Looking to the '25 D ... what needs to be done to improve?

[ghostOfHomer777]

It seems apparent from BOTH transfer-portal movement AND what we saw on the field ... Iowa appeared to lack depth on the DL, most notably at DT. Our starters, in Black and Graves were obviously pretty good ... however, Pittman's development has apparently been a "slower build" and none of the other guys "popped" beyond that. Furthermore, the injury to Allen certainly didn't help things, seeing that he was a guy who could play on the outside OR the inside ... he was a guy who we had seen some nice things from.

At DE, guys still need to do a better job of maintaining outside leverage. Too often, guys would cheat inside ... and then we'd lose our outside leverage.

I do believe that we have a good core group at DE in Hurkett, Allen, and Llewellyn. Obviously, with the graduation of Black ... it leaves a bit of a vacuum of "proven" productive guys outside of Graves. Hopefully, the additions of Pace and Hawthorne address this vacuum-issue.

The other obvious thing was the play in the secondary. I know that Entringer is a talented guy ... but his absence was felt more than I would have predicted. Furthermore, apart from Harris ... our corner play was largely pretty uneven. Lee seemed to be the most consistent performer ... but his play has its own limitations. He's still on the short-side and a little slow ... so he can get abused a bit when he's caught on an island. After a surprisingly decent RS FR season ... his SO season wasn't to the same level. Kinda reminded me a bit of King's sophomore slump in '14.

Anyhow, it's obvious that Phil likes the guys he has in his room ... it seems like there's just the continued process of having those guys develop ... because they're clearly not "there" yet.

Iowa's LB play was obviously very veteran. I know that Phil asks a lot of them ... often times relying on defending against the run with surprisingly few hats in the box. This season, I don't know if the issue was that the DL wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping them clean ... or if they weren't making the right reads when filling against the run ... because our run-D was far more porous than I'd ordinarily expect for an Iowa D (particularly one with such a veteran group of LBs). Sharar and Harrell finally saw more snaps this season ... so hopefully that helps them going into next year. The Hawks have seemingly been recruiting pretty well at LB over the past few years, so I expect that the LB-room will ultimately develop into a pretty decent group.

I know that Iowa fans are seemingly very "woe is me" concerning our offensive situation ... but my eye-balls told me that even in spite of QB issues (particularly concerning QB-health) ... the O was still light years better than what it was over the prior few seasons. Thus, I think that it is reasonable to assume that Iowa's O will continue to be on a bit of an upward ascent as Lester continues to assert himself. Furthermore, I think that there was a lot to like from what we say from Dakin ... punting was usually pretty good. So that leaves the D ... will we see improvement going into next season?

 

[jonesy5960]

It could be decades before we see a run of defenses as good as those from 2018-2023. Iowa fans are going to have to adjust expectations.

 

[grayhair81]

According to Eyes, they need to bring back BF and de-emphasize the offense.

 

[QChawks]

I trust Phil Parker on righting the ship a hell of a lot more than I trust Lester to be able to produce a reliable offense

 

[sober_teacher]

It could be decades before we see a run of defenses as good as those from 2018-2023. Iowa fans are going to have to adjust expectations.

Defense went from elite to pretty good. Many expected that to happen we just weren’t expecting to see it from such a veteran defense.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

It seems apparent from BOTH transfer-portal movement AND what we saw on the field ... Iowa appeared to lack depth on the DL, most notably at DT. Our starters, in Black and Graves were obviously pretty good ... however, Pittman's development has apparently been a "slower build" and none of the other guys "popped" beyond that. Furthermore, the injury to Allen certainly didn't help things, seeing that he was a guy who could play on the outside OR the inside ... he was a guy who we had seen some nice things from.

At DE, guys still need to do a better job of maintaining outside leverage. Too often, guys would cheat inside ... and then we'd lose our outside leverage.

