Like to see some of you FAT cats bashing me try to tackle McCaffery. Just trying to give an opinion above. Obviously McCaffery is good. But, Iowa could have changed their scheme and technique to contain him better. And that's a damn FACT!!!
Did you ever compete in athletics? We had 1 game this year that things didn't go right - 1! Stanford lost to Northwestern, Alabama got beat, oregon got handled by MSU, 5 star OSU looked disinterested most of year, oklahoma lost to texas, on and on. It is called competition and sometimes it snowballs. It does for everyone - unless you are afraid to compete and play your battles on the Internet.
Now you're arguing scheme and technique instead of speed and personnel? Glad to see you've given up the 'fast freshmen could have won the game' shtick. What scheme/technique would you have employed to stop #5 if you were KF and PP?
This is really some special stuff here. McCaffrey is a RARE talent. He is probably the best player in the country. If you think we (or anyone else for that matter) have a stable of McCaffrey's, you're a complete bafoon. Congratulations.
No I did not give up on my original point. And I never once said the red shirts would have won the game or should have played. I am stating that my belief is some of those red shirts could have been used more in bowl prep since guys like Ogwo are former track stars. My understanding is the only guy they used to simulate McCaffery was Eric Graham.
As far as scheme. I would have ran a more hybrid defensive look such as a 5-2 front or 4-2-5 with secondary forming a shell on the backend. In my opinion only it would have at least kept McCaffery from busting long gains and keep him boxed in. At the very least they should have committed 2 guys on him as spies the whole game.
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Pretty easy to bust long gains when you have an experienced o line, poor tackling and poor technique in filling the lanes from the lbs, and last but not least terrible footing imo. As I said he's good. But, Iowa had chances to keep him in check.
Please, please tell me your football coaching experience??? This would add credibility to your statements. Please!!!
Don't need coaching exp. If you can't see what was wrong during that game then you are blind.
I doubt you could have drawn up a better scheme Freyvet. You were prob too busy stuffing your gullet full of wings and drowning your sorrows in booze like a lot of people.
I don't think Iowa could have completely stopped him but the footing and poor tackling is a legit argument. Missed tackles led to many of McCaffreys yds. The 1st touchdown was a missed assignment by someone but other than that he could have been held in check if not for the missed tackles. Footing didn't look good in the first half and never did hear why.
Yep. He's just an average run of the mill talent. I'm glad we've cleared that up
McCaffery is a stud no doubt. My point is Iowa failed in their scheme to stop him. Wasn't like he took the handoffs and blew them away with pure speed except the first play of the game. And maybe the punt return. Rest of the plays was missed tackles. And bad angles. Most of you might not remember. But, there was a carry Wadley took in the 3rd or 4th qtr where he shot out like a rocket faster than McCaffey does out of his stance in the backfield. As far as team speed or back to the o.p. Iowa has realized this is an overall weakness and got some guys in here starting with the '15 class. Hopefully '16 continues in same direction.
I told you I don't have coaching experience. I just give an opinion based on what I see watching the games.
You can have speed and it doesn't matter unless you have talented football players with speed. You can't put Usain Bolt out there and expect him to be the best RB or WR. I played with a guy that was a track star on the track team in college who also happened to be on the football team. On the football field during a game he wasn't that fast and ran crap routes, his side to side movements were avg so he ended up barely playing despite being the fastest guy on the team.
Correct. If I had to focus on one I'd prefer we got much better in the trenches. Wis won Rose Bowls, not because they had a lot of team speed, but because they dominated in the trenches. Iowa is always going to struggle recruiting a lot of elite speed skill players. They should be able to follow the Wis model (Barry and Bielema) in getting the best lineman they can get and beat up opposing teams in the trenches. As you said, all the speed in the world isn't going to help you if you can't protect your QB or open holes for your RB, or put pressure on the opposing QB.
I'd still like to see Wadley and McCaffery in a 100 yard dash. Even put my money on Wadley. Hell...they can even run it in full pads. Wadley was greatly under utilized in the Rose Bowl.
