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Jon Budmayr, the "Offensive Analyst." Kirk calls him a "Gift from Heaven."

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Story from today (Aug 23) from HawkCentral.

Some excerpts:

One of the Iowa football program’s most interesting hires of the 2022 offseason has gone from a volunteer consultant to a well-paid offensive analyst.

Jon Budmayr will earn $15,833 per month over a six-month period — totaling just under $95,000 — to help elevate the Iowa quarterbacks room. The salary details were obtained Tuesday by the Des Moines Register via a freedom-of-information request.

Budmayr, 31, has been credited by top-two QBs Spencer Petras and Alex Padilla for advancing the Hawkeyes’ passing game and praised by head coach Kirk Ferentz as "a gift from heaven."

He played for rival Wisconsin and was the quarterbacks coach there from 2018 to 2020 before spending one season as Colorado State’s offensive coordinator. In 2019, Budmayr oversaw one of the most efficient offenses in Wisconsin history with a team completion percentage of 70.1% behind starter Jack Coan. Completion percentage has been a stated high priority for Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

Budmayr officially joined the Iowa program March 1 as a “special consultant to the head coach and football staff." His role, as it has been explained by coaches and players, was to help assist Brian Ferentz, who has been transitioning to the role of quarterbacks coach after the departure of five-year quarterbacks coach Ken O'Keefe.

According to the latest agreement with Iowa, Budmayr was hired as a “Temporary Professional Employee” and will serve with the Hawkeyes from July 18, 2022 to January 20, 2023. Budmayr signed the agreement on June 28. He is reporting to Austin Showalter, the Hawkeyes’ director of analytics.

The university has declined media requests to interview Budmayr and did not make him available at the football team’s recent media day. Certainly, if Iowa’s embattled passing game has increased success this season, Budmayr will receive some of the credit ... and would make himself marketable for future coaching positions.

 
If he’s brought in to help Brian be a QB coach, then shouldn’t Brian be the one contracting and paying him?

Don’t get me wrong, I want our guys to succeed. But in the business world if I was hired for a job at more than 500k per year and couldn’t do it, my employer wouldn’t just drop 100k per year on somebody with less experience to come in and teach me how to do it. I’d be going out and getting whatever education it took on my own to keep that job. And that would be on me, with possibly some financial repayment for that education if I can prove it helps.
 
If he’s brought in to help Brian be a QB coach, then shouldn’t Brian be the one contracting and paying him?

Don’t get me wrong, I want our guys to succeed. But in the business world if I was hired for a job at more than 500k per year and couldn’t do it, my employer wouldn’t just drop 100k per year on somebody with less experience to come in and teach me how to do it. I’d be going out and getting whatever education it took on my own to keep that job. And that would be on me, with possibly some financial repayment for that education if I can prove it helps.
Well, Brian sort of paid for it when he got a much smaller (less than inflation) increase while the rest of the coaching staff got bigger increases.
 
Wonder if he will be groomed for OC if/when Brian takes over. I would imagine if we have a very good couple year run, Kirk will be able to say that all the pieces are in place and leave it to Brian. Brian strikes me as more of a HC, CEO, Captain of the ship mentality guy than necessarily a detailed, X’s and O’s guy.
 
Why not just give him the job?

There’s a part of me that wonders if he was also brought in to put pressure on Brian to improve or risk being replaced. I do think he was brought in as much to help Brian -whose greatest sin as OC is to overthink things imo, learn to make decisions faster as it is to help the QB room.

But also to possibly earn Kirks trust as well.
 
If he’s brought in to help Brian be a QB coach, then shouldn’t Brian be the one contracting and paying him?

Don’t get me wrong, I want our guys to succeed. But in the business world if I was hired for a job at more than 500k per year and couldn’t do it, my employer wouldn’t just drop 100k per year on somebody with less experience to come in and teach me how to do it. I’d be going out and getting whatever education it took on my own to keep that job. And that would be on me, with possibly some financial repayment for that education if I can prove it helps.
Not to argue, and certainly not to defend BF, but ...

If you were a CFO for a large, complex business and the company hired a data analyst to provide you with better information - he would be in a position of "helping you", but not teaching you how to be the CFO.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Analyst is charting the formations/plays that have worked against certain defenses and ones that don't - and things similar to that.