I do believe that we have a good core group at DE in Hurkett, Allen, and Llewellyn. Obviously, with the graduation of Black ... it leaves a bit of a vacuum of "proven" productive guys outside of Graves. Hopefully, the additions of Pace and Hawthorne address this vacuum-issue.

The other obvious thing was the play in the secondary. I know that Entringer is a talented guy ... but his absence was felt more than I would have predicted. Furthermore, apart from Harris ... our corner play was largely pretty uneven. Lee seemed to be the most consistent performer ... but his play has its own limitations. He's still on the short-side and a little slow ... so he can get abused a bit when he's caught on an island. After a surprisingly decent RS FR season ... his SO season wasn't to the same level. Kinda reminded me a bit of King's sophomore slump in '14.

Anyhow, it's obvious that Phil likes the guys he has in his room ... it seems like there's just the continued process of having those guys develop ... because they're clearly not "there" yet.

Iowa's LB play was obviously very veteran. I know that Phil asks a lot of them ... often times relying on defending against the run with surprisingly few hats in the box. This season, I don't know if the issue was that the DL wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping them clean ... or if they weren't making the right reads when filling against the run ... because our run-D was far more porous than I'd ordinarily expect for an Iowa D (particularly one with such a veteran group of LBs). Sharar and Harrell finally saw more snaps this season ... so hopefully that helps them going into next year. The Hawks have seemingly been recruiting pretty well at LB over the past few years, so I expect that the LB-room will ultimately develop into a pretty decent group.

I know that Iowa fans are seemingly very "woe is me" concerning our offensive situation ... but my eye-balls told me that even in spite of QB issues (particularly concerning QB-health) ... the O was still light years better than what it was over the prior few seasons. Thus, I think that it is reasonable to assume that Iowa's O will continue to be on a bit of an upward ascent as Lester continues to assert himself. Furthermore, I think that there was a lot to like from what we say from Dakin ... punting was usually pretty good. So that leaves the D ... will we see improvement going into next season?

If you ask some people, we just need to spend all our NIL money and buy out the Detroit Lions defensive players' contracts so they can play defense for us...............

 

[nu2u]

I know Shulte played a shit ton as a multi-year vet but I think, except for a couple possible early season hiccups, his replacement - probably Lutmer - will be an upgrade. Shulte always seemed to lack instinct and was late to the action. Seems unfair, but also remember the dropped INTs.

 

[Nagarunja]

I think we'll see X move to his more natural safety position and Entriger take over at strong.

 

[sober_teacher]

I think we'll see X move to his more natural safety position and Entriger take over at strong.

Have seen this mentioned elsewhere as well.

 

[BigOHawk]

I know Shulte played a shit ton as a multi-year vet but I think, except for a couple possible early season hiccups, his replacement - probably Lutmer - will be an upgrade. Shulte always seemed to lack instinct and was late to the action. Seems unfair, but also remember the dropped INTs.

I think Lutmer will make you quickly forget about Schulte, and that's not a huge knock against him. To my untrained eye, Schulte was always in chase mode or pulling guys down after a first down.

 

[sober_teacher]

I think Lutmer will make you quickly forget about Schulte, and that's not a huge knock against him. To my untrained eye, Schulte was always in chase mode or pulling guys down after a first down.

In some combo it seems like Etringer, Luther and Nwankpa will be involved as SS, FS and CASH; or at least will have the first crack at it.

 

[IowaHawk1994]

It seems apparent from BOTH transfer-portal movement AND what we saw on the field ... Iowa appeared to lack depth on the DL, most notably at DT. Our starters, in Black and Graves were obviously pretty good ... however, Pittman's development has apparently been a "slower build" and none of the other guys "popped" beyond that. Furthermore, the injury to Allen certainly didn't help things, seeing that he was a guy who could play on the outside OR the inside ... he was a guy who we had seen some nice things from.

At DE, guys still need to do a better job of maintaining outside leverage. Too often, guys would cheat inside ... and then we'd lose our outside leverage.

