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Running game coordinator

BVHawkeye

HR Legend
Jan 6, 2003
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I was watching an NFL game and one of the coaches was O-line and running game coordinator. They had a separate offensive coordinator. Does that make sense for Iowa or just confusing?
 
Brian was running game coordinator in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. In 2015, Iowa averaged 181 rushing yards per game. In 2016, it was 172, and Leshun Daniels and Akrum Wadley both ran for over 1000 yards.

I don't think we've had a RGC in any other season.

Brian had a really positive arc to his Iowa coaching career from 2012 to 2016. I was not disappointed when he was named OC, he had excelled in his other positions. Unfortunately, he is a failure at OC.
 
I think we need an Assistant Offensive Line Coordinator Coordinator position.

Can't imagine missing blocks with one of those.
 
I'm guessing it is more a title to justify a pay bump or pad a resume rather than additional duties they are not already performing.
 
Honestly, I think a Run Game Coordinator makes a lot more sense to me than a QB Coach. In fact I think a Passing Game Coordinator would be better than a QB Coach.
 
Honestly, I think a Run Game Coordinator makes a lot more sense to me than a QB Coach. In fact I think a Passing Game Coordinator would be better than a QB Coach.
Respectfully disagree. Position coaches focus on specific skill sets and challenges unique to a role. QB is more than just passing, you have to know when to audible (insert short side run joke here), when to scrammble, clock management, god forbid you may even have a RPO somewhere in your playbook.

Also think the run game/pass game coordinator separation is strange. Your offense should be more integrated and diverse than just either/or. Runs can set up passes. Play action passes rely on good run looks, motion and fakes.
 
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Brian was running game coordinator in the 2015 and 2016 seasons. In 2015, Iowa averaged 181 rushing yards per game. In 2016, it was 172, and Leshun Daniels and Akrum Wadley both ran for over 1000 yards.

I don't think we've had a RGC in any other season.

Brian had a really positive arc to his Iowa coaching career from 2012 to 2016. I was not disappointed when he was named OC, he had excelled in his other positions. Unfortunately, he is a failure at OC.

Iowa also used to have Alaric Jackson and Wirfs, they used to have Hockensen and Fant, they used to have Kittle and Beathard....all those guys ended up in NFL. Blythe,Daniels, Linderbaum also were NFL guys. BF's offensive coordinator numbers have coincided with talent level going down. None of the current QBs, WRs or starting OL looks like NFL caliber players. TE looks solid, but not at level of Fant, Kittle, Hockenson

Add to it the blueprint for the offensed from KF himself is outdated.
 
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Respectfully disagree. Position coaches focus on specific skill sets and challenges unique to a role. QB is more than just passing, you have to know when to audible (insert short side run joke here), when to scrammble, clock management, god forbid you may even have a RPO somewhere in your playbook.

Also think the run game/pass game coordinator separation is strange. Your offense should be more integrated and diverse than just either/or. Runs can set up passes. Play action passes rely on good run looks, motion and fakes.
Ok.

In pro football, the QB coach has many hours a week and in the off season. In college football, how much time can a QB coach spend with the QB's?

The college QB has to spend most of his time with the OC. A QB coach is just another voice in the head of the QB and there aren't enough hours in the week for both.

A Running Back coach teaches skills to run the ball. The OL coach teaches how to block effectively. A Run Game Coordinator job might be simply to design more effective run plays against different defenses and pass that information along to the OC, RB and OL coaches.

But, I really have no idea ....
 
Ok.

In pro football, the QB coach has many hours a week and in the off season. In college football, how much time can a QB coach spend with the QB's?

The college QB has to spend most of his time with the OC. A QB coach is just another voice in the head of the QB and there aren't enough hours in the week for both.

A Running Back coach teaches skills to run the ball. The OL coach teaches how to block effectively. A Run Game Coordinator job might be simply to design more effective run plays against different defenses and pass that information along to the OC, RB and OL coaches.

But, I really have no idea ....
Lots to digest there, some interesting points.
 
