What happened this year?

[Aegon_Targaryen]

To me it boiled down to 4 things.

1. Should have had CJ in there from the beginning. Similar skill set to Jake, with more upside. The inablity or lack of effort to throw down the field seriously hurt the offense at times. Statistically the offense wasn't as bad as you'd think, but it lacked that spark it needed.

2. RB playcalling and injuries. We all know about the infamous weisman stretch plays, but having Canzeri and Daniels out for the majority of the year seriously hurt. No telling how much Daniels would have helped, but we know what a healthy Canzeri can do.

3. Losing the LB's, not surprise of the huge dropoff here, although Alstons play was disappointing and I expected better from him. Iowa has the habit of losing entire units at once and this happened once again, and the D suffered once again.

4. Kicking game, the kicking game sucked. The punting was laughable and even worse. Though the actual Field goal kicking improved later in the season, the field positions the hawks landed in because of horrible kicking was a serious problem.

All in all, we had an easy schedule with some VERY bad losses. ISU, Minny, and Tenneseee the most notable. We once again had issues with RB's which was supposed to be a strength. We once again struggled with div 2 teams, and once again gave up leads in games we should have won.

We now may have lost potentially 2 first round draft picks, our most consistent WR, Weisman, Spearman(which hurts our LB depth), and the starting MLB, SS, and both DT's(who were both very good).

Unfortunatley, I don't see much sunshine for next year. I'm excited that CJ may finally get a chance, but I'm worried on whether he will be allowed to play his style and on whether he will be coached down to 'play it safe'. Something that happened to Stanzi, Vandenberg, and seemingly Tate even.

I guess we will see.

 

[Hawkeye2222]

so you are not happy with 4* DT Johnson 6'4 310 lbs is a major dropoff in talent
also we have 4* DT Ekakitie 6'3 287 lbs can't replace 6'3 290 lb LTP
4* DT Cooper 6'2 280 lbs is still in the mix

the DL will be the strongest it has been since 2008-09 seasons.

Alston was roundly put down by posters on this board all season as was SS Lowdermilk and now they will be hard to replace what a joke

Bower is being moved to MLB from the LEO,
Neiman who many are excited about will now be the LEO at 6'3 4.5 40 a converted WR recruit for NIU but listed as a ATH by Rival
Jewel replaced Spearman as the starting WLB at the end of the season

but its nice to see you have already labeled them as failures after their 1st season with absolutely CAN'T improve.

as for that offense that offense totaled 5201 yards on the season for a 400 ypg avg. only a out right hatred of JR blinds you and other has to how good he was WITHOUT a decent speed back

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

Aegon, only a sociopath would think that someone cares about there uneducated ramblings. Who cares about your opinion? Did someone ask for your 'expert' analysis? I'm sure you will make some brilliant statement about my dear departed mothers clothes.........
There is about a couple dozen truly troubled people on this site and I make fun of you, and parody you, and you are too ill to even get it. The jokes on you..............
Oh, I forgot, I have to get back to my treatment, lol..............

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

I can't wait to see what you will resort to next. I'll sit here in my dress eating skittles and wait, LOL
Amazing......

 

[CAHawk93]

Originally posted by Hawkeye2222:

so you are not happy with 4* DT Johnson 6'4 310 lbs is a major dropoff in talent
also we have 4* DT Ekakitie 6'3 287 lbs can't replace 6'3 290 lb LTP
4* DT Cooper 6'2 280 lbs is still in the mix

the DL will be the strongest it has been since 2008-09 seasons.

Alston was roundly put down by posters on this board all season as was SS Lowdermilk and now they will be hard to replace what a joke

Bower is being moved to MLB from the LEO,
Neiman who many are excited about will now be the LEO at 6'3 4.5 40 a converted WR recruit for NIU but listed as a ATH by Rival
Jewel replaced Spearman as the starting WLB at the end of the season

but its nice to see you have already labeled them as failures after their 1st season with absolutely CAN'T improve.

as for that offense that offense totaled 5201 yards on the season for a 400 ypg avg. only a out right hatred of JR blinds you and other has to how good he was WITHOUT a decent speed back

serious question, do you really think that if someone claims Cj has more upside or that the offense didn't look good that they have "out right hatred" for JR? He was just stating his opinion on how the offense looked. how does that translate into him hating someone?