For example, I've always wondered, as most fans have, why Iowa simply doesn't have many open receivers. Perhaps he is tweaking the pass routes for better timing and coordination. For example, if there are 3 guys in the pattern and the play is designed so all 3 are "supposed" to be open at the same time, the QB doesn't have a progression to look at. But, if one guy is open in 3 seconds, the other one in 4 seconds and the 3rd is open at 5 seconds (just examples), the the QB can go through an actual progression and find the open guy.

The Hawks have had poor results on offense - I don't think it's simply because of SP or the line not blocking or a bad play call. I think Iowa has a poorly "designed" offense that even a good offense would struggle with. Maybe the Analyst can bring the offense up to date.
 
Not to argue, and certainly not to defend BF, but ...

If you were a CFO for a large, complex business and the company hired a data analyst to provide you with better information - he would be in a position of "helping you", but not teaching you how to be the CFO.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Analyst is charting the formations/plays that have worked against certain defenses and ones that don't - and things similar to that.

For example, I've always wondered, as most fans have, why Iowa simply doesn't have many open receivers. Perhaps he is tweaking the pass routes for better timing and coordination. For example, if there are 3 guys in the pattern and the play is designed so all 3 are "supposed" to be open at the same time, the QB doesn't have a progression to look at. But, if one guy is open in 3 seconds, the other one in 4 seconds and the 3rd is open at 5 seconds (just examples), the the QB can go through an actual progression and find the open guy.

The Hawks have had poor results on offense - I don't think it's simply because of SP or the line not blocking or a bad play call. I think Iowa has a poorly "designed" offense that even a good offense would struggle with. Maybe the Analyst can bring the offense up to date.

This is a very reasonable take and I think fairly likely!
 
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Wonder if he will be groomed for OC if/when Brian takes over. I would imagine if we have a very good couple year run, Kirk will be able to say that all the pieces are in place and leave it to Brian. Brian strikes me as more of a HC, CEO, Captain of the ship mentality guy than necessarily a detailed, X’s and O’s guy.
I doubt it. KF doesn't show any sign of resigning after this year. And I don't think Budmayr's career goals are to be an analyst on the Iowa staff until a full-time position coach or coordinator opens up on the staff.

It worked out well for Iowa so far. Budmayr was let go at Colo State when they fired their staff so he was available to consult. Good on Iowa for being open to new ideas and input. It's a good move for Budmayr. He gets paid a good wage for the temporary contract position, with a lot of input into the passing game. If there is big improvement at Iowa, he immediately becomes very attractive to any number of programs.
 
Ferentz isn't a negative guy, by any measure. However, ever the teacher ... he's always trying to find things for his guys to improve upon. So for him to say that Budmayr is a "gift from heaven" is more effusive of a comment than I'd ordinarily expect from Kirk. My guess is that this means that in practice they're seeing a marked improvement in consistency from the QBs.

Obviously, in the context of Kid's day or when the Big 10 network folks came by ... I'm sure that all the emphasis was placed upon fundamentals. Given that ... it would be hard for the network guys to see anything sexy that would inspire them about any changes in our QB play.

However, for us, as Iowa fans ... we know that given our defense and our special teams ... if the O can even mimic some form of competency ... that's enough to make this team a dangerous one to play!
 
The guy has a proven track record and our offense is the part of the team that needs the most improvement. Seems like a great move. Even a small improvement, with our defense, could mean several more wins. An improved offense that converts some 3rd downs will make our defense even better.
 
Story from today (Aug 23) from HawkCentral.

Some excerpts:

One of the Iowa football program’s most interesting hires of the 2022 offseason has gone from a volunteer consultant to a well-paid offensive analyst.

Jon Budmayr will earn $15,833 per month over a six-month period — totaling just under $95,000 — to help elevate the Iowa quarterbacks room. The salary details were obtained Tuesday by the Des Moines Register via a freedom-of-information request.

Budmayr, 31, has been credited by top-two QBs Spencer Petras and Alex Padilla for advancing the Hawkeyes’ passing game and praised by head coach Kirk Ferentz as "a gift from heaven."

He played for rival Wisconsin and was the quarterbacks coach there from 2018 to 2020 before spending one season as Colorado State’s offensive coordinator. In 2019, Budmayr oversaw one of the most efficient offenses in Wisconsin history with a team completion percentage of 70.1% behind starter Jack Coan. Completion percentage has been a stated high priority for Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz.

Budmayr officially joined the Iowa program March 1 as a “special consultant to the head coach and football staff." His role, as it has been explained by coaches and players, was to help assist Brian Ferentz, who has been transitioning to the role of quarterbacks coach after the departure of five-year quarterbacks coach Ken O'Keefe.