I do believe that we have a good core group at DE in Hurkett, Allen, and Llewellyn. Obviously, with the graduation of Black ... it leaves a bit of a vacuum of "proven" productive guys outside of Graves. Hopefully, the additions of Pace and Hawthorne address this vacuum-issue.

The other obvious thing was the play in the secondary. I know that Entringer is a talented guy ... but his absence was felt more than I would have predicted. Furthermore, apart from Harris ... our corner play was largely pretty uneven. Lee seemed to be the most consistent performer ... but his play has its own limitations. He's still on the short-side and a little slow ... so he can get abused a bit when he's caught on an island. After a surprisingly decent RS FR season ... his SO season wasn't to the same level. Kinda reminded me a bit of King's sophomore slump in '14.

Anyhow, it's obvious that Phil likes the guys he has in his room ... it seems like there's just the continued process of having those guys develop ... because they're clearly not "there" yet.

Iowa's LB play was obviously very veteran. I know that Phil asks a lot of them ... often times relying on defending against the run with surprisingly few hats in the box. This season, I don't know if the issue was that the DL wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping them clean ... or if they weren't making the right reads when filling against the run ... because our run-D was far more porous than I'd ordinarily expect for an Iowa D (particularly one with such a veteran group of LBs). Sharar and Harrell finally saw more snaps this season ... so hopefully that helps them going into next year. The Hawks have seemingly been recruiting pretty well at LB over the past few years, so I expect that the LB-room will ultimately develop into a pretty decent group.

I know that Iowa fans are seemingly very "woe is me" concerning our offensive situation ... but my eye-balls told me that even in spite of QB issues (particularly concerning QB-health) ... the O was still light years better than what it was over the prior few seasons. Thus, I think that it is reasonable to assume that Iowa's O will continue to be on a bit of an upward ascent as Lester continues to assert himself. Furthermore, I think that there was a lot to like from what we say from Dakin ... punting was usually pretty good. So that leaves the D ... will we see improvement going into next season?

Besides the brutal no talent roster and the arachiac crappy scheme about it. This program is done.

 

[mstrub]

I know Shulte played a shit ton as a multi-year vet but I think, except for a couple possible early season hiccups, his replacement - probably Lutmer - will be an upgrade. Shulte always seemed to lack instinct and was late to the action. Seems unfair, but also remember the dropped INTs.

I think it will most likely be X at FS, Entringer at SS, and Lutmer at CASH.

 

[Ladell-hawk]

It seems apparent from BOTH transfer-portal movement AND what we saw on the field ... Iowa appeared to lack depth on the DL, most notably at DT. Our starters, in Black and Graves were obviously pretty good ... however, Pittman's development has apparently been a "slower build" and none of the other guys "popped" beyond that. Furthermore, the injury to Allen certainly didn't help things, seeing that he was a guy who could play on the outside OR the inside ... he was a guy who we had seen some nice things from.

At DE, guys still need to do a better job of maintaining outside leverage. Too often, guys would cheat inside ... and then we'd lose our outside leverage.

I do believe that we have a good core group at DE in Hurkett, Allen, and Llewellyn. Obviously, with the graduation of Black ... it leaves a bit of a vacuum of "proven" productive guys outside of Graves. Hopefully, the additions of Pace and Hawthorne address this vacuum-issue.

The other obvious thing was the play in the secondary. I know that Entringer is a talented guy ... but his absence was felt more than I would have predicted. Furthermore, apart from Harris ... our corner play was largely pretty uneven. Lee seemed to be the most consistent performer ... but his play has its own limitations. He's still on the short-side and a little slow ... so he can get abused a bit when he's caught on an island. After a surprisingly decent RS FR season ... his SO season wasn't to the same level. Kinda reminded me a bit of King's sophomore slump in '14.

Anyhow, it's obvious that Phil likes the guys he has in his room ... it seems like there's just the continued process of having those guys develop ... because they're clearly not "there" yet.