 

[Aegon_Targaryen]

Originally posted by Hawkeye2222:

so you are not happy with 4* DT Johnson 6'4 310 lbs is a major dropoff in talent
also we have 4* DT Ekakitie 6'3 287 lbs can't replace 6'3 290 lb LTP
4* DT Cooper 6'2 280 lbs is still in the mix

the DL will be the strongest it has been since 2008-09 seasons.

Alston was roundly put down by posters on this board all season as was SS Lowdermilk and now they will be hard to replace what a joke

Bower is being moved to MLB from the LEO,
Neiman who many are excited about will now be the LEO at 6'3 4.5 40 a converted WR recruit for NIU but listed as a ATH by Rival
Jewel replaced Spearman as the starting WLB at the end of the season

but its nice to see you have already labeled them as failures after their 1st season with absolutely CAN'T improve.

as for that offense that offense totaled 5201 yards on the season for a 400 ypg avg. only a out right hatred of JR blinds you and other has to how good he was WITHOUT a decent speed back

Neither Ekakitie nor Johnson have shown us enough to believe they will simply patch themselves and play like Davis and LTP did. To say losing those two will lead us to a better d-line doesn't make sense at this point.

Alston, what good, but not nearly as good as we had hoped. He had plenty of experience but just didn't look that great at times.

The other LB''s are young and developing and we know little to nothing. Having a brand new MIKE is always a challenge.

No one labeled them as failures, that was what you did Kilroy. I said nothing like that. I just said I don't see a huge change in what we saw last year.

I don't hate JR at all btw, I just see CJ as being the option that can take the offense to places Jake may not be able to. Superior arm strength, much more relaxe in the pocket, etc.

 

[hawkeye ball]

The linebacker core is definitely where we could find ourselves in trouble. Alston didn't live up to expectations but I think he improved throughout the year. Hopefully they develop and are ready to roll next season. Otherwise our defense looks okay I think. Not real strong in any area, but enough to get it done hopefully.

As with the offense, I think CJ can get more of the WRs into the mix and our passing game will be a lot more effective. And if Canzeri gets going we will have a dual threat there as CJ can run if needed. Looking forward to next season, we aren't going to be great but I do not think we will be in the dumpster.

I think Hawkeye2222 made a good point about people bashing on Lowdermilk (not saying OP has bashed) for being slow, missing tackles, etc, but I do think we will miss him next year, but I think we filled the safety spot as well as we could.

 

[Aegon_Targaryen]

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:


Aegon, only a sociopath would think that someone cares about there uneducated ramblings. Who cares about your opinion? Did someone ask for your 'expert' analysis? I'm sure you will make some brilliant statement about my dear departed mothers clothes.........
There is about a couple dozen truly troubled people on this site and I make fun of you, and parody you, and you are too ill to even get it. The jokes on you..............
Oh, I forgot, I have to get back to my treatment, lol..............

I think you forget my very disturbed friend that the entire point of this forum is to talk about Iowa football. For some reason this seriously gets you riled up and angry and I cannot comment on why.


Do you yell at people for driving cars? I mean the car is mean to be drove and that is what they are for. Do you get REALLY mad when they claim to know a couple of facts about driving and that car?

Your posting indicates that you have serious control issues and that you need to relax. I'll keep an eye on you.

 

[thejazzcat]

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:


Aegon, only a sociopath would think that someone cares about there uneducated ramblings. Who cares about your opinion? Did someone ask for your 'expert' analysis? I'm sure you will make some brilliant statement about my dear departed mothers clothes.........
There is about a couple dozen truly troubled people on this site and I make fun of you, and parody you, and you are too ill to even get it. The jokes on you..............
Oh, I forgot, I have to get back to my treatment, lol..............

Matt I don't have a dog in this fight, but only want to point out that you seem like a person that would be above ad hominem logic. In this particular case, Aegon actually makes points that are pretty spot on, IMO. There are many things that I disagree with him on, but I totally agree with these 4 points, to which I will add a 5th: I have reason to believe that the JR/CJB issue caused locker room problems and that naming CJB as starter will alleviate them.

