T1B

Great game. Iowa made some clutch plays on that last drive, and was close enough to making a play on that tip in the endzone. They may be out of the B10 race now, but they're gonna give tOSU fits next week I have a feeling.

+10 Cats was the gimme of the week. Iowa just really struggles with Northwestern.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:+10 Cats was the gimme of the week. Iowa just really struggles with Northwestern.

I took that one too, on principle.

Stanzi was lucky he didn't get picked multiple times on the last drive.

King Crimson wrote:Stanzi was lucky he didn't get picked multiple times on the last drive.

True, he made some horrible throws in the last possession and his receivers dropped some catchable balls too. The INT turned the game around, and that was both a poor decision and throw. They've got a week to get their shit together before the Buckeyes come to town, and I feel more confident about that game than I did about today. I think Iowa matches up better with tOSU than with NW....or Indiana, for that matter, except NW has better players than Indiana. Anyway, Iowa is out of the conference race now and the coaches will now have a big job getting them up for next week.

I swear, Iowa's only great game this year was against MSU. Why they don't play that way every Saturday is beyond me.

The game was over when we didn't convert the 3rd down on our next to last possession. I said before the drive we had a zero percent chance of keeping them from driving 85 yards in less than 10 plays.

We have the most pathetic defense I have ever seen. They have no heart. They are chokers. 2 drives in 7 minutes they went 80+ yards on this defense in a total of 17 plays to win the game. It was predictable. This is how we lost the Arizona and Wisconsin games too- 80 yard game winning touchdown drives in the last minute. Indiana did it last week too but we got lucky and they dropped the game winning TD pass.

So that is 5 clutch drives our defense has had this year and all 5 of them (I'm counting the indiana one because we didn't actually force the stop) they drove the ball at will for 80 yards or more.

There is no hiding from it or spinning things- we have a bad coaching staff. Nobody develops players as well as they do, but nobody coaches a game as poorly as they do. Just watch today's game as an example. That was a complete meltdown on both sides of the ball and it happens every game down the stretch. Do you think it is a coincidence our last 9 losses have come by a touchdown or less?

And I'm tired of hearing how clutch this team was last year. Bullshit. They tried choking games away and just barely hung on in games we couldn't put away. We had close scores but the msu game was the only one we came up big in the last few minutes. We tried choking the UNi, Arkansas st, and michigan games away and couldn't come through in the clutch against northwestern or ohio state. People assume they were clutch because we didn't blow teams out, but that's very misleading.

O'keefe is a bad offensive coordinator and ferentz does not understand game management. This is why we lose almost every game down the stretch unless we get lucky. We had the ball with 1;25 to go on our own 20 and need to drive it 80 yards. We weren't even trying to throw it downfield. 3rd and 16 with 20 seconds to go and the ball at midfield we tried to dump it off to our RB for a short gain. Our you fucking shitting me?

Worst coach team I have ever seen. Players have regressed. Our defense simply has no heart. We can't win next week because it is going to come down to the wire. I can't see either ohio st or iowa blowing the other away. With our coaching staff and the mental toughness of our defense- how the fuck are we going to win one down the stretch against a veteran team like ohio st?

The sad thing is this team is going to finish 8-4, but will end up being 4 plays away from playing for a national title for the 2nd time in the last 3 years. That's how close thy are. The problem is when you have lousy coaches, you will always finish below where you should. If I were a recruit, I can't think of a better place to go play football if I want to get to the nfl than iowa. Look at how many guys we send to the nfl and then look at how low our recruiting classes are ranked. It's absolutely insane to think about how well we develop players. I've said it for years now- NOBODY does a better job developing players. But there just aren't many coaching staffs that do a poorer job of game coaching than this staff. You can't compete for national titles with a coaching staff that does not understand game management. You can occasionally contend for a Big-10 title or BCS bowls, but it is impossible to win it all with a coach like ferentz. And this comes from someone that thinks highly of him. So I hate saying this, but it is the truth.

Ferentz has had very few games in his career where we pulled a game out late. Yet we've lost probably 25-30 of them. The truth sucks sometimes doesn't it Mace?