Iowa's LB play was obviously very veteran. I know that Phil asks a lot of them ... often times relying on defending against the run with surprisingly few hats in the box. This season, I don't know if the issue was that the DL wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping them clean ... or if they weren't making the right reads when filling against the run ... because our run-D was far more porous than I'd ordinarily expect for an Iowa D (particularly one with such a veteran group of LBs). Sharar and Harrell finally saw more snaps this season ... so hopefully that helps them going into next year. The Hawks have seemingly been recruiting pretty well at LB over the past few years, so I expect that the LB-room will ultimately develop into a pretty decent group.

I know that Iowa fans are seemingly very "woe is me" concerning our offensive situation ... but my eye-balls told me that even in spite of QB issues (particularly concerning QB-health) ... the O was still light years better than what it was over the prior few seasons. Thus, I think that it is reasonable to assume that Iowa's O will continue to be on a bit of an upward ascent as Lester continues to assert himself. Furthermore, I think that there was a lot to like from what we say from Dakin ... punting was usually pretty good. So that leaves the D ... will we see improvement going into next season?

I think we will see a better pass rush next year . If the secondary improves and I expect it to, the defense will be better.

 

[Beattheohiostate]

It could be decades before we see a run of defenses as good as those from 2018-2023. Iowa fans are going to have to adjust expectations.

Those defenses were very good, but probably not as good as they looked on paper given two nonconference cupcakes and a decidedly mediocre bunch of offenses in the Big Ten West every year.

So I think Phil, as outstanding as he's been, needs to make some changes in his approach when facing better offenses, especially better, mobile QBs. There may be no better example this year than Missouri. Phil, with absolutely nothing to lose and playing without his best CB, REFUSED to blitz an outstanding, veteran, mobile Missouri QB. The result was predictable. The kid sat back there and threw like he was playing catch in the backyard. I don't know that Iowa's D stopped Missouri more than once or twice all day. For the most part, Missouri's offense stayed on the field until it made enough mistakes to stop a drive--overthrown receivers, dropped passes, bad play calls.

You cannot beat good offenses without pressuring the QB. The best defense against a good passing game is pressure. Sure, great players on the back end are nice, but no QB has ever been effective while trying to throw under constant duress. The bowl games and the CFP have clearly demonstrated that. Michigan blitzed the hell out of a very good, veteran QB in Alabama's Milroe, so the young man looked quite mortal as he ran for his life most of the day, and Michigan won.

Phil's conservative bend-but-don't-break broke a lot this year, including against Missouri. No defensive backfield can be expected to cover decent receivers for 4, 5, 6 seconds or even longer. While many people, including some in the press, have naively put the bowl game loss on Sullivan, they're wrong. Poor play calling in the second half combined with a stubborn refusal to blitz--coaching mistakes--doomed Iowa to the loss.

So for Iowa's defense to be effective it, like the offense, must be FAR more creative and aggressive than we've seen under Phil Parker.

 

[uihawk82]

It seems apparent from BOTH transfer-portal movement AND what we saw on the field ... Iowa appeared to lack depth on the DL, most notably at DT. Our starters, in Black and Graves were obviously pretty good ... however, Pittman's development has apparently been a "slower build" and none of the other guys "popped" beyond that. Furthermore, the injury to Allen certainly didn't help things, seeing that he was a guy who could play on the outside OR the inside ... he was a guy who we had seen some nice things from.

At DE, guys still need to do a better job of maintaining outside leverage. Too often, guys would cheat inside ... and then we'd lose our outside leverage.

I do believe that we have a good core group at DE in Hurkett, Allen, and Llewellyn. Obviously, with the graduation of Black ... it leaves a bit of a vacuum of "proven" productive guys outside of Graves. Hopefully, the additions of Pace and Hawthorne address this vacuum-issue.

