The entire nation paid witness to the virus ailing the Hawkeyes since Kirk placed his meat head son in charge of both play calling and QB coaching. Disaster. A 31-0 blowout loss and the score doesn't even reflect the amount of randying around on the field. Where do we go from here?
1. Iowa's Transfer Portal Recruiting Was a HUGE Bust. Iowa's attempt to salvage Brian's career through portal recruiting has been a failure. The headliner is the Big 10's 13th rated QB. My NIL donations well spent. 1st round draft pick LaPorta was replaced by Michigan backup Eric All. Sadly, All is a shell of what he once was. He has as many fumbles, fall downs, and missed blocks as he has catches. Next, Iowa lost its two 4 star WRs to the portal. In their place, a D3 WR and a kid from Ohio State. Combined, they've managed just 4 receptions in 4 games. More NIL well spent. Then there's the OL. Iowa had the Big 10's worst OL last year. Rather than bringing in Power 5 transfers, Iowa landed a couple of slow footed small schoolers. Since neither can even crack Iowa's lineup, neither has any business receiving Power 5 football scholarships. On D, the staff tried hard to bring in a last second CB. They failed. We are seeing the results on the field. LB Jackson may be the only addition who would start on any other Big 10 team. He's improving each week and appears to be a solid pickup (13 tackles & 2.5 tackles for loss this week).
2. Punting is Losing. The only positive to yesterday's loss was the punting by Tory Taylor. 7 punts for an average of 52.3 yards is Reggie Roby-esque. Better yet, two of the punts were downed inside the 10 yard line. Taylor leads the Big 10 in punting and did everything he could do to give the Hawks a chance on Sat. The rest of the team failed to show up.
3. Cali Trip: Money Well Spent? It's a cute story how Cade and the WRs used Hawk fans' hard earned money, through the NIL, to vacation in California and practice the intricacies of...throwing and catching the ball on the beach. This week, those elite Cali trained WRs managed just TWO catches (one was a 2 yard shot put pass to Ragaini for little gain). For the season, the receiving corp averages just 3 catches per game. Even Army's wishbone offense is has a more potent passing attack. Looking at the rest of the Big 10 west, Wisconsin's WRs had 17 catches yesterday. Purdue's WRs had 17 catches (not counting Tyrone Tracey's catches). Northwestern WRs had 24 catches. The fact that Iowa WRs caught just 2 balls is grounds for an immediate coaching change.
4. Is Higgins the Real Deal? Higgins had a career day yesterday, racking up 18 tackles. He's one of the top tacklers in college football. But I can't tell if he's an elite LB with legit NFL prospects, or if they defense just couldn't get off the field and the DL isn't getting the kind of production it should.
5. Playing Not to Lose, Even When Losing. Iowa's ultra conservative play calling has been discussed ad nauseum. But what was with continuing to run the ball up the middle for no gain when behind by 24+ points in the 3rd and 4th quarter? Shouldn't we at least TRY to put up points? Similarly, is there any rational reason at all to fair catch every kickoff, even when many balls were fielded on the 8 yard line? To win against superior opponents, you at least have to try. Having your walk-on kick returner fair catch kicks is garbage coaching and terrible recruiting (of 85 scholarships, we don't have one guy worthy of returning kicks?).
6. "What's the Upside" in Continuing to Play McNamara? It has now been 2 years since Cade was "healthy." In an age when having a mobile QB is the norm, Cade instantly puts the Hawks at a disadvantage with his inability to run. He was hurt for spring ball. He was hurt all fall and didn't practice much. We gave him a pass. Now the excuse is he's been hurt in all of our first 4 games. At what point do we just put him on the shelf until he's healthy and give someone else a shot to actually throw the ball down field? Cade at 50% must be worse than our backups are when 100% healthy, right? Cade's stat line this week was 5/14 for 43 yards. Petras never even had a game THAT bad in 3 years of being the worst QB in Iowa history.
1. Iowa's Transfer Portal Recruiting Was a HUGE Bust. Iowa's attempt to salvage Brian's career through portal recruiting has been a failure. The headliner is the Big 10's 13th rated QB. My NIL donations well spent. 1st round draft pick LaPorta was replaced by Michigan backup Eric All. Sadly, All is a shell of what he once was. He has as many fumbles, fall downs, and missed blocks as he has catches. Next, Iowa lost its two 4 star WRs to the portal. In their place, a D3 WR and a kid from Ohio State. Combined, they've managed just 4 receptions in 4 games. More NIL well spent. Then there's the OL. Iowa had the Big 10's worst OL last year. Rather than bringing in Power 5 transfers, Iowa landed a couple of slow footed small schoolers. Since neither can even crack Iowa's lineup, neither has any business receiving Power 5 football scholarships. On D, the staff tried hard to bring in a last second CB. They failed. We are seeing the results on the field. LB Jackson may be the only addition who would start on any other Big 10 team. He's improving each week and appears to be a solid pickup (13 tackles & 2.5 tackles for loss this week).
2. Punting is Losing. The only positive to yesterday's loss was the punting by Tory Taylor. 7 punts for an average of 52.3 yards is Reggie Roby-esque. Better yet, two of the punts were downed inside the 10 yard line. Taylor leads the Big 10 in punting and did everything he could do to give the Hawks a chance on Sat. The rest of the team failed to show up.
3. Cali Trip: Money Well Spent? It's a cute story how Cade and the WRs used Hawk fans' hard earned money, through the NIL, to vacation in California and practice the intricacies of...throwing and catching the ball on the beach. This week, those elite Cali trained WRs managed just TWO catches (one was a 2 yard shot put pass to Ragaini for little gain). For the season, the receiving corp averages just 3 catches per game. Even Army's wishbone offense is has a more potent passing attack. Looking at the rest of the Big 10 west, Wisconsin's WRs had 17 catches yesterday. Purdue's WRs had 17 catches (not counting Tyrone Tracey's catches). Northwestern WRs had 24 catches. The fact that Iowa WRs caught just 2 balls is grounds for an immediate coaching change.
4. Is Higgins the Real Deal? Higgins had a career day yesterday, racking up 18 tackles. He's one of the top tacklers in college football. But I can't tell if he's an elite LB with legit NFL prospects, or if they defense just couldn't get off the field and the DL isn't getting the kind of production it should.
5. Playing Not to Lose, Even When Losing. Iowa's ultra conservative play calling has been discussed ad nauseum. But what was with continuing to run the ball up the middle for no gain when behind by 24+ points in the 3rd and 4th quarter? Shouldn't we at least TRY to put up points? Similarly, is there any rational reason at all to fair catch every kickoff, even when many balls were fielded on the 8 yard line? To win against superior opponents, you at least have to try. Having your walk-on kick returner fair catch kicks is garbage coaching and terrible recruiting (of 85 scholarships, we don't have one guy worthy of returning kicks?).
6. "What's the Upside" in Continuing to Play McNamara? It has now been 2 years since Cade was "healthy." In an age when having a mobile QB is the norm, Cade instantly puts the Hawks at a disadvantage with his inability to run. He was hurt for spring ball. He was hurt all fall and didn't practice much. We gave him a pass. Now the excuse is he's been hurt in all of our first 4 games. At what point do we just put him on the shelf until he's healthy and give someone else a shot to actually throw the ball down field? Cade at 50% must be worse than our backups are when 100% healthy, right? Cade's stat line this week was 5/14 for 43 yards. Petras never even had a game THAT bad in 3 years of being the worst QB in Iowa history.
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