There is plenty to blame Barta for, but I don't think we can blame him for Petras sucking.
Utah State coach raving about Spencer
- Thread starter BigOHawk
- Start date
There is plenty to blame Barta for, but I don't think we can blame him for Petras sucking.
There were a number of issues ...
- OL had serious issues after the '20 season
- WRs lost faith in the O - as a consequence, WR play has been really uneven
- Brian's bread and butter was TE-scheming ... however, it took a while for Sam to develop ... and once he got Lachey and All together ... neither were healthy (together) for very long
- It could be argued that defenses could have also "figured out" Brian's usage of TEs (to some extent) ... furthermore, it's hard to match having the duo we had in Fant and Hockenson.
- One of the biggest issues ... bad pass-pro is a confidence-killer to a QB
Brian knows football. Furthermore, he might not even completely suck at being a "teacher of the game" .... but what was glaringly apparent is that he was asking too much from our QBs. I'd liken it to trying to teach a graduate-level class to a bunch of underclassmen undergraduates. It's just too much. If they're going to kinda understand stuff ... the trade-off is that decisions are going to be made too slowly. That's EXACTLY a big part of what we saw on the field. Furthermore, IF decisions are made fast ... then too little of the field is being considered (i.e. the QB is staring down his target). Again ... that is ALSO what we saw on the field.
Now what are we probably going to see from Spencer? At this stage ... the guy knows a TON of football. However, now, he's also likely playing within a scheme that puts far less responsibility and/or burden on the QB. Consequently, the QB can focus more on just playing fast.
Critics won't like it ... but a lot of Spencer's understanding of the game is still likely attributable to his work with Brian and Ken (and maybe even Jon). However, without the confidence that you get from playing behind a functioning OL and playing within a system where there's less cognitive load ... we never got to see Spencer at his best.
My guess is that he'll likely do just fine.
This isn’t true and a quick search would yield plenty of people who still hadn’t “seen enough”….LOL
Like it’s their job….😂
Putting too much on the QB's plate is much more a KF problem than it was ever an "only BF" problem.
Here's a fun fact:Drops and throwaways hurt Padilla's stats more than they hurt Petras'. Petras was more likely to take a sack or throw off target because he wasn't able to sidestep pressure or throw while running. Both qbs had to deal with a crappy receiving corps that couldn't separate or make catches through contact, but here's two balls hitting hands and getting dropped.
Fun fact: Charlie Jones has 100+ yard games with Aiden Oconnell and Alex Padilla. Find me one from Petras in his 20 games with Charlie.
Over a very large sample size that included practice and games, Petras consistently graded out better than Padilla, according to coaches who saw them perform on a daily basis, and who are paid a lot of money to make such evaluations.
Also worth noting is the fact that you can't fool the players. They know who should and shouldn't be out there. And there wasn't one inkling of a sign that there was even the slightest bit of dissention within the locker room that season.
All of this isn't even to mention the rumors that were out there about Padilla not putting in the time in the film room and that he was just waiting to transfer in December. We might never know if that was true, but he did transfer before the bowl game that he was in line to start. Also, take this for what it's worth, but the first I heard of the rumors about Padilla not really being fully invested was from the same guy that over a month before Chip Kelly became OC at OSU told me that Kelly had contacted KF about the OC job at Iowa
I wouldn't make any claim that KF is blameless. An argument could be made that he should have intervened and tried to reduce the burden that we put on the QB.
However, many folks on this board paint a false narrative that KF is a micromanaging head coach ... and that it is attributable to his micromanaging interference that our O has struggled.
The truth lands far from the aforementioned narrative. Kirk certainly places his philosophical stamp upon the O. However, he doesn't micromanage its implementation. Quite to the contrary, guys like LeVar, Norm, Phil, Kent, etc are all on record remarking upon the great latitude that is given to Iowa's assistant coaches (by KF).
Thus, in the above instance, the attributable fault of KF is more a fault by omission ... that he should have interfered more.
Of course, Kirk tries to manage a balancing act ... back in the transition from 2014 to 2015 ... Kirk recognized that he had drifted to being too far removed from the program. He was concerning himself with making sure that the Hawks were "keeping up with the Jones's" in terms of the facilities arms-race ... but he realized that he needed to be "more present" for the players, coaches, and team (as a whole). That reflection/recognition spurred Iowa fans to refer to the 2015 version of Kirk as KF v2.0.
Also, there is no delicate way to prance about the topic ... but certainly the departure of Chris Doyle left a mark on the program. In some instances ... the change "cleared the air." However, in other regards, some of the standard that the program had for toughness got lowered (or dropped).
When would that have been? Petras started every game until the last week at Nebraska.
Not entirely true ... then the riotous crowd wanted to see if Labas could do better.
Padilla did receive starts in '21 though.
As others have rightly noted ... Padilla had every opportunity to win the gig from Spencer during the camps - he failed to do so.
Because Spencer looked so awesome in practice.
Probably correct. At some point the riotous crowd should have figured out over several years that the players weren't the crux of the problem and it mattered little who was in there.
Not true. Padilla started three games in 2021 (Minnesota and Illinois, besides Nebraska) and also got first team snaps leading into the Northwestern game with Petras nursing the shoulder injury.
Yep. I was looking at 2022.