 

[Aegon_Targaryen]

Originally posted by hawkeye ball:
The linebacker core is definitely where we could find ourselves in trouble. Alston didn't live up to expectations but I think he improved throughout the year. Hopefully they develop and are ready to roll next season. Otherwise our defense looks okay I think. Not real strong in any area, but enough to get it done hopefully.

As with the offense, I think CJ can get more of the WRs into the mix and our passing game will be a lot more effective. And if Canzeri gets going we will have a dual threat there as CJ can run if needed. Looking forward to next season, we aren't going to be great but I do not think we will be in the dumpster.

I think Hawkeye2222 made a good point about people bashing on Lowdermilk (not saying OP has bashed) for being slow, missing tackles, etc, but I do think we will miss him next year, but I think we filled the safety spot as well as we could.

I think Alston being dinged up didn't do him any favors. I was expecting him to look faster too. I honestly think Morris seemed quicker IMO, at least quicker to react. The Mike position isn't an easy position to play, so I think he did okay.

Agree with the WR's, and I hope to see Smith really shine this year. He's got talent we haven't quite seen in a while, and he's a legit NFL potential in my eyes.

Next season is going to be real interesting, I'm just not sure what to make of it yet. Hopefully I can make it to one more than one game this season. Ive missed the party.

 

[iahawkeyes17]

Originally posted by Hawkeye2222:

so you are not happy with 4* DT Johnson 6'4 310 lbs is a major dropoff in talent
also we have 4* DT Ekakitie 6'3 287 lbs can't replace 6'3 290 lb LTP
4* DT Cooper 6'2 280 lbs is still in the mix

the DL will be the strongest it has been since 2008-09 seasons.

Alston was roundly put down by posters on this board all season as was SS Lowdermilk and now they will be hard to replace what a joke

Bower is being moved to MLB from the LEO,
Neiman who many are excited about will now be the LEO at 6'3 4.5 40 a converted WR recruit for NIU but listed as a ATH by Rival
Jewel replaced Spearman as the starting WLB at the end of the season

but its nice to see you have already labeled them as failures after their 1st season with absolutely CAN'T improve.

as for that offense that offense totaled 5201 yards on the season for a 400 ypg avg. only a out right hatred of JR blinds you and other has to how good he was WITHOUT a decent speed back

Don't think there will be as a big of drop off as we saw with our LBs from 13' to 14' season. But there will probably be a little drop off especially at the beginning of the year at DL after losing Davis (potential 1st rd pick) and LTP projected late round pick. Think one position we have good depth with Cooper coming back from injury. Plus Johnson saw most time besides the starters. Don't know why you never ever mention Bazata since he was ahead of Ekakitie last year on depth chart (assuming cause he wasn't a 4* recruit). But those 2 will be backups most likely if Cooper is fully recovered come this fall.

LBs I think were all thrown to the wolves and maybe played a year too soon then what they were ready for. Was it there fault, of course not but times showed they were over matched (minny and bowl game especially) but that was to be expected at times. Hopefully will help out in the long run.

 

[Sandow]

What happened is our recruiting sucks and has sucked for a while. We don't have the athletes needed to compete anymore, and its getting worse. We have no playmakers or skill position players that are of B1G caliber. Combine this with absolutely horrible gameday coaching and you get the crap product we see on Saturdays.

 

[100yearscounting]

Three areas where we struggled that had major impacts on the season.

1. LB's had major srop off. In the Iowa scheme the LB's are set up to be the position that makes the most tackles. Too many times they broke down.
2. Punt team. Inconsistency led to an inability to flip field position or coverage was poor leading to putting the defense in a bad spot.
3. Guard play on the OL. Our QB's were hit a lot by folks coming up the middle. Run plays also often brokendown between the tackles.

In the end, inconsistency for positions on D, O and Special teams leads to a team that goes 7-6 with an easy schedule.

 

[FG86]

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:

Aegon, only a sociopath would think that someone cares about there uneducated ramblings. Who cares about your opinion? Did someone ask for your 'expert' analysis? I'm sure you will make some brilliant statement about my dear departed mothers clothes.........
There is about a couple dozen truly troubled people on this site and I make fun of you, and parody you, and you are too ill to even get it. The jokes on you..............
Oh, I forgot, I have to get back to my treatment, lol..............

