Nope.
1. Are you counting this season as part of the last handful? If so, "failure" and "leading the league in rushing" aren't part of the same conversation.
2. Predictability had very little to do with the past struggles of the O-line, compared to the reasons that have been laid out in this thread.
The offense had its tendencies before the O-line was ever broken. And they did not keep it from being a serviceable offense.
Not saying predictability didn't play any role, just a minor one.
And the predictability, as you've put it, has been misrepresented.
Of course Iowa became more predictable in '22. When you are aware, as a staff, that your O-line is broken, and not strong enough to move the line-of-scrimmage, you have the understanding that not a whole lot is going to work. Being more multiple in that situation would have only invited more risk. The staff chose to try to do the best they could with a few simple plays. They knew there was no easy fix or shortcuts, as again there was no way to have made those lineman strong enough over night. KF told us at that time that it was going to be a slow process to get them up to speed. He chose to build it brick by brick and we saw that pay off this season.
In '23 we saw a line that was making incremental improvements, but still wasn't quite there. But everything got complicated and shot in the foot by having to play an emergency QB most of the season. What does every team, even in the pros do when playing a backup QB? They pare down the playbook, try to survive, and not make a big mistake. The offense wasn't good enough to even execute plays designed/ installed as tendency-breakers. So it was what it was.
All these coaches know their opponents' tendencies. You don't think PP knows what the opponent is running? But the predictability did increased in both '22 and '23, and I'm not sure there was any way around that. Had Iowa not pared down the playbook in those instances, I highly doubt they would have won 8 and 10 games