According to the latest agreement with Iowa, Budmayr was hired as a “Temporary Professional Employee” and will serve with the Hawkeyes from July 18, 2022 to January 20, 2023. Budmayr signed the agreement on June 28. He is reporting to Austin Showalter, the Hawkeyes’ director of analytics.

The university has declined media requests to interview Budmayr and did not make him available at the football team’s recent media day. Certainly, if Iowa’s embattled passing game has increased success this season, Budmayr will receive some of the credit ... and would make himself marketable for future coaching positions.

Maybe Brian departs after this year and this guy slides right on in.
 
Not to argue, and certainly not to defend BF, but ...

If you were a CFO for a large, complex business and the company hired a data analyst to provide you with better information - he would be in a position of "helping you", but not teaching you how to be the CFO.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Analyst is charting the formations/plays that have worked against certain defenses and ones that don't - and things similar to that.

For example, I've always wondered, as most fans have, why Iowa simply doesn't have many open receivers. Perhaps he is tweaking the pass routes for better timing and coordination. For example, if there are 3 guys in the pattern and the play is designed so all 3 are "supposed" to be open at the same time, the QB doesn't have a progression to look at. But, if one guy is open in 3 seconds, the other one in 4 seconds and the 3rd is open at 5 seconds (just examples), the the QB can go through an actual progression and find the open guy.

The Hawks have had poor results on offense - I don't think it's simply because of SP or the line not blocking or a bad play call. I think Iowa has a poorly "designed" offense that even a good offense would struggle with. Maybe the Analyst can bring the offense up to date.
About half the CFO's in the world don't know much. Many don't even really have finance or accounting training. I am in that arena and I have seen it over and over. They rely on the underlings to carry them through. They are just talking heads.

Kind of like people who get on Boards of companies and know jack squat about running a business or the industry the business is in.
 
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If he’s brought in to help Brian be a QB coach, then shouldn’t Brian be the one contracting and paying him?

Don’t get me wrong, I want our guys to succeed. But in the business world if I was hired for a job at more than 500k per year and couldn’t do it, my employer wouldn’t just drop 100k per year on somebody with less experience to come in and teach me how to do it. I’d be going out and getting whatever education it took on my own to keep that job. And that would be on me, with possibly some financial repayment for that education if I can prove it helps.
But you’re forgetting one major point: BFs dad is the head coach. That sort of is a big deal.
 
I doubt it. KF doesn't show any sign of resigning after this year. And I don't think Budmayr's career goals are to be an analyst on the Iowa staff until a full-time position coach or coordinator opens up on the staff.

It worked out well for Iowa so far. Budmayr was let go at Colo State when they fired their staff so he was available to consult. Good on Iowa for being open to new ideas and input. It's a good move for Budmayr. He gets paid a good wage for the temporary contract position, with a lot of input into the passing game. If there is big improvement at Iowa, he immediately becomes very attractive to any number of programs.
Great summary.

The thing is, assuming all goes great during the season, what permanent role does JB get after this season to keep him around?
 
If he’s brought in to help Brian be a QB coach, then shouldn’t Brian be the one contracting and paying him?

Don’t get me wrong, I want our guys to succeed. But in the business world if I was hired for a job at more than 500k per year and couldn’t do it, my employer wouldn’t just drop 100k per year on somebody with less experience to come in and teach me how to do it. I’d be going out and getting whatever education it took on my own to keep that job. And that would be on me, with possibly some financial repayment for that education if I can prove it helps.
Companies hire consultants all the time. This is no different.
 
Obviously, Budmayr wants to be in the coaching field and has many, many years of life left in him.

The fact he signed with Iowa shows that the Iowa offense is capable of noticeable improvement (surely he did the “analytics” here). This guy is taking a professional risk to his career if it does not work out with the Iowa Offense in 2022 (marked by his short term contract).
 
Candidly, based on his experience, results, and pedigree, it sure seems like we got pretty fortunate to bring him on only as a temporary “special employee.” Seems like a situation where we got super lucky or there’s a longer game plan in play here.

I think you’d have to say we are extremely blessed. And as Homer said earlier very surprised to hear Kirk call it a “gift from heaven“. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say anything like that and I notice because I have a tendency to listen to whether or not people ever reference God or heaven in their day-to-day talks.

It is something that can definitely change the trajectory of our offense… Really tie together the units and the loose ends.

