ADVERTISEMENT

Line play

I can promise you it’s not.

Doyle was there from 2011-2014 when Iowa went 26-25. OL play has not been dominant or good since the 2000s.

Yes, the OL has been trash since Doyle left, but correlation doesn’t mean causation. The truth is Iowa has put out a bunch of guys (like Plumb) who have no business being on a P5 roster let alone starting. I would also add OL really began regressing after Brian Ferentz stopped being the OL coach. When you factor in how much stronger and faster the defense has been since Doyle left, I don’t think there’s any real cause and effect here as it relates to Doyle.

Yes, Doyle was good. That doesn’t mean S&C completely went to shit after he left. The truth is there have been too many awful weak links on the OL forced into the starting lineup while being taught by a coach (Barnett) whom I am still perplexed by in terms of why he still has a job at the University of Iowa.
There was also a fair amount of attrition, primarily due to injuries but also a couple of transfers. Several factors contributed to the decline in the OL.
 
There was also a fair amount of attrition, primarily due to injuries but also a couple of transfers. Several factors contributed to the decline in the OL.
Boom! Now we're getting somewhere!

It's was actually quite an unfair amount of attrition.

But good job, Band Man
 
Boom! Now we're getting somewhere!

It's was actually quite an unfair amount of attrition.

But good job, Band Man
I also recall KF saying they had reduced number of o line schollys for a short term and recruited elsewhere...

interesting note earlier in this thread where someone brought up the talent we had in 2000-2005 or so--we were talking about that earlier this year during a pregame on the viseo board they were putting up all the all americans in the KF era and the people we had from 2002-2005.

I for one say losing reese morgan hurt iowa in a lot more ways than just what he coached but in player evaluations as well. I feel the decline in our o line started when he was moved ot d line, plus when they are in the recruiting war room Reese was extremely acute at identifying talent.

Those that do not feel that attrition is a large factor look at it this way--I know one of the o linemen--he is young and moved into a backup roll in just his second year--did not play much at all--but he was told by the staff they did not think he would contribute until his third yr. so he is a year ahead of where they thought he would be.
This is the thought process behind making of an o line--sure we would love to have 5 --5 star that could start as freshman but for the rest of us--we need to get some talent in the room and build it up...takes time.
 
This is not at all a good characterization of what happened.

This stuff has been laid out specifically in conversation with you on this board before. I find it hard to believe you never read those posts.

The winning percentage isn't much different without Doyle. But the offensive production is.

The offense was never broken until the O-line was broken. The O-line broke due to a confluence of factors that started during the COVID shutdown.

During that time, Doyle was canned, and young lineman that ended up being forced into duty far too early were missing developmental workouts because of the shutdown.

You are right that in '22 Iowa had O-lineman on the field that had no business playing. But it wasn't because they were all bums. It was because they were underdeveloped.

Iowa was forced to play underdeveloped lineman because of significant attrition to the group at that time. Injuries, early departure for the NFL, retirement from the game, a recruit flipping, transfers (I know at least one guy left because Doyle was gone). All contributed to decimating the O-line that was projected to play at the time.

So again, Iowa was left with a bunch of guys who weren't ready to play. It wasn't just inexperienced players and inexperience as a group. The main hurdle was that these kids weren't yet physically strong enough to get the job done. That isn't a hurdle that gets cleared over night.

You have to realize that Iowa had always employed a strategy of recruiting undersized O-lineman with good feet, with the plan of building them up through a difference-making S&C coach (Doyle). This should all be starting to make a lot of sense to those trying to figure out what happened.

To say the defense has been faster and stronger since Doyle left is simply not true. It should also be noted that Doyle worked exclusively with the O-line in addition to the S&C program that he ran for the whole team.

FYI, the Iowa O-line is no longer "trash". Being that you've admitted to not watching most of the season, it's not surprising that you didn't know that. Here are a couple hints to catch you up. Iowa led the league in rushing and the O-line a semi-finalist for the Joe Moore award.