Wait, who asked for or cares about your ramblings and rants, and opinion?

 

[frmrhwk57]

I agree completely here. I think that there will be marked improvement from Jewel and Bower. The third LB is gonna have to step up. The Guard play was very poor but starting a RSF at left guard to start the season is tough. I would guess well see improvement on the inside and hope that there is a manageable drop off at the tackle spots. Then we need the staff to be a little more unpredictable.

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

I think you forget my very disturbed friend that the entire point of this forum is to talk about Iowa football. For some reason this seriously gets you riled up and angry and I cannot comment on why.


Do you yell at people for driving cars? I mean the car is mean to be drove and that is what they are for. Do you get REALLY mad when they claim to know a couple of facts about driving and that car?

Your posting indicates that you have serious control issues and that you need to relax. I'll keep an eye on you.

I post a welcome to the new recruits and you come on and 'attack' me and now have the balls to make this comment? You are seriously dillusional, my psychotic friend.....

 

[EpenesaEpenesa]

Inexperience at LB and lack of RB

 

[Other-guy-from-Wham!]

Originally posted by Aegon_Targaryen:
To me it boiled down to 4 things.

1. Should have had CJ in there from the beginning. Similar skill set to Jake, with more upside. The inablity or lack of effort to throw down the field seriously hurt the offense at times. Statistically the offense wasn't as bad as you'd think, but it lacked that spark it needed.

2. RB playcalling and injuries. We all know about the infamous weisman stretch plays, but having Canzeri and Daniels out for the majority of the year seriously hurt. No telling how much Daniels would have helped, but we know what a healthy Canzeri can do.

3. Losing the LB's, not surprise of the huge dropoff here, although Alstons play was disappointing and I expected better from him. Iowa has the habit of losing entire units at once and this happened once again, and the D suffered once again.

4. Kicking game, the kicking game sucked. The punting was laughable and even worse. Though the actual Field goal kicking improved later in the season, the field positions the hawks landed in because of horrible kicking was a serious problem.

All in all, we had an easy schedule with some VERY bad losses. ISU, Minny, and Tenneseee the most notable. We once again had issues with RB's which was supposed to be a strength. We once again struggled with div 2 teams, and once again gave up leads in games we should have won.

We now may have lost potentially 2 first round draft picks, our most consistent WR, Weisman, Spearman(which hurts our LB depth), and the starting MLB, SS, and both DT's(who were both very good).

Unfortunatley, I don't see much sunshine for next year. I'm excited that CJ may finally get a chance, but I'm worried on whether he will be allowed to play his style and on whether he will be coached down to 'play it safe'. Something that happened to Stanzi, Vandenberg, and seemingly Tate even.

I guess we will see.

Losing Weisman and Lowerdermilk could be an addition by substraction.

Also you forget to name Chris White, aka the worst position coach in America.

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

Re: What happened this year?[/URL]thejazzcat posted on 2/5/2015...

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:



Aegon, only a sociopath would think that someone cares about there uneducated ramblings. Who cares about your opinion? Did someone ask for your 'expert' analysis? I'm sure you will make some brilliant statement about my dear departed mothers clothes.........
There is about a couple dozen truly troubled people on this site and I make fun of you, and parody you, and you are too ill to even get it. The jokes on you..............
Oh, I forgot, I have to get back to my treatment, lol..............

Matt I don't have a dog in this fight, but only want to point out that you seem like a person that would be above ad hominem logic. In this particular case, Aegon actually makes points that are pretty spot on, IMO. There are many things that I disagree with him on, but I totally agree with these 4 points, to which I will add a 5th: I have reason to believe that the JR/CJB issue caused locker room problems and that naming CJB as starter will alleviate them.

Jazzcat, I'm appreciate you not getting in the fray, but go to my 'Welcome' thread and see why I am upset. You are talking to the wrong person. I don't start this shit, but I'm certainly not taking it...
I don't care about his points. It's simplistic hindsight...serves no purpose.
I don't know why you have reason to believe that there were locker room problems, but if you have inside info, we'd love to hear it...It did 'appear' so with some things that happened through the year (for instance, I think there is a lot more to the story of Wilkes leaving...etc.) but I don't like to speculate without good info.........