The other obvious thing was the play in the secondary. I know that Entringer is a talented guy ... but his absence was felt more than I would have predicted. Furthermore, apart from Harris ... our corner play was largely pretty uneven. Lee seemed to be the most consistent performer ... but his play has its own limitations. He's still on the short-side and a little slow ... so he can get abused a bit when he's caught on an island. After a surprisingly decent RS FR season ... his SO season wasn't to the same level. Kinda reminded me a bit of King's sophomore slump in '14.

Anyhow, it's obvious that Phil likes the guys he has in his room ... it seems like there's just the continued process of having those guys develop ... because they're clearly not "there" yet.

Iowa's LB play was obviously very veteran. I know that Phil asks a lot of them ... often times relying on defending against the run with surprisingly few hats in the box. This season, I don't know if the issue was that the DL wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping them clean ... or if they weren't making the right reads when filling against the run ... because our run-D was far more porous than I'd ordinarily expect for an Iowa D (particularly one with such a veteran group of LBs). Sharar and Harrell finally saw more snaps this season ... so hopefully that helps them going into next year. The Hawks have seemingly been recruiting pretty well at LB over the past few years, so I expect that the LB-room will ultimately develop into a pretty decent group.

I know that Iowa fans are seemingly very "woe is me" concerning our offensive situation ... but my eye-balls told me that even in spite of QB issues (particularly concerning QB-health) ... the O was still light years better than what it was over the prior few seasons. Thus, I think that it is reasonable to assume that Iowa's O will continue to be on a bit of an upward ascent as Lester continues to assert himself. Furthermore, I think that there was a lot to like from what we say from Dakin ... punting was usually pretty good. So that leaves the D ... will we see improvement going into next season?

You said " This season, I don't know if the issue was that the DL wasn't doing a good enough job of keeping them clean " and what I saw in some our worst games against the run, MSU, UCLA, not too bad against OSU, was our DTackles were getting their pads lifted and they were straightend up and pushed a good distance like they were on skates. That needs to be fixed. In other games, Black and Graves were really pretty stout. And like you said our DEnds were pinned inside a lot and gave up some big runs on the edge. Does this mean they just need to line up one more foot outside of the outside most blocker and let the Lbkr fill the gap between Dtackle and DEnd. Maybe. But again both of those situations need to improve as this defense was not as stingy in run stopping. Plus they had trouble sacking the qb as much as in the past, definitely missed Joe Evans. But the DEnds coming back should have good sack stats next year.

The linebackers will be all new starters but they have experience in the system for a few years and if their technique is sound they will be good.

At cornerback, like you said, they need to be stickier for those first 3 seconds. Parker has had some great corners on both sides with Moss, DeJean, King, Jackson, Harris, and a few others. Opponents knew we were a little weak on one side this year and it showed. Lee and Hall I hope improve their speed and metrics, we shall see.

The safety play was down the last couple of years compared to Hooker, Belton, Merriweather and some others. If the corners are better that lets the safeties shade a little more inside and a little closer to the LOS which could tighten things up.

go hawks

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

At cornerback, like you said, they need to be stickier for those first 3 seconds. Parker has had some great corners on both sides with Moss, DeJean, King, Jackson, Harris, and a few others. Opponents knew we were a little weak on one side this year and it showed. Lee and Hall I hope improve their speed and metrics, we shall see.

go hawks

As you mentioned as well ... if the DL can muster a better pass-rush, that takes off a little more pressure on the secondary ... which allows them to exploit the "zone eyes" that Phil teaches them. That can and will equate to takeaways.

Your comments about our DTs against the run sticks with me a little too ... it reminds me of Kirk's and Norm's comments about Bab's against Arizona State. In '04, against ASU, for some reason Bab's technique let up ... and boy was that an ugly game as a result. Mind you ... things weren't just on him ... but when such a high caliber player has a bad game like that ... it really reverberates.

 

[NCHawkeye24]

What I saw so much of was the entire dline having a hard time shedding blocks. There is no one in the secondary that can man up a talented receiver, so PP is forced to play a 2 high safety look most all the time. Which is fine if the dline can win up front, stop the run and get even token pressure on the QB. But it just didn't happen this year.

