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Worst Offense in Modern Football history?

BrunoMars420

HR Legend
Feb 14, 2016
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“Iowa has worst offense in modern Big Ten history​

This isn’t hyperbole; this is indisputable. The Hawkeyes are last nationally in total offense with 227.3 yards per game. UMass is second-to-last at 243.0 yards per game. In the 14-member Big Ten, Rutgers ranks 13th at 329.9 yards per game. The second-worst Big Ten offense, which ranks 113th nationally, outgains Iowa by 102.6 yards per game. Let that sink in for a moment.

In five other major national categories, Iowa is 128th in scoring (14.0 points per game, second-lowest among Power 5 teams), 127th in rushing yards per game (81.4, third worst in Power 5), 126th in third-down percentage (26.6, worst in Power 5), 126th in red zone percentage (66.7, second worst in Power 5) and 122nd in passing offense (145.9, worst in Power 5).

Then you apply history to this topic. The worst full-season Big Ten offense since Kirk Ferentz took over in 1999 currently belongs to the 2017 Rutgers squad, which averaged 262.7 yards per game. Only five teams statistically were worse than Iowa’s 227.3 yards per game (2014 Wake Forest, 2013 Florida International, 2006 Temple, 2002 Rutgers and 2000 Baylor). Iowa averages 3.9 yards per play; no Big Ten team has averaged less than 4.1 since 1999.”

 
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The answer is NO according to your thread title as you must not remember some of the entirely terrible Northwestern, Kansas St, Kansas, and other teams since 1970. And maybe Lauterbur's teams had worse offenses, I cant remember. But that is not the point.

The point is that with Iowa's resources, past success just a few years ago from 2015 to 2017 there is no reason for this but laziness and not hard work by Kirk and some of his coaches.

All of last year the offense was very suspect and nothing was done about it. The OLine was pretty bad last year and even worse this year, how can that be unless people just let it happen and did not work to correct it.
 
We only pass for 40 more yards per game than Navy in modern college football and they run the triple option all game. Yikes.

And Army, Navy, and Air Force all have more total passing touchdowns. Holy sh*t.

We have 5 total passing touchdowns while Wisconsin has 19 and their QB looks like a bigger garbage pile than Petras. How is that possible?
 
In 1981 Hayden Fry and the Hawks recorded their first winning season since 1962. Everyone celebrated like it was 1999. ( Prince not Iowa ) However in retrospect it was eerily similar to this season. We had the best defense in the big 10 that year but offensively ahead of only winless NW and hapless Indiana (3-8). We went 8-4 but we scored only:
0 loss in the Rose Bowl
7 loss to Illinois
10 loss to Minnesota
12 loss to Iowa State

While in 8 wins:
9 over Michigan
10 over Nebraska
17 over Wisconsin
20 over UCLA

While against the 4 worst teams: ( think west division )
33 over Purdue
36 over MSU
42 over Indiana
64 over NW

By Big 10 agreement Iowa went to the Rose Bowl because they had been absent the longest and ties tO$U at 6-2. ( all other Big 10 teams had played 9 conference games, full round robin. Iowa and tO$U did not ). I fail to remember anyone crying about a lack of offense...

We got smoked in a Rose Bowl we didn't deserve by a Washington team that likely was already cheating...
 
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How many Ws we got?
We are 6-4 in one of the worst P5 conferences lol. Just Imagine if we had a below avg offense? You can love the hawks and talk about the obvious on what we need to improve on to be a better team.

I, as one of the Brian dissenters, want to revoke your fan card because you are not a real fan if you don’t want to improve the Hawks. #shame
 
We only pass for 40 more yards per game than Navy in modern college football and they run the triple option all game. Yikes.

And Army, Navy, and Air Force all have more total passing touchdowns. Holy sh*t.

We have 5 total passing touchdowns while Wisconsin has 19 and their QB looks like a bigger garbage pile than Petras. How is that possible?

I was looking at those stats too...unreal!
 
There are some anomalies here, too. Success for the D and special teams sometimes means shorter fields and fewer possessions for the offense. The O has less opportunity to gain yards or score. With a second-half lead the coach becomes even more risk averse. These things help make a pedestrian-at-best offense look even worse statistically.

That said, it's still the worst Hawk offense since 2012, and that o-line was better. Strangely enough, though, Petras, Johnson, and L. Williams still have a strong chance to out-perform their 2012 counterparts this season, and LaPorta will surpass any of the 2012 receivers on Saturday.
 
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epic record setting failure

what's even worse, it's not like we've had a rash of injuries either

bad scheme, bad players and coaching
Average Total Offense Rank over the last seven years is #110. Take out 2020 COVID year and it is #114. Only one time since 2012 have we averaged 400 yards. I believe that year was 2014 and we averaged exactly 400 yards.
 
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If his plan is for Brian to take over when he leaves, it looks highly unlikely now. It does depend on who is the A.D. at the time.
 

“Iowa has worst offense in modern Big Ten history​

This isn’t hyperbole; this is indisputable. The Hawkeyes are last nationally in total offense with 227.3 yards per game. UMass is second-to-last at 243.0 yards per game. In the 14-member Big Ten, Rutgers ranks 13th at 329.9 yards per game. The second-worst Big Ten offense, which ranks 113th nationally, outgains Iowa by 102.6 yards per game. Let that sink in for a moment.

In five other major national categories, Iowa is 128th in scoring (14.0 points per game, second-lowest among Power 5 teams), 127th in rushing yards per game (81.4, third worst in Power 5), 126th in third-down percentage (26.6, worst in Power 5), 126th in red zone percentage (66.7, second worst in Power 5) and 122nd in passing offense (145.9, worst in Power 5).

Then you apply history to this topic. The worst full-season Big Ten offense since Kirk Ferentz took over in 1999 currently belongs to the 2017 Rutgers squad, which averaged 262.7 yards per game. Only five teams statistically were worse than Iowa’s 227.3 yards per game (2014 Wake Forest, 2013 Florida International, 2006 Temple, 2002 Rutgers and 2000 Baylor). Iowa averages 3.9 yards per play; no Big Ten team has averaged less than 4.1 since 1999.”

Iowa's offense is way better than Nebraska's. You'll soon see that,
 
I understand the offense needs work and it has been bad but you have to look at a couple of other factors. Who we have played is huge as we started the season playing a majority of top 20 defenses. Secondly, Iowa will never be "rated" high in offense because of our ball control style.

Carry on
 
The offense is undeniably terrible for the 2nd year in a row. I was looking at the OL coach's background given how badly they have played. I guess he played high school football for Coach Wienke, father of John Wienke (Former Iowa player), who roomed with James Ferentz while in college. Wienke called in a favor to Coach Ferentz to get Barnett an interview when the coaching position came open. Somehow this guy gets the job? I would consider Iowa to have a pretty rich tradition at the offensive line position and we hire a guy with a resume that includes Indianapolis, Grand Valley State, Illinois State, Miami of Ohio and Tulane? Are you telling us that we couldn't find someone better suited for this job? The offensive line has clearly regressed under his coaching. Something about this situation smells funny to me, similarly to the Offensive Coordinator position. This guy is definitely no Reese Morgan.
 
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I understand the offense needs work and it has been bad but you have to look at a couple of other factors. Who we have played is huge as we started the season playing a majority of top 20 defenses. Secondly, Iowa will never be "rated" high in offense because of our ball control style.

Carry on
Iowa has a ball control style? I guess it makes it okay to not be rated high then

Might want to adjust once the Big 10 West goes away
 
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