Excellent post.
Quickness or explosion, as you put it, is what they need more of on the team. Warren Sapp might not beat a lot of guys in a 40 yard dash but he was incredibly quick off the ball which is why he was a beast on the d line.
In the Stanford game I was more disappointed in how Stanford whipped Iowa in the trenches on both sides of the ball. Iowa's D line got no pass rush, nor pressure on Mac, which allowed him to go untouched 5 yards downfield, making it tough for the LB's and DB's to tackle him in the open field, going at full speed. On offense the O line opened very few holes and didn't a terrible job in pass protection against a 4 man rush (Stanford didn't need to blitz because they were getting great pressure from the front 4).
I don't see Iowa ever recruiting skilled players on the level of Stanford, OSU, Mich. There just aren't enough of those players nearby geographically. I do think Iowa can recruit O and D lines that are at or near the level of those schools. Wis did it for years under Alvarez and Bielema, and Iowa could follow a similar model. Wis was able to win Rose Bowls against some speedy Pac 10 teams, so if Iowa can improve in the trenches they can beat the Stanfords of the college football world.
Still baffles me why a lot of these studs rather ride the pine for 3 or 4 years at elite schools than rather get immediate playing time and get NFL exposure at Iowa.
Wow, I usually have to read several threads to see more than a few ridiculous head-scratcher comments, but there are a minimum of SIX here! I totally agree we need to continue to recruit and develop more team speed, but some of my fellow fans really need to refrain from football analysis.
I'm not sure why. Some of the dumbest football comments I've ever heard have come from guys with football coaching experience.
I guess most of you just watch games to get drunk and eat food I take it. Instead of trying to break down and analyze what the real issues with this team are.
I see you edited your post from 3-4 or 3-3-5 fronts to 5-2 or 4-2-5. So basically you want to run every defense except the one that the players were recruited to play in, practiced their entire Iowa careers, and played, very successfully, all season? A 3-4 might have been effective, but Iowa doesn't have the personnel at the DL position to play that style. A 3-3-5 or 4-2-5 might have stopped the home run plays (It probably wouldn't have), but taking a DL or LB out of the front 7 would have all but guaranteed they would have ran it down Iowa's throat. Stanford ran it pretty well against 7 bigger bodies. Replacing one of those guys with a smaller guy probably not the answer. A 5-2 is essentially no different than a 4-3. You just roll the strongside LB up to the LOS. You can run the same schemes out of either front.
I would have argued to sprinkle in 4-4/5-3 fronts (bring in extra big guys) and make Hogan and the WRs beat King/Lomax/Mabin over the top. I would have also had the LBs hit #5 every time he crossed their face. Iowa gave him free run and that killed them more than anything IMO.
How often to football players run 100 yards? 5, 10, and 20 yard splits are way more applicable than a 100 yard dash. Quickness and agility are much more applicable to football than straight line speed. Unless your name is Randy Moss, run a 4.2 forty, and have Duante Cullpepper throwing it 70+ yards in the air.
Might as well ran a 4-2-5 or 5-2 since Cole Fisher was and has been a liability most of the season replace him with someone else imo. As far as 100 yard comment.... What I'm getting at is Wadley was our most elusive back and he hardly got any touches.
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Doesn't matter now. Fact is this team did not show up to play. Completely different team than the one that won first 12 games.
Umm, no. I only had water at the Rose Bowl, as I drank and ate PLENTY beforehand. I am all about thoughtful football analysis, having played for 10 years, and coached for 7. I'm just confident that I'm not the only one who chuckled at the following analytical gems in this thread!
Iowa has speed on its roster, but once again elected not to use it.
Thank God this Senior class is graduating!
Kirk and Davis are absolutely clueless offensively. Speed is a concept lost on both, or I suspect Kirk primarily, since there is no doubt in my mind he is giving Davis the script every week.