 

[Hawkeye2222]

you do realize those new LB's faced 5 of the top 12 RB's in the nation "RIGHT" and 2 of them finished #1 and #2 IN RUSHIN,, you don't suppose that had anything to do with that. DO YOU?

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

Re: What happened this year?[/URL]frmrhwk57 posted on 2/5/2015...

I agree completely here. I think that there will be marked improvement from Jewel and Bower. The third LB is gonna have to step up. The Guard play was very poor but starting a RSF at left guard to start the season is tough. I would guess well see improvement on the inside and hope that there is a manageable drop off at the tackle spots. Then we need the staff to be a little more unpredictable

I agree that as Jewell and Bower get 'stronger' there will be big improvement and I think Neimann may end up being the best of the bunch.
A lot of people keep saying how poor the guard play was this year, but I have watched a ton of film and I don't see it. There were a few breakdowns (always are) and a couple missed assignments (mainly peeling to the lb's off the combo blocks) but for the most part it was pretty solid. Our backs were either to slow to the edge and/or missed the 'cutback' (which is what our scheme is all about.) All most every sack was from a missed blitz pickup 'on the edge', not up the gut.......
And I think the defensive staff needs to get back to the basics like Norm. I think they tried to be 'too' unpredictable' this year and it blew up on them way too many times...The blitzed the Leo and the corners more than I have ever seen and it resulted in way more 'negative' plays (big plays for them) than positive plays for us (sacks, tfl's, etc...)
Perect example: Defense runs a corner 'crash' from the short side of the field, Maryland throws a WR screen to where he came from. Lowdermilk doesn't 'roll' coverage up fast enough, gets caught, TOUCHDOWN...

 

[thejazzcat]

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:




Re: What happened this year?[/URL]thejazzcat posted on 2/5/2015...

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:




Aegon, only a sociopath would think that someone cares about there uneducated ramblings. Who cares about your opinion? Did someone ask for your 'expert' analysis? I'm sure you will make some brilliant statement about my dear departed mothers clothes.........
There is about a couple dozen truly troubled people on this site and I make fun of you, and parody you, and you are too ill to even get it. The jokes on you..............
Oh, I forgot, I have to get back to my treatment, lol..............

Matt I don't have a dog in this fight, but only want to point out that you seem like a person that would be above ad hominem logic. In this particular case, Aegon actually makes points that are pretty spot on, IMO. There are many things that I disagree with him on, but I totally agree with these 4 points, to which I will add a 5th: I have reason to believe that the JR/CJB issue caused locker room problems and that naming CJB as starter will alleviate them.

Jazzcat, I'm appreciate you not getting in the fray, but go to my 'Welcome' thread and see why I am upset. You are talking to the wrong person. I don't start this shit, but I'm certainly not taking it...
I don't care about his points. It's simplistic hindsight...serves no purpose.
I don't know why you have reason to believe that there were locker room problems, but if you have inside info, we'd love to hear it...It did 'appear' so with some things that happened through the year (for instance, I think there is a lot more to the story of Wilkes leaving...etc.) but I don't like to speculate without good info.........

Yep....I saw that one going off the rails as soon as you posted it, unfortunately.

As regards the locker room issues. My son-in-law is first cousins with a starter on the team. He is very close to him, talks to him daily, etc and over the last few years has got to know a bunch of players in that particular "circle". Most of these guys are starters from both sides of the ball. And this entire group of players preferred CJB.....adamantly. I never said anything about it because I'd see their interviews, play on the field, etc and it didn't seem to be effecting their play. But that opinion changed at the bowl game. That was simply not IA football. I had chalked the MN game up to overconfidence (which I still think), but the bowl game was different. I'm not saying that I KNOW there were locker room problems, but I am certain there were players that preferred CJB.

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

Re: What happened this year?[/URL]thejazzcat posted on 2/5/2015...