TheJON wrote:The sad thing is this team is going to finish 8-4, but will end up being 4 plays away from playing for a national title for the 2nd time in the last 3 years.

I'm glad Iowa lost for the simple reason that it triggers a Jonsense melt.

IF what you said were actually true, then, yes. But I don't agree with everything you're saying. I don't always agree with our offensive philosophy and wish we'd put teams away instead of trying to control the ball and run clock, but that's what we do most of the time. Our defense has always struggled against the spread and we don't seem to change our defensive philosophy when we play Northwestern and Indiana...or even the McCarney ISU teams...and we always struggle, even in a win. We give those teams the 8 yard pass, which is okay against teams who don't normally look for those passes as part of their offense, but it plays right in to Northwestern's hands.....that IS their offense, and we should be trying something to take them out of it. I thought we should have been checking the receivers at the LOS and take that short pass away from them because they don't throw deep....especially going into that wind today.

But the problem today wasn't any "lack of heart", it was lack of execution. Stanzi had a poor day throwing with bad decisions and some horrible throws. That's not on Ken O'Keefe. He doesn't throw the ball or make the decisions on what receiver to throw to. Nope, those mistakes are on Stanzi. The dropped balls are also not on O'Keefe. I'm totally satisfied with the Iowa coaching staff, JON, and think they do more with less than any other staff could do. The talent level at Iowa is getting better every year and they will get where we both want them to be. Personally, I'm looking forward to next season, when fan expectations won't be as high as this year, and think they will have an even better season next fall.

Oh, and props to Northwestern for outplaying Iowa today. Gotta give credit where credit is do....even when it hurts.

See, I think it's the exact opposite. I think we do less with more. Unless you are referring to our great player development.

The fact of the matter is we lose 2 games almost every year to teams with inferior talent.
We are also consistently losing basically every close game we play. Off the top of my head the only last minute scoring drives I can recall a ferentz team getting was the CapOne bowl (fluke) and the MSU game last year. That's 2 game winning scoring drives out of about 25-30 opportunities. People also forget that in the CapOne Bowl, we choked away a 12 point lead with 8 minutes to go thanks to our "let's go into the tank" coaching philosophy.

But back to the talent- this is an assumption people make about Iowa. They think we are winning with less talent. No, we are losing with more talent. Go look at the NFL. Texas has recruited 10x as many 4 and 5 stars as Iowa, yet they have only sent 3 more players to the NFL than us over the last decase. That number will be almost dead even in an 11 year stretch after this next draft.

Northwestern does not have more than a few players that could start at Iowa in most years, yet they have beaten us 5 of the last 6. That's not my Hawkeye homerism- that's a fact. We have better players at almost every position on the field. So why are they beating us? Simple. Pat Fitzgerald is a much better game coach than Ferentz. It's not a coincidence they keep pulling out games down the stretch against us. They manage the clock better and have their players more prepared for late game situations. Did you notice how calm and confident they were down the stretch today? Then you look at Iowa and we had 11 guys whose buttholes were puckering up. They were confused. That's coaching. If you gave Pat Fitzgerald our roster, he would be unbeaten right now.

Go back through the years and point to games where we have beaten teams with more talent. I hear this a lot from people, but it's just not true. Sure, there's a few games in there (ie Penn st in 2008), but we don't beat teams that are all that much more talented than us. They may outrecruit us, but this staff does such a great job developing talent that we actually end up more talented than most of our opponents.

Stanzi was not terrible today, he just didn't play his best game. Part of that was the receivers. Paul Cheney should not be on the field. He cannot catch the ball. But that last drive playcalling was stupid just like every single game we are in that spot. 1:25 to go and you need 80 yards.....you can't just dump the ball off. You have to go downfield. The first 5 plays were short passes. Then with 3rd and 16 and 20 seconds left, a dumpoff to the RB? Really?

