Jake Heinrich
- Thread starter hawk_it
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What's the "Iowa way"? Seems like we want a bunch of Rudy's..... That dude was a hobbit and a bum!
Working really hard, going 7-5, and losing to Iowa State.
It isn't like everybody but Iowa was offering Heinrich. Sounds like he big-timed Iowa. Nebraska didn't offer, Wisconsin didn't offer, Minnesota didn't offer and many other midwest teams didn't offer.
I'm guessing had Bielema been at Wisconsin, the Badgers would've offered. The two offensive lines aren't close. That's why I maintain an offer from BB is about the gold standard in college football. Can you imagine if he got Alabama's offensive linemen?
I do not care who they offer if they get the on the field results. The issue is the results have not been there for some time so this is another example that makes you go hmmm. I find it hard to believe he was not worth an offer. Can you ever have too much talent especially at Iowa?
Didn't Speilman point out during the Iowa State game that the Iowa offensive line was opening holes but the running backs didn't have the vision or cut back ability to take advantage of them? I don't think last year's Iowa line was the best they've ever had, but this seemed to be a problem all year. I respect the heck out of MW, but he was a pretty good fullback playing tailback. Put a pretty good running back behind that last year's Iowa line and it's a different story.
Not sure about that point (re: Speilman). Iowa's O-line did give up 4 sacks that day which was the most that ISU had for a single game the entire season. In fact, it's the same amount of sacks that ISU had for the NDSU, Baylor, Toledo, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, WVU and TCU games combined.
The O-line gave up some sacks but they definitely did their job opening running lanes, we just had some backs that couldn't get to them.
This is a great post.
I don't mind legitimate, fair, respectful criticism of KF and/or Iowa Football. This is an Iowa Football board. But, I just don't understand all the vitriol directed at Kirk. College football is not always pretty behind the scenes. In fact, it can be pretty shameful. Having said that, in regards to this, I don't know if there is a better ambassador for the University of Iowa Football Program than KF. In my opinion, he is very clearly a bright man and a good, well respected football coach. Ultimately, he will be judged by wins and losses, and maybe he will someday be let go. Or, maybe someday, for various reasons, he will say I've had enough, and he will leave himself. I can't predict that. But, it's disappointing to hear the same, sarcastic, mean-spirited comments on here all the time. I think by now the message has been heard loud and clear.
One other thing. To claim BB knows more, or is a better OL coach or evaluator than KF to me, which is just my opinion, absurd.
Many folks here are ridiculously illogical.
Under Bert, Wisconsin regularly fielded dominant offensive lines. However, the guys were typically huge road-pavers by the time they were hitting the field. That type of offensive lineman simply doesn't "FIT" Iowa's style of OL play. Thus, what many folks are missing is whether Heinrich was a "good fit" for the Iowa OL. Just because he didn't get an offer from the Hawks says nothing about what sort of talent he has - but what it does say is that the coaches don't feel that he's a good fit - physically, athletically, or personality-wise.
The coaches had seen the young man during prior junior days - and presumably have seen him run drills for them. What they had seen - AT THAT POINT - was apparently not enough to merit an offer. I've read that the coaches wanted to see him during summer camp - but he refused to attend the Iowa camp without already having an offer in hand.
The above suggests to me that Heinrich may have let his ego get the best of him - at least with regard to how he handled his recruitment from Iowa.
People can complain all they want about Ferentz - but whether or not a guy gets an offer (or early offer) within the state is largely due to Reece Morgan and how hard Reece lobbies for his "candidates" to get offered. His record recruiting in-state guys is exemplary. Thus, if you're upset about Heinrich not getting an offer - you should be complaining more about Morgan. Of course, those who choose to complain about Morgan are likely ignorant idiots - because, Morgan's proven recruiting track-record undercuts nearly any argument they might try to make against him.
Under Bert, Wisconsin regularly fielded dominant offensive lines. However, the guys were typically huge road-pavers by the time they were hitting the field. That type of offensive lineman simply doesn't "FIT" Iowa's style of OL play. Thus, what many folks are missing is whether Heinrich was a "good fit" for the Iowa OL. Just because he didn't get an offer from the Hawks says nothing about what sort of talent he has - but what it does say is that the coaches don't feel that he's a good fit - physically, athletically, or personality-wise.
The coaches had seen the young man during prior junior days - and presumably have seen him run drills for them. What they had seen - AT THAT POINT - was apparently not enough to merit an offer. I've read that the coaches wanted to see him during summer camp - but he refused to attend the Iowa camp without already having an offer in hand.
The above suggests to me that Heinrich may have let his ego get the best of him - at least with regard to how he handled his recruitment from Iowa.