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:





Aegon, only a sociopath would think that someone cares about there uneducated ramblings. Who cares about your opinion? Did someone ask for your 'expert' analysis? I'm sure you will make some brilliant statement about my dear departed mothers clothes.........
There is about a couple dozen truly troubled people on this site and I make fun of you, and parody you, and you are too ill to even get it. The jokes on you..............
Oh, I forgot, I have to get back to my treatment, lol..............

Matt I don't have a dog in this fight, but only want to point out that you seem like a person that would be above ad hominem logic. In this particular case, Aegon actually makes points that are pretty spot on, IMO. There are many things that I disagree with him on, but I totally agree with these 4 points, to which I will add a 5th: I have reason to believe that the JR/CJB issue caused locker room problems and that naming CJB as starter will alleviate them.

Jazzcat, I'm appreciate you not getting in the fray, but go to my 'Welcome' thread and see why I am upset. You are talking to the wrong person. I don't start this shit, but I'm certainly not taking it...
I don't care about his points. It's simplistic hindsight...serves no purpose.
I don't know why you have reason to believe that there were locker room problems, but if you have inside info, we'd love to hear it...It did 'appear' so with some things that happened through the year (for instance, I think there is a lot more to the story of Wilkes leaving...etc.) but I don't like to speculate without good info.........




Yep....I saw that one going off the rails as soon as you posted it, unfortunately.

As regards the locker room issues. My son-in-law is first cousins with a starter on the team. He is very close to him, talks to him daily, etc and over the last few years has got to know a bunch of players in that particular "circle". Most of these guys are starters from both sides of the ball. And this entire group of players preferred CJB.....adamantly. I never said anything about it because I'd see their interviews, play on the field, etc and it didn't seem to be effecting their play. But that opinion changed at the bowl game. That was simply not IA football. I had chalked the MN game up to overconfidence (which I still think), but the bowl game was different. I'm not saying that I KNOW there were locker room problems, but I am certain there were players that preferred CJB.

Interesting. You see situations like this occasionally, so there may be some 'iron in your words' (sorry, Josey Wales is my favorite movie, lol) I've seen teams get divided by coaching staffs becoming 'divided'. It can cause huge 'distractions'. And I said it before KF alluded to it in his PC that this staff is still trying to build some 'chemistry'. From the practices I attended and from some things I saw on the field, there seems to be 'communication' problems at times, and I fear there is two many 'chiefs' and not enough indians....PP defenitely has a different style the NP and he needs to get everyone on the same page.......

 

[Fatsohawk]

Originally posted by Aegon_Targaryen:
To me it boiled down to 4 things.

1. Should have had CJ in there from the beginning. Similar skill set to Jake, with more upside. The inablity or lack of effort to throw down the field seriously hurt the offense at times. Statistically the offense wasn't as bad as you'd think, but it lacked that spark it needed.

2. RB playcalling and injuries. We all know about the infamous weisman stretch plays, but having Canzeri and Daniels out for the majority of the year seriously hurt. No telling how much Daniels would have helped, but we know what a healthy Canzeri can do.

3. Losing the LB's, not surprise of the huge dropoff here, although Alstons play was disappointing and I expected better from him. Iowa has the habit of losing entire units at once and this happened once again, and the D suffered once again.

4. Kicking game, the kicking game sucked. The punting was laughable and even worse. Though the actual Field goal kicking improved later in the season, the field positions the hawks landed in because of horrible kicking was a serious problem.

All in all, we had an easy schedule with some VERY bad losses. ISU, Minny, and Tenneseee the most notable. We once again had issues with RB's which was supposed to be a strength. We once again struggled with div 2 teams, and once again gave up leads in games we should have won.

We now may have lost potentially 2 first round draft picks, our most consistent WR, Weisman, Spearman(which hurts our LB depth), and the starting MLB, SS, and both DT's(who were both very good).

Unfortunatley, I don't see much sunshine for next year. I'm excited that CJ may finally get a chance, but I'm worried on whether he will be allowed to play his style and on whether he will be coached down to 'play it safe'. Something that happened to Stanzi, Vandenberg, and seemingly Tate even.

I guess we will see.

1. Wouldn't have mattered. What CJ had for "downfield passing ability" would have been negated by poor decision making and turnovers, and record would most likely be the same. That said, I'm all for CJ getting a shot, and he should have played more this past year.

