Thoughts & Observations from Iowa Coaching Clinic

[tweeterhawk]

Some notes on observations from the Coach'ing Clinic in Iowa City this weekend, in no particular order:

• Dayton Howard is a legit P5 receiver. Has the physical specs and an intense work ethic. He'll be fun to watch.
• Iowa has incorporated the helmet communication system on both O & D and are working through the changes and challenges that go along with the new technology (players and coaches). It's a learning process that will take time.
• Cade was in helmet and jersey, no pads, and participated in most QB drills. He's still healing up. Does what he can do physically and is really engaged in mental reps.
• All QBs have constant coaching on read progressions and pocket mobility. It's not in your face stuff, just continuous teaching on mechanics, visual processing, timing and execution,
• QB room spends a good amount of time going through 49ers film cut ups to reinforce on-field teachings.
• Kaleb Brown was not dressed on Saturday. No apparent injury; perhaps a rest day. But, definitely engaged in mental reps across the periods.
• Logan Jones and Jennings Dunker not dressed. Logan got snaps in with Cade a bit. Dunker was a fairly limited with some sort of owie.
• Lots of pre-snap motion. 75% of plays. Part of the QB and WR teaching process.
• Abdul Hodge is really and impressive coach. Smart, communicative, excellent grasp on the right things and INTENSE (not in a Phil Parker way, but you can feel it when talking with him).
• It's no secrete that the OL group lacks a certain level of athleticism that we have been accustomed to, but MAN are they being coached hard (in a great way) by Barnett and KF. The teachings are good and exacting. Technique and tenacity are the way to overcome or balance out physical limitations. Would like to see them grow more nastiness, but first things first on doing things right and together. Excellent chemistry within the group and with the coaches. Could really use a portal transfer at T who can anchor things and set an on-field tone. Proctor wasn't it (more on that later).
• You're really going to like Tim Lester, if not already. There is no such thing as a savior, but there is such a thing as a welcoming breath of fresh air. He has a really positive approach and a quiet confidence about him - you can tell that he's been a successful QB as well has been a head coach. He works with a high level of enthusiasm and empathy, understands the details and constantly teaches the QBs. The players have bought in to what he's giving them. Still a ton of work on install to be done, but early returns are very positive.
• Offense ran fairly heavy on RPO, most likely because of the steep learning curve all around. This is the time to do it.
• KFs attention is on the OL, and he's letting Tim do his install and coaching. A lot of people think they have KF nailed, but they don't. He lets his coaches coach, and other than his passion at OL he focuses more on the bigger picture for the team. It goes without saying that he is extremely bright and thoughtful, and while he's not immediately open to change will come around to it once convinced. He has his rules for Tim and the offense, just as he has his rules and expectations of ever other coach. He has the absolute right to overrule any call or decision, but he has a lot of trust in his staff and is working on gaining it with Tim. KF knows he's in the twilight of his career. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the nuanced changes.
• Finally, speaking of nuances, there wasn't a lot of chatter about Proctor. Iowa has moved on. However, just through casual conversation there were two things that stuck out about this story. First, Proctor did not give much of an effort to invest in his teammates. Iowa is a VERY tight group of players, and they are open to new faces, but developing chemistry goes both ways. The word repeated to describe the past few months with him was "distant". Second, and I'll be blunt: Iowa is a WORKING football team, and there were questions about Proctor's understanding, grasp and internalization of that very real concept. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. I had a great chat with a fellow peer about this very subject, and reminded him the KP showed up to Alabama fall camp at 388 and had to drop 30lbs in season before he could shake his struggles and immobility. My point was that NOBODY gains 30lbs during summer conditioning. That's what the winter program is for. Summer is about leaning out, getting faster and more explosive in prep for the season. You don't work your way to 388 - you eat your way there. Proctor was NOT going to work out at Iowa.

'Nuff said.

Really good stuff. How do you have access to see and hear all of this?

 

[GHawk]

Really good stuff. How do you have access to see and hear all of this?

He was at a coaches clinic at Iowa. Happens every year.

 

[tweeterhawk]

He was at a coaches clinic at Iowa. Happens every year.

Cool.

 

[Drinkin Buddy]

Below are some selected Q&A from Kirk's presser yesterday that pretty much reinforces what was observed this past weekend. It's a bit lengthy, but touches on key points and may give you a bit more insight on this camp and how things are coming around from KF's perspective:

Q. This is the first time since 2012 you've got an outside guy coming in to be your offensive coordinator. I realize this is somewhat limited foreign turf for you, so how does the process go installing what you want to do on offense? Do you have a full plan yet? Are you developing that plan as spring goes on? Where are you in the Tim Lester era here?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, so when Greg came it was a cooperative effort. We all sat down and visited, we being the offensive coaches, and I sat in the meetings, too, but we just kind of worked through it and in a nutshell basically with Greg. We kept a lot of the passing terminology that he was familiar with. We kept that. Then some of the systematic stuff and some of the running game stuff we kept in our language.

So there's a mixture there. But that was his decision basically. He was comfortable with that.

I think the bottom line is the guy who's going to call the plays has to be really comfortable with what the terminology is going to be because it has to come out, it's got to come out pretty quick and naturally.