People can complain all they want about Ferentz - but whether or not a guy gets an offer (or early offer) within the state is largely due to Reece Morgan and how hard Reece lobbies for his "candidates" to get offered. His record recruiting in-state guys is exemplary. Thus, if you're upset about Heinrich not getting an offer - you should be complaining more about Morgan. Of course, those who choose to complain about Morgan are likely ignorant idiots - because, Morgan's proven recruiting track-record undercuts nearly any argument they might try to make against him.
Yep, and it wasn't just the Iowa state game. That's why when Wadley got in and started getting big chunks of yards people were drooling over him. It just takes a good back with the vision and quickness to see holes and make the cut. I remember some games, one of them being the Maryland game where the holes were so big even MW made the cut back and gained some good yardage. A good back would probably have housed some of those runs. Give Iowa almost one of the starting RBs in the West division last year (Gordon, Cobb, Abdullah, Jackson) s and it would have been a much different story.
I haven't seen much from Daniels that tells me he can be that back. Canzeri has shown flashes but is usually injured or inconsistent. I am hoping Wadley can fix his fumble issues or someone like Mitchell or Graham can emerge. Otherwise it will be another long year in the run game. Although, if CJ is playing well it could help the backs look better because teams won't be able to load the box.
We had a pretty good one that wasn't able to beat MW out according to the great captain.
With regard to remembering back to the Iowa State game - you have to be careful to not enter into "revisionist history" mode.
Can anybody remember what Canzeri's health was in that game? I cannot - but I do know that he had definite health issues on-and-off throughout the season. Wadley has definitely shown flashes - but he had also shown a propensity to put the ball on the ground (probably something that also had been apparent in practice too). And, as we all know, both Weisman and Bullock were mostly just serviceable.
Factors that I do know were true is that early in the season, Donnal was having some trouble having DEs not beat him. His prior two years were spent at OG - so it took a while for him to become more consistent at RT. Also, Welsh was a noobie and it was readily apparent. Lastly, it took a while for Walsh to improve his consistency. It took a while for the Iowa OL to come together last season - and that is more on the collection of guys together as a unit than the coaches. Lastly, to make matters worse, Scherff played hurt in that game - a herculean effort - but that was undoubtedly a big reason why he got beat several times in that game.
Can anybody remember what Canzeri's health was in that game? I cannot - but I do know that he had definite health issues on-and-off throughout the season. Wadley has definitely shown flashes - but he had also shown a propensity to put the ball on the ground (probably something that also had been apparent in practice too). And, as we all know, both Weisman and Bullock were mostly just serviceable.
Factors that I do know were true is that early in the season, Donnal was having some trouble having DEs not beat him. His prior two years were spent at OG - so it took a while for him to become more consistent at RT. Also, Welsh was a noobie and it was readily apparent. Lastly, it took a while for Walsh to improve his consistency. It took a while for the Iowa OL to come together last season - and that is more on the collection of guys together as a unit than the coaches. Lastly, to make matters worse, Scherff played hurt in that game - a herculean effort - but that was undoubtedly a big reason why he got beat several times in that game.
I think it would be safe to say that Iowa's future relies in Reese Morgan's/Brian Ferentz's hands... With all the Iowa based O-lineman recently committing to Iowa.....Their evaluations will obviously be a huge key. They whiffed on players like Campos,Piersbacher,Wallace,Okorafor,Kozan, etc...,etc... and chose not to offer guys like Heinrich,Foster, and Ruhland. Look at what Iowa has right now for a depth chart...Anybody that is a Hawk fan, really hopes Morgan/Ferentz are correct in their evaluations.... Just a guess, they would have taken the committments of Piersbacher,Campos, Wallace,Kozan, and Okorafor... They went after these guys hard. They ended up with other players that people automatically think will be productive players. Guys like Keppy,Sealby,Reynolds,other walk ons and afterthoughts... If they end up being usefull players some day-Cool. If they don't-well?
It was a total team effort. Huge fail for the rb's and oline. A double huge fail on Ferentz, Davis (he's a joke) and Rudock. Rudock was terrible even considering the subpar coaching
It is ferentz's fault we had a fullback playing rb for three years. Huge recruiting fail by Ferentz huge.
Why does it take so long for our oline to gel every year? What do they work on in August? getting sick of that. Absolutely true about Scherff in that game. He didn't get healthy until about the sixth game. Still we should have won the ISU game by two touchdowns. No excuses for this coaching staff.
+1000
There are all these excuses why this program cannot be ready from day 1 to play football. By some miracle our opponents are ready to play. I am also sick of this 'gel' component on the OL that we have to deal with. We might as well cancel the first 4-5 games of the season since it takes that long for the OL to impose their will in a game.
Then there is this .... well Wisky & Arkansas have these huge road graders on the OL but we want something else. Hello McFly, that seems to be working very well but we choose not to elumulste this because that would be too easy and would acknowledge that someone else is right. Instead we want to find as many Rudys as we can and spend 4 years of 'development' so they might produce for 4-5 games their senior year.