2. Totally agree. Enough of the stretch play. Pull some linemen for cryin' out loud.

3. Totally agree. I didn't think we'd miss Morris, Kirksey and Hitch as much as we did. While I applaud the effort of Jewell, Bower and Alston, they struggled, and it showed.

4. Punting game sucked. Kicking game (overall) was pretty good, I thought.

 

[hawkeyesports92]

It starts and ends with the poor coaching.

 

[Herkmeister]

Yep, it's the head coach. End of conversation. It's not sexy but that's football.

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

hawkeyesports92 posted on 2/6/2015...

It starts and ends with the poor coaching.

Funny, I didn't see KF miss one tackle or blow a single coverage, etc...
Just the further idiotic rantings of the batshit crazy crew...

 

[ThatsFootball]

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:

hawkeyesports92 posted on 2/6/2015...

It starts and ends with the poor coaching.

Funny, I didn't see KF miss one tackle or blow a single coverage, etc...
Just the further idiotic rantings of the batshit crazy crew...

So now we don't expect coaches to actually coach fundamentals anymore huh? In your opinion, what is Kirk's job exactly?

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

Having been at practices, I assure you that they spend a great amount of time on fundamentals and especially on technique. They still can't play the game for them though and the execution was not there at times this year. The reasons are many and can't be summed up by comments like, "so and so is too slow", or " whats his name sucks"...
My take, for whatever it's worth, on KF saying he needs to watch more film is that there were game plan and scheme issues that he wants to try to fix. When he talked about all his fundraising stuff and not being 'in the office' enough, I believe he was alluding to not being involved in the gameplanning as much as he was or should, placing too much trust and responsiblity on the coordinators. He is a class act and does not throw coaches or players 'under the bus'.
It sounds like he will be this year. Let's see what happens?

 

[ThatsFootball]

Originally posted by MattFoleyHawk:

Having been at practices, I assure you that they spend a great amount of time on fundamentals and especially on technique. They still can't play the game for them though and the execution was not there at times this year. The reasons are many and can't be summed up by comments like, "so and so is too slow", or " whats his name sucks"...
My take, for whatever it's worth, on KF saying he needs to watch more film is that there were game plan and scheme issues that he wants to try to fix. When he talked about all his fundraising stuff and not being 'in the office' enough, I believe he was alluding to not being involved in the gameplanning as much as he was or should, placing too much trust and responsiblity on the coordinators. He is a class act and does not throw coaches or players 'under the bus'.
It sounds like he will be this year. Let's see what happens?

So it sounds like you are eluding to him not being fully committed to making the team better the last few years.

 

[MattFoleyHawk]

You are going to put whatever 'spin' on it that you want. It's a big job and you are always getting 'pulled' in different directions. I believe he 'committed' (in your terms) himself to trying to get all the upgrades and facilities, etc. funded and completed because he knew it was important for the future of the program, and in doing so it cut into his time 'leading' the staff more. There is only so many hours in a day and some of these guys work 20 hrs. a day at times during the season. He has never not been 'committed' to Iowa. You have no idea what it takes to run a big program like this and I can guarantee that you wouldn't even know where to start, but it sounds like he wants to get back to 'coaching' more......

 

[Sterling_Wildcat]

Originally posted by Hawkeye2222:

so you are not happy with 4* DT Johnson 6'4 310 lbs is a major dropoff in talent
also we have 4* DT Ekakitie 6'3 287 lbs can't replace 6'3 290 lb LTP
4* DT Cooper 6'2 280 lbs is still in the mix

the DL will be the strongest it has been since 2008-09 seasons.

Alston was roundly put down by posters on this board all season as was SS Lowdermilk and now they will be hard to replace what a joke

Bower is being moved to MLB from the LEO,
Neiman who many are excited about will now be the LEO at 6'3 4.5 40 a converted WR recruit for NIU but listed as a ATH by Rival
Jewel replaced Spearman as the starting WLB at the end of the season

but its nice to see you have already labeled them as failures after their 1st season with absolutely CAN'T improve.

as for that offense that offense totaled 5201 yards on the season for a 400 ypg avg. only a out right hatred of JR blinds you and other has to how good he was WITHOUT a decent speed back

Lets look at the above mentioned DT's career stats Kilroy (DT Cooper Tack/24 Ast/28 Total 52 Sack 1) (DT Johnson Tack/0 Ast 1 Total 1 Sack 0) (DT Ekakitie Tack 0 Ast 0 Total 0 Sack 0) strongest DL since 2008-2009 ? Keep on PUMPING IT !