We ALWAYS fuck up clock management on both sides of the ball. We consistently lose these types of games because of our coaches. I like Ferentz and I am glad to have one of the few classy coaching staffs left in college athletics, but the fact is they are just not good game coaches. Playcalling makes no sense and they fail miserably at clock management. We will always lose the majority of these games with this staff. They will never learn.

Thanks for theJON rant, Part II. Will this be a trilogy?

Mace wrote:Thanks for theJON rant, Part II. Will this be a trilogy?

Naww.....no Trilogy. I apologize in advance! :D

Besides, how can we be pissed off right now...........Hawkeye basketball starts tomorrow! "Fran Appreciation Day"!

TheJON wrote:

Mace wrote:Thanks for theJON rant, Part II. Will this be a trilogy?

Naww.....no Trilogy. I apologize in advance! :D

Besides, how can we be pissed off right now...........Hawkeye basketball starts tomorrow! "Fran Appreciation Day"!

I didn't think you could top Star Wars but I thought you might come up with something to at least match Back to the Future. :) We're all disappointed, so I knew that you, and other Hawk fans need to vent a little, even though I don't agree with all of the criticism. My son called me immediately after the game and I answered the phone withh "suicide hotline, please make this a short call because we've got tons of Hawkeye fans on hold right now."

I'm actually pretty pumped about watching basketball tomorrow and think this will be the first time in the past few years that the basketball team will average more points per game than the football team.

will be the first time in the past few years that the basketball team will average more points per game than the football team.

That's only because KOK is not Fran's offensive coordinator! :D

By the way, did you happen to catch the postgame show on WHO? Persa said that the reason Northwestern has so much success against Iowa is because our coaching staff refuses to make in-game changes to the gameplan even when things aren't going well. I wanna say "fuck you Persa", but I can't argue with what he's saying. Eh.....fuck that bitch!

I think that Iowa has always done a great job of making halftime adjustments but, in the case of facing a spread offense, they need to change their whole scheme for a week. They have been unwilling to do that, and it has cost them. Norm Parker's strength is also his weakness against the spread offense.

Mace wrote:I think that Iowa has always done a great job of making halftime adjustments but, in the case of facing a spread offense, they need to change their whole scheme for a week. They have been unwilling to do that, and it has cost them. Norm Parker's strength is also his weakness against the spread offense.

But Northwestern drove down the field at will and scored on their 1st possession. For the next 3 quarters, our defense dominated their offense. They couldn't have had more than 75 yards total in that period. Then with 7 minutes to go they are down 10 and drive the ball 160 yards on about 17 plays and 2 touchdowns.

Same with Arizona....

We shut down the spread for the majority of that game. Then they drove 80 yards for a touchdown on about 5 plays. Indiana had 240 yards going into their final drive and moved it at will for what would have been a game winning drive if not for a drop.

Wisconsin doesn't run a spread, but they drove it 80 yards at will also for the win.

So I really don't think the spread kills us that much. I think it has more to do with having a team full of chokers. Northwestern didn't beat us with the spread last year. They scored 10 offensive points. 2 years ago, they didn't either- it was all turnovers we just gave them.

TheJON wrote:how the fuck are we going to win one down the stretch against a veteran team like ohio st?

Tell you what Jon, if we decide to only play one half of football next week like we did today, you'll knock our dicks into the dirt with ease.

Ferentz has had very few games in his career where we pulled a game out late. Yet we've lost probably 25-30 of them. The truth sucks sometimes doesn't it Mace?

Huh? Seems to me you guys win a lot of close games because you play a lot of close games. Iowa teams aren't built to blow people out of the water. It stands to reason you're going to lose some as well.

The entire theme of your season last year was comebacks and winning games by the skin of your teeth. UNI, MSU, Indiana, etc. It's funny, when you get those kinds of breaks all year they tend to go the opposite way next season. I pointed this out before the season as to why I thought you guys would take a step back. That and the fact you guys lost a lot of talent on defense. Your LB play has been marginal at best. 3-4 losses was pretty well expected. Now just go out and beat Ohio St, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE, and all will be well again.

Mgo,

I know you watch Iowa quite a bit like you do other Big-10 games, but most of what you said is an assumption people make about Iowa- including our team last year.