Put 5 big nasty guys with the mentality of Scherff on the OL and I would bet money we suddenly find a running game.
Poor recruiting, poor player evaluations, loyalty to the long term program guy that lacks ability and bad in game coaching ... You get what you get.
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What I remember most clearly about that game is sitting there with 70,000 friends, all of us trying to figure out why the other team was jumping around. Seriously. It was just surreal....and it still is.
Arrogance leads to overconfidence which sets a person up for great disappointment. You guys just keep setting yourselves up because you aren't in touch with reality.
It's not the 80's anymore. Back then you had so many advantages over ISU that just don't exist anymore.
You had Hayden Fry who really knew how to get players and made the Iowa state game a priority. You were on TV way more than ISU. The blow torch that is 1040 benefitted you because people actually needed radio broadcasts to be able to follow games. You had a higher enrollment and a MUCH larger alumni base. Your facilities were LIGHT YEARS ahead of ISU's. Your Universtity administration was making a much stronger commitment to athletics than ISU's was.
These advantages aren't there anymore. That said Iowa still has some (still more fans, wealthier alumni, better tradition, slightly better facilities) but the gap has closed. Bottom line it's just not a good idea to expect to roll over ISU every year anymore. Times have changed.
I'm not arrogant and I think I've got a fairly good grasp of reality, thank you very much. I set pretty fairly realistic expectations going into any given game. It is not arrogant to look at that game against a ...... well you pick your own word to describe your team ......I'll just politely say "bad".....team and expect to win. Obviously your team and its fans wanted/expected to win, any given Saturday, and all that. The fact is that we were 10 point favorites at home. It's not arrogant or unrealistic to expect to win that game.
Sorry man I wasn't attacking you as much as I was pointing out that I keep seeing Iowa fans fall in to this same trap time after time. That said last year was a true upset, and it surprised everyone; but I think we can all admit that it was a pillow fight. ISU turned out to be a bad team and Iowa was mediocre.
This year I think the game is pretty much up for grabs which probably does not bode well for either team. Haha!
I agree with all that. Expecting to win this game shouldn't be a trap, but unfortunately it is (now THAT was arrogant, but I just couldn't help myself lol!! Just messin' with ya!). Have a good one.
Maybe KF should change his style to "fit" college football. Sorry but Brett B's style has kicked Ferentz' s style of run game in the teeth year after year. You can be loyal, just don't be delusional and expect the rest of us to buy your BS.
Iowa still has monumentally better facilities than ISU does. Iowa's facilities can compete against anyone in the country. ISU's, not so much.
I was going to just post this....there's not a chance they were moderately better than ISU. It is not even in the same ballpark. Yes, ISU put up a new building but you can tell it was a quick project.
Where is your argument there? Where is your evidence? Arguing like a child does not support your stance.
I'm neither defending nor bashing Ferentz as a whole. However, what I will say is that Iowa's offensive line play has rarely been the weak link in Iowa football. For years, knowledgeable posters from rival fan bases have marveled at the quality of Iowa's OL play (buzzy a PSU fan and numerous Ohio State fans like OSUBuckeye4life). In 2009, Iowa was surprisingly successful despite featuring 2 mediocre freshmen RBs. I believe it was something like 2012 when Weisman rushed for over a 100 yards against an incredible Michigan State D - he didn't do that because he's an awesome RB - he did it because of Iowa's OL.
Over the past several years - even while incorporating many new guys onto the OL - Iowa QBs really haven't been sacked all that much. Part of that was admittedly due to the QB being pretty good at getting rid of the ball quickly - but a bigger portion was due to the OL play.
There is some supporting evidence ... how 'bout you try!
So you're trying to argue Wisconsin hasn't had a better run game than Iowa almost every year the last decade?
Not only are you blind you're delusional.
Parse my posts. Did I make any such claim? Absolutely not.
I contend that Iowa's OL's have NOT been the weak link. Did I state anywhere that Iowa has featured a formidable running game?
Wisky's success has largely been due to a formula that has been IMPOSED by Barry Alvarez - not the result of the brain-child of Bert (or Chryst).
If you break down Wisky's OL play - they do more man blocking - and rely more on the power game (power, not referring to physical strength, but in terms of how they operated their running game). Iowa runs much more exclusively zone-schemes and utilizes A LOT of combo blocking.
Anyhow, in order to execute THEIR style of blocking under Bert, Wisky would utilize huge earth-movers of men ... each guy averaging nearly 320 pounds. In contrast, Iowa's guys on the OL only get that big if they can maintain that weight without coming at the expense of their explosiveness, their foot speed, or their flexibility. If you look back - if I remember correctly, the only regular starters on the OL who were near the 320s at Iowa were Gallery, Calloway, and Scherff. In contrast, Wisky had a whole OL manned with such large guys in a single season. Within Wisconsin's scheme - the size was not incompatible with what they were trying to do - and thus, it has worked for them. Obviously, guys blocking within Wisky's scheme, under Bert, were not necessarily automatic fits for Iowa's schemes.
