care how confident McNamara is, things are looking a lot like status quo. This offense is going to struggle with Brian's same route trees and the team's severe lack of hands/speed/route running out of the WR corp.