The highest they ranked nationally in that time span was 49th. Really good would be Top 15-25. Excellent would be Top 10.
You sent me down a rabbit hole of statistics, so I decided to look at YPC:

Year YPC Rank
2001 4.3 31
2002 5.0 11
2003 4.2 45
2004 2.0 120
2005 4.8 21
2006 4.3 43
2007 3.5 95
2008 4.8 25
2009 3.3 105
2010 4.3 58
2011 3.9 76
2012 3.7 100
2013 4.2 74
2014 4.1 82
2015 4.5. 58
2016 4.5 65
2017 3.8 104
2018 4.0 93
2019 3.9 93
2020* 4.6 51
2021 3.4 111
2022 2.9 128

Yikes. I was wrong. We were decidedly average at running the ball when Brian was RGC. It just seems better than it was because those years have been surrounded by pure ineptitude.

In the last 22 years, we’ve been worse than 80th in the country in YPC HALF the time. Absurd.


Edit to add: the formatting was much better before I hit “post”. Ugh.
 
You sent me down a rabbit hole of statistics, so I decided to look at YPC:

Year YPC Rank
2001 4.3 31
2002 5.0 11
2003 4.2 45
2004 2.0 120
2005 4.8 21
2006 4.3 43
2007 3.5 95
2008 4.8 25
2009 3.3 105
2010 4.3 58
2011 3.9 76
2012 3.7 100
2013 4.2 74
2014 4.1 82
2015 4.5. 58
2016 4.5 65
2017 3.8 104
2018 4.0 93
2019 3.9 93
2020* 4.6 51
2021 3.4 111
2022 2.9 128

Yikes. I was wrong. We were decidedly average at running the ball when Brian was RGC. It just seems better than it was because those years have been surrounded by pure ineptitude.

In the last 22 years, we’ve been worse than 80th in the country in YPC HALF the time. Absurd.


Edit to add: the formatting was much better before I hit “post”. Ugh.
Just affirms how incredible 2002 was with Fred Russell and that OL! And wow, how fun was 2004 and how well they made lemonade out of lemons and that RB situation. Just not sure we’ll ever see lightning in a bottle like that again….
 
You sent me down a rabbit hole of statistics, so I decided to look at YPC:

Year YPC Rank
2001 4.3 31
2002 5.0 11
2003 4.2 45
2004 2.0 120
2005 4.8 21
2006 4.3 43
2007 3.5 95
2008 4.8 25
2009 3.3 105
2010 4.3 58
2011 3.9 76
2012 3.7 100
2013 4.2 74
2014 4.1 82
2015 4.5. 58
2016 4.5 65
2017 3.8 104
2018 4.0 93
2019 3.9 93
2020* 4.6 51
2021 3.4 111
2022 2.9 128

Yikes. I was wrong. We were decidedly average at running the ball when Brian was RGC. It just seems better than it was because those years have been surrounded by pure ineptitude.

In the last 22 years, we’ve been worse than 80th in the country in YPC HALF the time. Absurd.


Edit to add: the formatting was much better before I hit “post”. Ugh.
Side note - do these take into account QB sacks? If that is counting against our running average, just really drives home how nice (and necessary) a mobile QB is.
 
I’m pretty sure college rushing statistics always include sack yardage. Which is annoying.
YPC as the only stat to evaluate a team’s ability to run the ball doesn‘t take into account the kind of offense the teams run and what that offense focuses on. A very pass-heavy team might have a high RPC based on not running as much and popping more big plays. A team playing complimentary football that can get leads and grind it out is going to put up a lot of carries late when the opponent knows you’re running the ball to grind clock.

Look at 2015 or 2009. Iowa doesn’t rate all that highly in YPC in either year…but in both years, Iowa had a duo at RB that was more than capable with a reliable OL. Would anyone here say Iowa had a sub-par running attack with Adam Robinson/Brandon Wegher in 2009 (1475 yds, 13 TDs) or with Jordan Canzeri/Leshun Daniels/Akrum Wadley in 2015 (2100 yds, 27 TDs)? On a pure YPC basis, 2009 was 105 and 2015 was 58. I had full confidence in both of those seasons with the Hawks running the ball.

To really evaluate the running game, you’d have to isolate it from sack yardage (2015 is helped by Beathard having 237 yards to Stanzi’s -31) and also blend in total yards and rushing as a percentage of the overall offense.

I don’t want to totally discount the list provided, but Iowa at 120 makes sense in 2004 - Iowa lost all their RBs…but prior to 2021, the next worst season was 2009? I just can’t buy that, as Iowa seemed to get pretty much exactly what it needed from Robinson/Wegher that year.
 
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