If you break down the seasons when Iowa has actually had fairly elite talent at RB at the same time as one of our strong OLs - Iowa has fielded strong running games. Examples of the above include Fred Russel, Jermelle Lewis, and Shonn Greene. Albert Young arguably belongs on that list - and Ladell Betts deserves a tip of the cap as well. The problem is that Iowa rarely has had elite guys at RB. We've often had such guys commit ... only to either switch commitment or not make it to campus due to qualifying issues.
Anyhow, I don't blame you for complaining about Iowa's O. It HAS been outright offensive. I've admittedly been slow to come around - but even a homer, such as myself, can not claim that Iowa has been getting the job done on O with Greg Davis at the helm. Iowa has suffered with insufficient talent at RB, a poor passing game, and, at least under the current OC, inefficient schemes given our personnel.
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Once again, if that system is shown to work why not go with the larger OL. It isn't exactly like Wisconsin brings in 4 and 5 star recruits. Do what works at the college level.
The other part you hit on is a major flaw in recruiting RBs. There's no way in hell Mark Weisman should've been the starting RB year after year. That recruiting deficiencies.
Jewell Hampton only had one complete season as a back-up for us - and that was when he was a true freshman. After that, he endured something like 2 torn ACLs (consecutively) - and then got in trouble and decided to transfer.
I agree though - Hampton was a talent and could have definitely proven himself to be special had he remained healthy.
To address your first point - Ferentz's zone scheme has been shown to work too. If Iowa were to switch over to that scheme - it would require quite a large change in philosophy and technique on the OL. Zone blocking schemes are ubiquitous in the college game and there really is little reason for Iowa to change what it's doing.
What you're suggesting is akin to asking a research biologist to switch gears and do research on physics instead. You're not going to see Ferentz change Iowa's core blocking techniques/strategies - because it's something that he "believes in" and also it's something that he knows works on both the collegiate level and in the NFL.
As for RB recruiting - you're right. RB quality has definitely been lacking. Even Coker, who was rather highly rated, he wasn't really an elite talent.
Secondly, I've been concerned about Iowa's running game ever since Coach Jackson retired. Coach Jackson was THE absolute best coach out there to teach young guys to run within Ferentz's blocking schemes. Since he's been gone, Iowa RBs have been missing cutback looks at an alarming rate. Furthermore, there is a bit of an art with regard to the timing of steps when RBs run the inside zone - Shonn Greene was one of the last guys to really do it well - and, not coincidentally, he was also the last guy to have received extensive coaching from Jackson.
Attrition on the OL at Iowa was largely non-existent when Reece Morgan was coaching the OL. With Brian Ferentz at the helm, they've only lost Goebel and Sealby. Both guys left because Iowa looks pretty set on the interior line - and, perhaps because Brian might be one of those coaches who has more "passion." Sometimes more vocal coaches/teachers rub students/players the wrong way.
Right now, I'm not yet worried about attrition on the OL. Attrition at other positions has had a much more pronounced impact on the team (particularly at WR and RB - and on the DL when Kaz was coaching there).
I guess it doesn't matter what I say anymore. You think our run game is infallible and all we need is a RB.
When are you going to state some supporting evidence/arguments to back your view?
I don't think that the run-game is infallible - that is most definitely an exaggeration. And, let me remind you, exaggeration and sarcasm is the fall-back for individuals who are either too lazy or too ignorant to actually have founded opinions.
What I've stated is that the offensive line IS NOT the problem with the Hawks.
Also, Iowa's running game needs more than a talented RB in order to be successful - it also needs to find an actually passing game. Particularly, one that can force opposing Ds to defend the run with 7 (or fewer) hats within the box.
As for recruiting at RB - I'll be curious to see how RB recruiting fares under Seth Wallace. If Iowa can outperform expectation, then winning can do wonders for recruiting. These young guys need to feel like Iowa is trending back up. Penn State hit a similar slow stretch (in terms of attrition and whatnot) in the early 2000s - and didn't get things back on track until Daryl Clark took over the helm on O (back in the day of PSU's "spread HD" offense).
It's not an exaggeration, you think it's only the RB position. It's not, our center and two guards were a turn style last year. You say that we can't shelve the zone blocking scheme, I call that BS. TCU turned around their entire offensive identity in an off season.
Btw, we would be lucky to have a Darryl Clark, but we dont have the WRs to match, their high definition offense. Plus we haven't had an Evan Royster in I don't know how long.
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