Catching a football is catching a football. If you can do it in HS, you should be able to do it in college
We had a great season, this is not a great team!
KF said in presser Iowa has no one with the speed and agility to match McCaffery in practice. Thats a crock. Some of these redshirt freshmen we got this year were track stars in high school.
Iowa could have ran a drill in practice to box a guy in with 4 defenders and let him juke around. At least it would have simulated McCaffery in some fashion.
Let's hear your scheme to stop McCaffery since you know it all??? As I said my words are just an opinion based on what I see.
I just said I would have stacked the box. Either bring a safety up or bring Mends in and move Fisher inside to create a 4-4 front OR roll the strong side LB up and bring the safety up to create a 5-3 look. Both give a look with more bodies to block and more bodies near the point of attack to contain. Moe guys closer rather than move them back. Dare Hogan to beat you. I think Hogan would be fully capable of doing so, but he has also been prone to throw ints so hopefully he would give a couple away. If 5 lines up as a WR/Slot put King on him and have your safeties over the top.
Defensive ends: J.J. Watt, Mario Williams
Defensive tackles: Ndamukong Suh, Marcell Dareus
Linebackers: Justin Houston, Von Miller, Luke Kuechly
Cornerbacks: Darrelle Revis, Richard Sherman
Safeties: Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor
since preseason all BT Ott was out and a RSFR replaced him that might be a problem and has some of us learned that LEO Nieman did not play much in the game because of injuries, that too might have been a contributing factor.
here is how the loss of Ott hurt. with Ott IA had 22 sacks in 6 games, without him IA had 8 sacks in 8 games. gee I am sorry that RSFR Hesse did not play like the #1 pick in the NFL Draft
here is how the loss of Ott hurt. with Ott IA had 22 sacks in 6 games, without him IA had 8 sacks in 8 games. gee I am sorry that RSFR Hesse did not play like the #1 pick in the NFL Draft
You know what, screw it, inwouldnhwve gone bold and just stacked the entire team in the box. Leave king and man in on the outside to play man to man and Taylor and lomax would have sat in favor of 2 more DT's so that we could get penetration. Basically a game long all out blitz. What choo think about that?
I think Iowa has the speed you are referring to, but it doesn't make a bit of difference if your QB doesn't have time to pass the ball. In my opinion this off-season the O-line needs to make the same progress the linebackers did a year ago.
Wow. We missed the CFP by one play. And half this thread is mental about speed? Stanford beat us because we were not ready to play, period. Play that game week 6 at kinnick we win. Iowa players and staff had the rose bowl giddiness and for Stanford it was just another game. Yes we have some problem areas and WR is one. But every team does also. Be thankful we have QB handled and the best corner in the land. We win 10 plus next year no doubt. We have a pretty good team coming back despite speed.
Wadley had 19 carries for 67 yards vs Maryland and 12 carries for 120 yards vs Indiana immediately after the NW game. He then was hurt with an ankle sprain and average 2.8 ypc and 3.7 ypc vs MSU and Stanford. What do you mean we didn't see him much after NW. We did for 2 games then the final 2 games everyone was ineffective. Canzeri had good games against Purdue and Nebraska while Daniels had a good game vs Minnesota, these were when Wadley was hurt. And none of the running backs or wide receivers no matter who they would have played vs MSU/Stanford were going to have a good game as the OL got beat badly in the run and pass game.
We got beat in the trenches way more as a team than we did by lacking speed. Our secondary and LB's were beat up as well.
Its going to be pretty interesting next year - there needs to be a ton of development on the defensive side of the football if we are going to keep the momentum going and have a good season next year. The offensive line has some big shoes to fill and it wouldn't hurt to have a few guys, like the Paulsens to come in and push some guys or beat them...
Its going to be pretty interesting next year - there needs to be a ton of development on the defensive side of the football if we are going to keep the momentum going and have a good season next year. The offensive line has some big shoes to fill and it wouldn't hurt to have a few guys, like the Paulsens to come in and push some guys or beat them...
