A good article. I do have a few comments. While I agree that this year's woes on offense were largely a manifestation of poor offensive line play, I think it's fair to ask why our offensive line was so bad. We came into the season undermanned, with a plan to put young players who were not yet ready out there in the trenches. In this day and age of the transfer portal, I think it was foolish to not shore things up a bit on the O-line.
Second, while this year's offense was truly abysmal, it's not a new complaint. Other than a couple years, our offense has been bad for ages. I don't think it's a sound offensive strategy to say "we're only gonna truly shine on offense when we're loaded with NFL talent". A team like Iowa just doesn't achieve that magical convergence often enough to embrace that approach.
I think, to actually be the bride sometime, we're going to have to leverage two things. One, we're going to have to utilize transfers when we go into spring with some holes. Other teams are doing it and the competition will just get stiffer as we doggedly refuse to use that option in all but the most ideal cases.
Two, it's time to rethink the idea that we're just going to outperform other teams even if they know what we're going to do. It's college football...teams have warts, kids have limited practice time, mistakes will happen. An offense needs to leave no stone unturned in maximizing the odds of success...on any given play and overall. Make it easier for talented but young players to step into the offense. Give players the advantage of keeping defenses guessing. It's adds a margin for error that increases our chances of success. Honestly, why wouldn't you do that?
Why wouldn't you do everything "legally" and ethically allowed to give your players the best chances for success?
Second, while this year's offense was truly abysmal, it's not a new complaint. Other than a couple years, our offense has been bad for ages. I don't think it's a sound offensive strategy to say "we're only gonna truly shine on offense when we're loaded with NFL talent". A team like Iowa just doesn't achieve that magical convergence often enough to embrace that approach.
I think, to actually be the bride sometime, we're going to have to leverage two things. One, we're going to have to utilize transfers when we go into spring with some holes. Other teams are doing it and the competition will just get stiffer as we doggedly refuse to use that option in all but the most ideal cases.
Two, it's time to rethink the idea that we're just going to outperform other teams even if they know what we're going to do. It's college football...teams have warts, kids have limited practice time, mistakes will happen. An offense needs to leave no stone unturned in maximizing the odds of success...on any given play and overall. Make it easier for talented but young players to step into the offense. Give players the advantage of keeping defenses guessing. It's adds a margin for error that increases our chances of success. Honestly, why wouldn't you do that?
Why wouldn't you do everything "legally" and ethically allowed to give your players the best chances for success?