Whether it was Tim or whomever we hired this year, it was going to be the same thing, same discussion, and basically we're just taking his playbook material and going with it.

It's been a process, though. We're trying to install something each and every day. It's been challenging, I think, for everybody, and myself included, just learning the language and all that type of thing and trying to keep up.

We're doing that and seeing how the install is going and then also see how the players are handling that, and where it all ends up we'll see at the end of spring, and certainly we'll work through some of that in August, too. So far it's been good. It's good.
Q. Regarding Tim and bringing him in as your new offensive coordinator, how are things going person-to-person-wise, plug and go? What does that look like with having a new member of your staff that doesn't happen all that frequently?

KIRK FERENTZ: Fortunately we haven't had a lot of change or turnover. But when we've had it, it's all been pretty good. We've brought a lot of really good people in here. Probably a bigger adjustment for him since there's more of us that were here. He's the new guy, if you will, that way.

But Tim is a great guy, great person. He's a veteran coach and been in a lot of different situations, a lot of different levels. He's handling it really, really well and has done a great job with the players, as well.

I don't want to speak for him, but I think the transition is going really smoothly and thus far very, very positive, so not surprised.

Q. There's a clear one, two, three on the quarterback depth chart in the spring practice depth chart here. What are some of your development goals for each of those three guys since they're coming in in really sort of different spots in their career?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, it's pretty simple. We want them all to improve. They all need to, and they all know that. That's every player on the team, though.

I'll start with our oldest guys, the guys on defense. If they're not thinking that way, we're not going to have a good team next year. Everybody needs to be thinking about that, and what improvement looks like is different for every player, certainly, but quarterback is a pretty prominent position, and Deacon has the benefit of he played the most last year of any of our guys, so certainly he's got more experience, but an awful lot of things he can work on.

Marco has got a different set of circumstances and different things to work on, but every player on the team has got things they need to get better at. That's what this time period is really good. It gives us a chance to articulate those things, show them on film, and then hopefully put them in situations where they can demonstrate that they are learning and improving. That's a whole deal.

Then the faster you can do it, the better off.

The depth chart, I'll just say a word about that. It's March 26th right now, so it doesn't mean a lot, and I told the players that in the first meeting. Nobody knows what it's going to look like on August 31st, so right now let's just worry about getting better and worry about your performance.

Q. Cade with his injury recovery, how involved can he be this spring? Also, any update on medical scholarships or guys who aren't continuing their football career at this point?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, nothing on that ladder at this point. We have a couple guys still working their way back, so we'll see how that goes, and it's probably going to be a couple months for a couple guys.

But as far as Cade goes, he'll limited right now. He can throw the football standing, but he can't be really moving back, moving around or dropping, that type of deal.

I have a harness on him because he's always anxious to do a little bit more than what he probably should. What we don't want to do is go backwards, but I would like to think in June he will be full speed so do everything and then have a couple months to get used to operating and get comfortable and confident again.

Q. One more Tim Lester question. Philosophically any coordinator is not going to call plays or a series of plays the head coach doesn't sign off on. The way you guys play and the way you guys win, is it going to be demonstrably different?

KIRK FERENTZ: Yeah, I think it's going to look different, but I think philosophically we're in line. Not that it was a prerequisite, but he's been a head coach, and I think he understands how all three things function together.

We played good defense here pretty much 20-plus years. That was a building block coming in.
But playing complementary football and not being reckless with the football is a big part of that and being good on special teams. That's been a big part of our blueprint, I guess, and if you coach offense sometimes you may pay a price because maybe we're not going to throw it out there when we're just trying to win the game the last quarter, play it smartly that way.

Stats are great and all that, but the most important stat is winning games, and that has been first and foremost. And my visits with Tim, I think that's where he's at, too. He thinks the same way and he gets it. He gets how things work together.
Q. To go a little bit off the offensive line question, you have seven guys coming back this last year that had starting experience. I know going into last season we talked a lot about the growth in terms of maturity of the guys up there. Is there anything that you're seeing or that you want to see to take them to that next level of maybe being a little bit more consistent this year?

KIRK FERENTZ: There has been a lot of talk about our offensive production, and quite frankly -- I still go back and look at film. Execution, and then part of that's been we haven't been as good up front as we've been in years past.

Typically we've been pretty good on defense, try to be good on special teams, and historically our better teams have been pretty good up front. It's nobody's fault. There's no finger pointing. It's nobody's fault that we've had injuries.

We've had a recruiting class or two where we've had some things work out not in a way we had hoped or maybe would have planned, so all of a sudden you're a little deficient, and then that's showing up. It's tough to separate offensively within most systems if you don't block as well as you like.

The good news is I think we are more veteran. It's not like there's any pixie dust we can sprinkle on those guys last year or the year before. In some cases we've had guys playing probably before they maybe were ready, fully ready to play at a high level. I think the good news is right now we have an opportunity maybe to develop into a good line because we do have pretty good experience. I think we have good leadership in there, too, and that's paramount to any group, any team.
I think those guys are shaping up, and it's just a matter of taking the steps in front of them and just keep working. The guys that are out there right now are working hard and doing a good job so far.