No matter how much of a “homer“ you may or may not be as a fan, we all can agree the offense comparably speaking is a shell of the defense. And you can’t just give Phil Parker credit because it started with Norm and clearly Kirk no matter what he says is also involved and we’ve typically had pretty high-end defensive coaches! Even defensive recruiting is markedly better as far as I’m concerned!
 
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So for him to say that Budmayr is a "gift from heaven" is more effusive of a comment than I'd ordinarily expect from Kirk. My guess is that this means that in practice they're seeing a marked improvement in consistency from the QBs.
The scenario appears to me to be the following: Iowa did not pursue Budmayr, he pursued Iowa, as evidenced by the fact he came in as a volunteer. So he saw what he felt were readily fixable problems (low hanging fruit) that Iowa either had not identified or were incapable of fixing.

" A gift from heaven" would be a natural reaction for any of us if someone suddenly stepped up and offered for free to fix a big problem that we had not identified or were incapable of fixing.

I think Budmayr will help considerably. IMO, the extent of that help will depend on two things:

1) Although greater than that of the current staff, what is his actual level of expertise? Is it fairly
typical for someone with his background or does it actually approach a high level OC?

2) At some point (may have already happened) there will be conflicts between his recommendations and aspects of KF's philosophy. How flexible will KF be in those situations?
 
NFL. Offensive line.
Yeah… We have a lot of pretty smart posters on here that really struggle with the ideology behind coaches & families and friends & the role they play in getting each others jobs & the kind of money position coaches in the NFL make.

No matter how good a coach you think Brian is or isn’t he would find a good job immediately!
 
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Oh boy, who knew that pass completion percentage was important!

Yes, completion percentage is obviously important. Also, Passing yards per attempt is one of the most important stats---which means a QB needs to be throwing downfield and completing those, or hitting his Rbs/Wr's in stride so they get good YAC.

I could see Petras putting an emphasis on dumping a lot of balls to secondary options for short gains and improving his completion percentage but the offense still stagnating.

Foremost, Iowa needs the run game to work and then it can be so-so on offense instead of well below average. Petras should be at his career best as 5th year senior, but I think his happy feet, tendency to spaz, not being quick decision , and beeing a sitting duck in pocket because he is slow footed/doesn't break tackles all add up to a Meh year on offense if Petras is the annointed QB this year.
 
I think you’d have to say we are extremely blessed. And as Homer said earlier very surprised to hear Kirk call it a “gift from heaven“. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say anything like that and I notice because I have a tendency to listen to whether or not people ever reference God or heaven in their day-to-day talks.

It is something that can definitely change the trajectory of our offense… Really tie together the units and the loose ends.

No matter how much of a “homer“ you may or may not be as a fan, we all can agree the offense comparably speaking is a shell of the defense. And you can’t just give Phil Parker credit because it started with Norm and clearly Kirk no matter what he says is also involved and we’ve typically had pretty high-end defensive coaches! Even defensive recruiting is markedly better as far as I’m concerned!
yea, no question the Defense has been playing at a higher level than the Offense..
of course what happens this season remains to be seen..

Cory Brada reported that Iowa had a Closed Scrimmage last Saturday..
he says they played 2 quarters of live ball...
and the 1st string offense played against the 2nd and 3rd string defense...

and he says the 1st string only had 2 first downs in 2 quarters of play against the 2nd and 3rd string defense.

that could mean one of two things, in my opinion..
it could mean this is the worst offense we've had since 2012 ...
or it could mean the offense is still working out a few kinks

I'm confident this offense is going to be very good before its all said and done.
so I like to remember these sorts of reports when the time comes... and Iowa is winning.

Brian Ferentz is one of the brightest minds in football...
he's gonna get this thing straightened out
 
Obviously, Budmayr wants to be in the coaching field and has many, many years of life left in him.

The fact he signed with Iowa shows that the Iowa offense is capable of noticeable improvement (surely he did the “analytics” here). This guy is taking a professional risk to his career if it does not work out with the Iowa Offense in 2022 (marked by his short term contract).
I don’t think he’s putting his career at risk at all. He’s not the OC. The offense has to come little this year to show marked improvement. He already has had amazing testimonials thrown his way by a highly respected long term coach. He has a big career ahead of him after this year whether it be at Iowa or somewhere else.
 
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The scenario appears to me to be the following: Iowa did not pursue Budmayr, he pursued Iowa, as evidenced by the fact he came in as a volunteer. So he saw what he felt were readily fixable problems (low hanging fruit) that Iowa either had not identified or were incapable of fixing.
This is not true.

KF has stated they've had their eye on Budmayr for some time.
 
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