On offense they played pretty well between the tackles, but, are just so weak outside on the edge. There were a lot of big plays that came out of those times when defense tried stacking the box, but, where it really showed was on 3rd and short yardage situations. Iowa has to get better on 3rd and 3 or less to progress and being able to get out to the edge by either passing or throwing will help lighten this box up a lot when it matters.

 

[GoB1G]

Besides the brutal no talent roster and the arachiac crappy scheme about it. This program is done.

Arachiac. You just typed ‘arachiac’. Not only did you type it. You hit ‘Post Reply’ after typing it.

 

[Ladell-hawk]

Those defenses were very good, but probably not as good as they looked on paper given two nonconference cupcakes and a decidedly mediocre bunch of offenses in the Big Ten West every year.

So I think Phil, as outstanding as he's been, needs to make some changes in his approach when facing better offenses, especially better, mobile QBs. There may be no better example this year than Missouri. Phil, with absolutely nothing to lose and playing without his best CB, REFUSED to blitz an outstanding, veteran, mobile Missouri QB. The result was predictable. The kid sat back there and threw like he was playing catch in the backyard. I don't know that Iowa's D stopped Missouri more than once or twice all day. For the most part, Missouri's offense stayed on the field until it made enough mistakes to stop a drive--overthrown receivers, dropped passes, bad play calls.

You cannot beat good offenses without pressuring the QB. The best defense against a good passing game is pressure. Sure, great players on the back end are nice, but no QB has ever been effective while trying to throw under constant duress. The bowl games and the CFP have clearly demonstrated that. Michigan blitzed the hell out of a very good, veteran QB in Alabama's Milroe, so the young man looked quite mortal as he ran for his life most of the day, and Michigan won.

Phil's conservative bend-but-don't-break broke a lot this year, including against Missouri. No defensive backfield can be expected to cover decent receivers for 4, 5, 6 seconds or even longer. While many people, including some in the press, have naively put the bowl game loss on Sullivan, they're wrong. Poor play calling in the second half combined with a stubborn refusal to blitz--coaching mistakes--doomed Iowa to the loss.

So for Iowa's defense to be effective it, like the offense, must be FAR more creative and aggressive than we've seen under Phil Parker.

It’s not really accurate to say Phil didn’t blitz. We did blitz a number of times against Missouri but we didn’t have success and lost containment of the QB on several of the occasions where we blitzed.

 

[ItsAllBallBearingsNowadays]

Entire DB room needs to take a step or two forward. I think the pas rush will improve with Llewellyn and Allen getting more snaps. Craig appeared to have lost a his juice when he put on weight.

 

[Hawkfan_08]

I know Shulte played a shit ton as a multi-year vet but I think, except for a couple possible early season hiccups, his replacement - probably Lutmer - will be an upgrade. Shulte always seemed to lack instinct and was late to the action. Seems unfair, but also remember the dropped INTs.

That and he struggled to tackle, to be honest.

 

[HWKEYZ23]

I think we'll see X move to his more natural safety position and Entriger take over at strong.

Think Koen E will go to CASH. Lutmer and X at the safety spots

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Think Koen E will go to CASH. Lutmer and X at the safety spots

I think that you might be right there. Lutmer was okay ... but caught in trail-position too often. Even in match-up zones ... it's hard for a safety to stick with speedy WRs up until they pass over coverage. Entringer started his career having to cover at CB first, if memory serves ... kinda reminds me a little of Amani Hooker and DeJean.

 

[2D_]

Our corners seem to be clueless and lost half the time. The common denominator in our losses was a tenacious QB who was able to extend the play and toss it around the field. We need a secondary that can lock it down. Sadly, guys like Shulte and Castro regressed a lot. We also need a real pass rush threat, because Llewellyn seemed to be one of our only threats on a somewhat consistent basis. QB's have been way too comfortable in the pocket against us.