However you slice it, the problem has always been more than just any one quarterback.
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Yep. All we heard is how well he practiced every week. Then during games he’d throw lasers at receivers 5 yards away or throw it into the stands. That was in between the throws in the dirt
Yet captain Kirk kept trotting him out there game after game after game. Same as he was going to do with hill. Guy is clueless when it comes to qbs and how they actually should perform
Don’t recall the game, and it may have happened multiple times, but there was a play where he had loads of time and a DL broke thru. Spencer turned his back to the LOS and ran backwards in a circle.
The DL wasn’t even that close to him when he bailed. The announcers even commented on how they hadn’t seen a reaction like that from a QB
The guy had PTSD in the pocket.
I hope a change in scenery does him well. Hope he lights it up. Same with Labas.
Kirk and Brian absolutely wrecked everyone outside of TE on offense
The worst was sending him out against NW with basically a broken arm. I mean how ****ing bad do the backups have to be in practice for Kirk to think a QB who can’t literally throw a ball is our best option.
I thought Padilla did OK that game too. Wasn’t super accurate but he also had lots of drops. What i liked about Padilla in that game is he had some mobility and his passes that were caught seemed to give the players a chance for YAC
The only other games we got to see Padilla was Kirk throwing him under a bus like Marco against TN
Ever since CJB, we have never been able to see what our backups could do. Which also leads to the myth building of them.
We got to see what Stanzi brought in some games. We saw CJB get some decent playing time.
After that it was handful of snaps and projecting what could be
I think it is funny that everyone is arguing over who is the best terrible QB. Petras, Padilla or Lana’s.
I understand that criticism is not hate. One can admire KFz for the things he does well and still ask WTF when it comes to his approach to offense.
Your constant guardianship of KFz is curious...to say the least. Leave Brittney alone!
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I love how fans bitch about wanting the backup QB to play, and then when he does play they bitch about him being thrown under the bus
Where is the admiration being expressed?I understand that criticism is not hate. One can admire KFz for the things he does well and still ask WTF when it comes to his approach to offense.
Your constant guardianship of KFz is curious...to say the least. Leave Brittney alone!
Do you think KF suddenly changed his approach to offense the past couple seasons?
How is his approach to defense and special teams working?
I understand that criticism is not hate. One can admire KFz for the things he does well and still ask WTF when it comes to his approach to offense.
Your constant guardianship of KFz is curious...to say the least. Leave Brittney alone!
Remember when all the QBs said it took like 3 years to "learn" the BF system. Should have been an obvious sign right there it wasn't going to work
Was it the QB's saying that or was it the fans given the fact that it just seemed that way.
The Charlie Jones thing I kinda get he tore up the returns as a coach do you risk a the part of their game that was working. If Jones goes down??? We lose 50% of our offense movement
1. I (and others) have had plenty of praise for KFz over the years, just not on this topic.
2. What does that have to do with it?
3. See #1
My post was a response to CMHawk losing it anytime someone dares to criticize KFz.
WTF? Padilla started the next 3 games after Northwestern.
I admit that in an era and society that searches out instant-gratification, I appreciate that Kirk tries to develop players from the ground up. Moreover, the purpose isn't even necessarily about "building players" either ... it's about sculpting young men.
The guys who go through the Ferentz school of "getting your shit together" ... they're usually pretty well set-up for life ... in terms of learning how to approach things. You have to be detail-oriented ... you have to be accountable ... you have to growth-oriented ... you have to be willing to put in the work. When you can do all those things ... you're usually going to be set pretty. well-off for your life.
1. Let me know when the overall tone of this board becomes positive. I'll be waiting. You guys fight much more and much harder for your "right" to criticize than you fight for the praise that the team and coaches deserve.
2. You say fans have the right to ask WTF when it comes to KF's approach to offense. Well if you're talking his approach to offense, you have to take into account his entire tenure as coach. Since the offense has only been broken for a couple of years, KF's approach clearly hasn't been the problem, unless his approach has changed over the past couple seasons.
3. See #1. Point me in the direction of all the threads that are praising the defense and special teams
The positives about the D and ST are out there ... but you're correct in asserting that the bellyaching about the O gets a disproportionate amount of attention.
In fact, positives about the D almost always degenerate into negatives about the O.
One of the most common being ... "the D is so good ... they are the sole reason we win. If we actually had a functioning O, we'd be a championship-caliber team."
I don't know what "you guys" you're referring to. My comment was directed at CMHawks who seems to bristle at any slight criticism of KFz.
As for the others, Ghost is right. There's plenty of talk about how incredible Phil is, the guys we put in the NFL, how our special teams are among the best (how many fans spend as much time talking about their punter as we do?). He's also right that KFz puts a lot into developing his guys as people...not just football players. That's one of the things everybody admires.
As for the offense. When you're last or close to last in the entire country for a few years running (not just "we weren't great, or I wish we had a better QB....it was among the worst in country)... what do you expect? It's going to get attention and the HC is going to get dinged for it.
I'm optimistic that Lester not only has a formula but he'll be allowed to use it. QB looks better already with the addition of Sullivan. If the O Line has improved we'll see a big diff this Fall.
Our o line was the biggest problem during Petras last year. He got less than 2 seconds usually before getting trucked. I am curious to see how he plays if they give him time.