People on this board have no idea whether Barnett is any good or not. I can tell you that people who are in the know speak very highly of him. And I can also tell you that there isn't an O-line coach alive that can increase the physical strength of his players overnight
No the O line is trash against good teams. Some is trash qb talent and play calling
 
No the O line is trash against good teams. Some is trash qb talent and play calling
Even if it is trash against good teams, which is questionable, that doesn't make it trash overall.

Yes, significant complication from the '23 QB.

Play calling quite overrated in it all
 
I believe this is pretty damn accurate.

Kirk’s early vision of building a program was top notch. His assistants almost all went on to bigger jobs. They could recruit. Doyle brought in a SC program that’s now been copied by everyone.

Go watch those games from 2000-2005, and it’s a completely different athlete and program. We’ve had a few blips since then, but there was speed EVERYWHERE. And the guys were freaking mean.

What’s changed is Kirk didn’t change. He’s only gotten more stubborn and set in his ways.

Again, there’s been a few moments of bright light success. Overall all tho over the last decade Iowa has been a “hard nose blue collar” program which is a nice way of saying average

As for the OL, it’s less about SC and more about talent. Iowa hasn’t brought any in
"Overall all tho over the last decade Iowa has been a “hard nose blue collar” program which is a nice way of saying average"

Just an FYI a google search for the most wins in cfb over the last decade finds that Iowa is

16Iowa871288910610886

Ready for the 'soft out of conference schedule' - pretty similar to most
'but they played in the weak big ten west' certainly the other big ten west schools must be above them.

Under perform against the big boys? Yup. Average? The numbers don't support that.
 
"Overall all tho over the last decade Iowa has been a “hard nose blue collar” program which is a nice way of saying average"

Just an FYI a google search for the most wins in cfb over the last decade finds that Iowa is

16Iowa871288910610886

Ready for the 'soft out of conference schedule' - pretty similar to most
'but they played in the weak big ten west' certainly the other big ten west schools must be above them.

Under perform against the big boys? Yup. Average? The numbers don't support that.
Good post.

Actually haven't even underperformed vs the big boys over the 26 years.

People want to make a big deal of the recent struggles against the top dogs. Is it a sign that the program is in trouble? There really isn't any evidence of that, as Iowa continues to beat the rest. And it really doesn't make sense to make conclusions about a program based on how they perform against the very best of competition anyway.

People who study patterns would not consider a sample size of a few or even handful of years to be very significant. Take roulette for example. The color red is projected to win just under 50% over time. I've seen a board with 29 red in a row. Similar with the game baccarat. The "banker" hand is projected to win just under 50% over time. I've seen a board with 31 in a row "banker". There can be great variance from expectation in the short term.

Then you have to factor in that Iowa clearly fell upon a challenging patch the last few years that started with the factors discussed in this thread that retarded the O-line. All of that is an outlier rather than the norm.

KF should have had people's trust and respect over 20 years ago
 
Why not start recruiting HS Oxen?
Find HS players that live in the weight room.
Recruit them.
Find ones that can bench press the Titanic and squat the Himalayas.
Find ones that are ALREADY people movers so they can focus on technique at the next level.
Logan Jones set strength records early. With that said, he had weight to gain and learn a new position.

They did try with Proctor and that other massive guy that also decommitted.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyesofhawk
Iowa’s offensive line has been incredibly soft for five years.


 
Iowa’s offensive line has been incredibly soft for five years.


Read the thread much?

Nothing incredible about it. All pretty straightforward.

And 5 years is definitely an exaggeration. The line is no longer soft. And struggles seemed to start surfacing at the last of the '21 season with injuries compounded by a back who chose to save his hits for the pros and discontinued fighting for short gains
 
  • Like
Reactions: Hawkeyegeorge12
Read the thread much?

Nothing incredible about it. All pretty straightforward.