Or we can just listen to what that dipshit Eyes thinks and revert any changes made to the offense back to the way it was so we aren't "hurting the defense by implementing a new gameplan".

 

[toddhawkwi]

2D I'm not sure I agree with the "regression" people are talking about. When you have 2 shutdown corners as we've had the last few years before this (Moss, DeJean, Harris), it instantly improves the entire defense. Without that, suddenly our "always somewhat pedestrian pass rush" becomes completely ineffective and our back 7 has to rely on zones etc. to cover and that can be exposed quickly. It's probably not realistic to expect having shutdown corners year after year. But it's truly the absolute key to Phil's defense. I'm not seeing that at least in the next 2 years.

 

[jonesy5960]

2D I'm not sure I agree with the "regression" people are talking about. When you have 2 shutdown corners as we've had the last few years before this (Moss, DeJean, Harris), it instantly improves the entire defense. Without that, suddenly our "always somewhat pedestrian pass rush" becomes completely ineffective and our back 7 has to rely on zones etc. to cover and that can be exposed quickly. It's probably not realistic to expect having shutdown corners year after year. But it's truly the absolute key to Phil's defense. I'm not seeing that at least in the next 2 years.

Last 2 years? Iowa's defense last year was tied for 3rd in the country in terms of efficiency.

BCF Toys - 2023 DFEI Ratings

www.bcftoys.com

 

[coorsoriginal02]

I think it will most likely be X at FS, Entringer at SS, and Lutmer at CASH.

If we throw the senior 'union card' out, I have no reason to think Nwankpa should or will be in the starting lineup next season. It'll be a bad sign if we don't have someone younger and more talented to play in place of him.

XN: No sacks. No Interceptions. Not even in the top 120 (In the conference!) for total tackles - which includes solo AND assists.

XN was borderline useless.

 

[BHoppy]

If you ask some people, we just need to spend all our NIL money and buy out the Detroit Lions defensive players' contracts so they can play defense for us...............

I think 9-13 of the defensive players are on IR

 

[ObeseMuffins]

I think Iose makes an instant impact.

 

[HawksRule73]

The key to Phil's defense always has been, and always will be, the DL. When it's strong against the run, it allows him to not have to commit safety help and he can use them solely as pass defenders. In a perfect world for Phil, he only has to dedicate 5 guys to the run. And then when he's got athletic DEs that can get to the QB, that forces teams to play from behind the chains and then you see interceptions start going way up. We didn't really have either of those things on the DL this year.....not consistently anyway.

 

[jonesy5960]

I trust Phil Parker on righting the ship a hell of a lot more than I trust Lester to be able to produce a reliable offense

I agree that Phil is as good as it gets and while nobody can produce top 10 results every year, he gets more out of less than anyone in college football.

Lester produced much better results his first year, but even he admits that the passing game is still woefully bad. Just the fact that he recognizes that publicly is a step forward and fans need to give him the benefit of the doubt that he has the wherewithal to fix it.

 

[jonesy5960]

According to Eyes, they need to bring back BF and de-emphasize the offense.

I think there's a few of those on here. CM shares the opinion that every extra yard an offense gets equals an extra yard that the defense allows.

 

[HawkGem11]

Buy a whole new secondary as it is trash

 

[Ladell-hawk]

Our corners seem to be clueless and lost half the time. The common denominator in our losses was a tenacious QB who was able to extend the play and toss it around the field. We need a secondary that can lock it down. Sadly, guys like Shulte and Castro regressed a lot. We also need a real pass rush threat, because Llewellyn seemed to be one of our only threats on a somewhat consistent basis. QB's have been way too comfortable in the pocket against us.

Or we can just listen to what that dipshit Eyes thinks and revert any changes made to the offense back to the way it was so we aren't "hurting the defense by implementing a new gameplan".

Actually, I think Hall’s play was pretty good the last three games of the season, maybe he will take another step next season. Deshun Lee actually is good in coverage but taller receivers go up over him and get the ball. I think we will get a CB in the portal and we have some young guys on the team that still might be excellent players.