 

[dbq hawk 32]

Originally posted by Hawkeye2222:

you do realize those new LB's faced 5 of the top 12 RB's in the nation "RIGHT" and 2 of them finished #1 and #2 IN RUSHIN,, you don't suppose that had anything to do with that. DO YOU?

Yes, I suspect our LBs did have something to do with them finishing 1 and 2 in the nation in rushing.

 

[icantfindausernamethatisntused]

Our defense tackled worse than any Iowa team I have seen under Ferentz. That was the biggest issue. This was largely due to the play of our LB's, but our DE's struggled to hold the edges and our secondary missed too many tackles as well.

The bright side is that this has typically been a strength of Iowa under Ferentz, and therefore I think it's an issue that can be fixed. Our LB's were very young, and while I'm not sure they'll be world-beaters next year, they should at least be improved to the point of average.

The scary part is we lost our two best players on defense last year in Carl Davis and LTP. We replace them with some experienced players that were highly ranked recruits, but I'm sure we are going to miss those two in the middle of the defensive line.


I really don't think our offense was much of an issue last year -- and what I mean by that is that compared to other successful Iowa teams, our offense was as good or better last year. We did have issues with our offense that we can improve upon. Our running game struggled which I think was largely due to Canzeri being banged up all year, and Weisman just didn't look like the same player. Our offensive line opened up some holes and they also protected the QB pretty well. We lose Scherff, but I think our offensive line will still be strong.

Last year I don't think it mattered (in terms of production) who started at QB. CJB is obviously more talented physically, but Rudock knew the offense better and overall was a smarter player (at least in terms of doing what the coaches wanted). With a more experienced CJB, we should have improved QB play from last year -- and really, our QB play last year was pretty good.

We lose KMM who set some records at WR for this program, but he really isn't much more than a 3rd best option if he plays with talented receivers (like when we had DJK and McNutt). His loss won't help, but I don't think we'll notice it much. We need to get Smith more involved in the offense as he is truly a gamebreaker at WR. When he is targeted, good things happen. We'll need to find a solid secondary WR to him. I think Vandeberg and Hillyer can both be fine options in the slot, but someone is going to have to step up and exceed expecations if we're going to have a dangerous offense.


Ferentz has already lost most of the fan base, IMO. I am one of the biggest Ferentz supporters on this board. I've always maintained that college football is cyclical, and Ferentz has shown in the past that he can rebuild teams as long as we don't have a lot of transfers. We still produce a lot of NFL draft picks, so we do still have competitive talent on the field, but next season is a make-or-break season for Ferentz's future at Iowa. After the 2013 season I thought we were seeing the 3rd iteration of high level success under Ferentz. We had some momentum and were returning a lot of talent from a team that won 8 games and went to the Outback bowl, but last year was a big disappointment. I could try to be overly optimistic by pointing out that had we held onto double digit leads against Iowa State, Maryland, and Nebraska, and found a way to get another field goal against Wisconsin we could have gone 10-2 going into the Big 10 Championship game. But realistically we also were lucky to escape Ball State and Pittsburgh with wins, and both Maryland and Wisconsin controlled most of our games against them. Overall we were 3-4 in games decided by one score or less, so our 7-6 overall record was an accurate representation of our overall performance, and that was agaisnt a very weak schedule.

If Ferentz doesn't win at least 9 games next year, I don't see him being here past 2016. We have a pretty managable schedule again next year, and I think Ferentz is going to need to add some chips to his bank in order to weather what could be a rough 2016 season when our schedule gets more difficult. Another mediocre season next year and it's going to be tough to sell the argument that Ferentz is turning the program around (which is already a difficult sell). If we win 7 or 8 games, I think he gets one more year but will be on a very hot seat which will require him to exceed expectations in order to keep his job.