The truth about 2009 was we really weren't as clutch as you think. Those "come from behind wins" is misleading. You are talking about being down 3-10 points in the 3rd quarter. Once all season we took a lead with less than 7 minutes to play- MSU.

Most of the other close games we had to hold on for dear life after we went into the tank. We actually tried our best to choke away the michigan, arkansas st, and uni games. We only had 1 real comeback- Indiana- and we ended up winning by 18.

we have the 2nd best offensive line in the Big-10 and nobody in the conference has better overall skill position talent and depth than Iowa. 2 WRs, a QB, and a TE will ALL be drafted in the first 4 rounds. This offense has managed 35 total points between Northwestern and Indiana. Go take a look at the Chiefs and see what Tony Moeaki is doing. Fucking tearing shit up. Now tell me how Charlie Weis is smart enough to throw him the ball with a horrible QB but our OC absolutely refused to throw him the damn ball the 2nd half of last year. I almost forgot a future all-pro tight end was even on the god damn team!

That's my point. We can't run a 2-minute drill because, well.....we don't have 1. Go watch how lost mentally we were on our final drives today, against arizona and the wisconsin game. Exact same situation in each of those and a complete meltdown. You don't think that's on the coaches? While you say Iowa wins a lot of close games- you are being misled in your thoughts. Our close wins are always the "whew, thank god we held on" and not the "wow, what a fucking awesome game winning drive that was". We also don't win as many close games as you think. I believe ferentz has 24 wins of 7 points or less. That's out of 89 victories. So more than 70 percent of our wins come by more than 1 score. On the flipside, over half of our losses have come by 1 score. There is a reason for that- coaching. Period. What else can you pin it on? If we are consistently in a position to win football games but consistently mentally collapse in the clutch, who gets the blame?

The truth about those 24 wins of a TD or less is incredibly misleading. 90 percent of them really weren't as close as the final score indicates or we tried our best to choke them away. There are 2 games where we engineered a game winning drive in the final minutes and 25-30 games where we had a shot to engineer a game winning drive but failed. Those are cold hard facts- not opinions.

Do you think a coaching staff that wins close games just takes a knee in Columbus with a minute to go, 2 timeouts, and the game tied with the ball on the 30 yard line with the Rose Bowl on the line? Seriously, how many decent coaches would play for overtime on the road in the biggest game of your coaching career?

Did you know Ferentz didn't even know the clock was running before Tate threw that hail mary to beat LSU?

did you know we snapped the football with 20 seconds on the playclock with 2:30 left against UNI last year and then went into a prevent defense when they only needed a field goal to win?

Did you see the playcall was to dump the ball off to our Rb with 20 seconds and no timeouts left today on 3rd and 16?

We are going to go down as the first program to ever be 4 plays away from playing for a national title, while ending up 8-4- for the 2nd time in 3 years.

Wanna know how many points our last 9 losses have come by? 34. Less than 4 points per game. Think about that for a second..... how many times in the history of college football do you think a program has had a period of time where their only 9 losses were by a combined 34 points? That almost never happens.

There were probably 10-12 teams that lost by more points today than Iowa has in its last 9 losses combined.

Players come and go, but when your program is continually losing in the same way almost every game down the stretch, you are kidding yourself if you attribute that to anything other than the coaching staff. And you know how much I talk up Ferentz. Shit, I absolutely hate saying any of this. It pains me to say it. But I'm gonna say what I see, and what I see is a coaching staff that has cost this program a lot of games because of their game and clock management skills.

Now, do I want Ferentz fired? Oh hell no. Don't get me wrong, Kirk is great for this program. A better game coach doesn't have Iowa in position to win every game down the stretch or get to BCS bowls because the players wouldn't ever be good enough. I would much rather have a player developer than a great game coach here at Iowa. But the tradeoff is you will lose a couple games every year you should have won. It's just a shame Kirk and his staff can't figure out simple game management. But I suppose going 8-4 regularly with 10-2 mixed in there sure beats going 7-5 or 6-6 most years with a great game coach.