 

[ClarindaA's]

Actually, I think Hall’s play was pretty good the last three games of the season, maybe he will take another step next season. Deshun Lee actually is good in coverage but taller receivers go up over him and get the ball. I think we will get a CB in the portal and we have some young guys on the team that still might be excellent players.

Hall's mistakes weren't all truly on Hall. The penalty against Sparty was BS. He also had good coverage versus Higgins for ISU. I like the kids play and toughness.

 

[herkhatescy2]

Defense went from elite to pretty good. Many expected that to happen we just weren’t expecting to see it from such a veteran defense.

The weak links were the backups. Lutmer, Nester, Hall. As far far as veterans Nwanpka was a disappointment this year.

 

[Zooropa_NCR]

Our corners seem to be clueless and lost half the time. The common denominator in our losses was a tenacious QB who was able to extend the play and toss it around the field. We need a secondary that can lock it down. Sadly, guys like Shulte and Castro regressed a lot. We also need a real pass rush threat, because Llewellyn seemed to be one of our only threats on a somewhat consistent basis. QB's have been way too comfortable in the pocket against us.

Or we can just listen to what that dipshit Eyes thinks and revert any changes made to the offense back to the way it was so we aren't "hurting the defense by implementing a new gameplan".

You don’t want a return to the strategy of

Punt the ball to the opponent 5 yard line
Defense holds after a 1st down or two, forces a punt
Offense gets ball at 35-40 yard line
Runs about 12 plays due to penalties, and gets to the 50
4th and 1, and we punt this time downing the ball at the 1
Opposing RB fumbles and Iowa recovers at the 10
Iowa offense ends up settling for a FG at the 18 yard line

Iowa wins 6-3

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Actually, I think Hall’s play was pretty good the last three games of the season, maybe he will take another step next season. Deshun Lee actually is good in coverage but taller receivers go up over him and get the ball. I think we will get a CB in the portal and we have some young guys on the team that still might be excellent players.

I agree ... some of the fans throwing players under the bus are being short-sighted.

Bradley Fletcher stunk ... until he didn't. When things came together for him, he had a whale of a season (really had a great '08 season).

Dez King burst on the scene in '13 only to have a highly mediocre SO season in '14 .... but then won the Thorpe Award after his '15 season!

Josh Jackson showed flashes ... but was still somewhat inconsistent through is first few years. Then, his JR season was almost as if he were shot out of a cannon.

Greg Mabin was different ... was a consistent okay initially ... but then kept on slowing improving throughout his entire career.

I think that the point here is that no two guys are the same ... that different guys have can have different career trajectories. As fans, we obviously want them to get "there" sooner rather than later ... however, Phil has had a long and proven track record of developing "his guys." I think that I'll trust the process ...

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

The weak links were the backups. Lutmer, Nester, Hall. As far far as veterans Nwanpka was a disappointment this year.

The beautiful thing is that Phil doesn't give up on his guys ... he helps them to improve themselves.

I think that it is pretty obvious that Phil really likes Entringer, Nwankpa, and Lutmer at safety-like positions. I agree with a prior poster in asserting that Entringer might just nail down the Cash spot. Of course, Nestor has seen a lot of practice reps at the spot too ... so maybe he'll get a look there too.

At corner, Watson saw a bunch of action for being such a young guy. I think that Lee has had stretches where he's proven to be consistent. I agree with Ladell-hawk in the assertion that Hall really had a nice final few games ... he's definitely "climbing the ladder."

The point being ... there are guys in the room who have ability ... they just need to keep on focussing on improving. These guys aren't static entities ... they can change (either for the better OR for the worse). I tend to err on the side of optimism ... so I think that Phil will ultimately get our DB room back in order. The room has a high standard ... and that is a double-edged sword ... it's important to realize that you have to really improve a lot to uphold that standard.