And 5 years is definitely an exaggeration. The line is no longer soft. And struggles seemed to start surfacing at the last of the '21 season with injuries compounded by a back who chose to save his hits for the pros and discontinued fighting for short gains

open-uri20150422-12561-90v1dg_f6b111bf.jpeg
 
  • Like
Reactions: ClarindaA's
SOMEONE ARGUE WITH ME ABOUT FIVE FAT MEN!!
That was two years ago.

Not all necessarily fat, but not strong enough.

Workout and eat all the time and you become stronger, a Joe Moore semi-finalist, and lead the league in rushing.

Read the thread much?
 
If the line was that good, we wouldn’t have settled for 2 field goals against that cyclones, first and goal from the one and three respectively
Well, the Joe Moore nominators must have missed those few plays.

It also would have been helpful to have run the ball those plays
 
Well, the Joe Moore nominators must have missed those few plays.

It also would have been helpful to have run the ball those plays
Right , if you remember we chose to throw the ball on most of the plays in the two series where we had first and goal from the 2. The first time we did make a poor decision to run from the shotgun with the ball on the 2 and we lost 5 yards . We should have gotten under center and pounded it in there 3 plays in a row if necessary
 
Right , if you remember we chose to throw the ball on most of the plays in the two series where we had first and goal from the 2. The first time we did make a poor decision to run from the shotgun with the ball on the 2 and we lost 5 yards . We should have gotten under center and pounded it in there 3 plays in a row if necessary
Yeah I remember the end-around to Gill too
 
Yes, I did. And they have nothing to do with the comparison of rush lanes between this season and the previous two.

If anything, those games make my point. Kaleb couldn't do crap without rushing lanes.

This is what we've been talking about, is it not? You said the O-line sucked and was bailed out by K2.

Although both compliment each other, lines make backs far more than backs make lines. An O-line can grind consistent yardage with a bad back. Backs cannot grind consistent yardage with bad O-lines.

It's simple numbers and simply it's football. Nothing other than fundamental. And knowledge common to everyone who knows a thing about football.

It's truly incomprehensible to me the amount of people that come onto this board on a daily basis and have virtually no understanding of the game of football. There are literally people who seem to hate the Hawks, do not watch the games, and are on here posting every day. That is something I will never be able to fathom.

To an extent, I can understand the limited knowledge of the game. It is a very complicated game. It is a game that most people never played. And it's hard to see exactly what's happening in the interior of the line from the standard horizontal angle put on tv.

But anybody can see how much the line of scrimmage moves. And anybody can choose to listen to what every football expert has been telling us for 150 years. I mean, watch any post-game interview or any studio segment for two minutes and you're going to hear an expert tell you that the game is won up-front.

It's the essence of football. It's very, very, simple. And it is what allows the layers of complexity in the game to unfold. But all of the complexities are completely secondary.

If you guys ever in your life have the interest to spend two seconds trying to learn football, then remember what I now tell you. FOOTBALL IS WON UP-FRONT.

I'm not trying to be a know it all. Because again, anyone who understands football understands this simple fundamental truth. I'm honestly only trying to help.

Let this truth sink in. Doesn't it feel great to now understand football in this way? Almost like the vault at Fort Knox has been opened before your eyes.

It should be mentioned though, that in addition to the improvement of the O-line this season, Kaleb was also a much improved back
I could probably list about 100 different things this offense did the last handful of years to set the OL up for failure. OL obviously needs to play better but what Iowa has expected them to do with how they go about things especially under Brian Ferentz was ridiculous. High School teams in the state I scout aren’t even tendency heavy like Iowa was and that’s just the limited numbers leaked. I can’t imagine how much worse they tipped their hands with more detailed reports.
 
@eyesofhawk I'm sure your vast superior knowledge of not only the game but both OL and DL just blows everyone’s away. Including those of us who’ve coached it for years. I’m also pretty sure you said something about wheel routes not working Vs zone so clearly I’m dealing with someone who knows more than anyone on the board.
 
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest posts

ADVERTISEMENT