I thought you said this wasn't going to be a trilogy.

What we have, JON, is a coaching staff who developes 2 and 3 star recruits into a winning program. A staff who plays it close to the vest and gives us a chance to win every single game. Sometimes the kids just have to make plays, big plays, when you're trying to come from behind, and they didn't do that yesterday. The criticism of KOK is not justified. Sure, I don't always agree with the play calling but, you know what, my opinion doesn't really matter. Iowa had numerous opportunities yesterday and didn't take them. Players dropped passes when we needed a catch to move the ball in the final minute of the game. Stanzi threw an ill advised pass in the 4th quarter that turned into points for NW when he had open receivers.....a bad decision by Stanzi, not the coaches.

Offensively, we really miss Jewel Hampton. Robinson is a solid running back and a tough kid, but he doesn't give Iowa a homerun threat. Coker is out of the same mold, only a little bigger. Iowa lacks speed at the RB position. Stanzi is a quality QB, but he's not going to be a star on Sundays.....same for our receivers. Reisner has the best chance to play in the NFL as a tight end, and DJK may get the opportunity, but he's nothing special. I hope McNutt returns next season because I think he could develope even more. Our receivers are good, but not great.

Defensively, we have a great front four and two great safeties, but the CBs are young and need to get better. I've said all year that the LBs have killed Iowa, and they have. James Morris will be a very good LB in the years to come, but he's a true freshman and is still learning the game...especially pass coverage. Tarpanian was supposed to be the best returning LB, even though he had played very little except for special teams, but he's been injured most of the year. The other LBs are pretty average and have not filled the shoes of Edds and Angerer.

We're lucky to have Ferentz and his staff at the University of Iowa and all of the criticism is not only unjustified, it's plain fucking stupid. I don't think there's any way in hell that Ferentz will be fired but I do think that all of the criticism from the idiotic fans might get him to start looking for another job at some point in time. Think that can't happen? Lute Olsen took Iowa to the Final Four in 1980 and, following that season, the dumbass Iowa fans expected that to happen every year and began second guessing everything he did during the games. Next thing you know, I wake up one morning and hear that Lute is headed to Arizona. Moral of the story? Leave the coaches alone and let them do their jobs. Trust me, they've proven that they are infinitely more qualified to coach the game than any of the idiots posting on Hawkeye Nation or sitting in the stands on Saturday afternoons. There have been many years in my lifetime when 9-3 or 8-4 seasons would have been unthinkable because they were unattainable, so, as a lifelong Iowa fan, I have totally enjoyed the past 30 years of Iowa football and have learned to take the bad with the good, and knowing that the bad is nothing compared to the bads of the past.

One other thing I've learned over the years is that we have far too many assholes for fans. They are classless and possess little knowledge of the game of football, and they present the university in a bad light.

What we have, JON, is a coaching staff who developes 2 and 3 star recruits into a winning program.

I agree 100%. Like I said, I don't want Ferentz fired or anything like that. I want KOK out, but definitely not Kirk. Again, I'm 100% behind him- but you are kidding yourself if you don't think the guy can improve as a coach. Would Iowa be better off without him as coach? Hell fucking no. I would rather have Kirk's faults as a game coach in exchange for the unreal ability he and his staff have of developing players. A great player developer will get Iowa to the Top 15-20 program level like Kirk has done. A great game coach that can't develop players will have Iowa at a slightly better level than McCarney had ISU. Player development is most important here.

Offensively, we really miss Jewel Hampton. Robinson is a solid running back and a tough kid, but he doesn't give Iowa a homerun threat. Coker is out of the same mold, only a little bigger. Iowa lacks speed at the RB position.

I agree it would be nice to have a homerun hitter like Jewel or Brandon Wegher, but Robinson is just fine. This offense has 2 big play WR's and a great offensive line. I don't think we necessarily need a big play RB given that. Plain and simple......A-Rob moves the chains. Dude busts his ass out there and I don't think I have ever seen a football player get more out of their god given talent- or lack thereof- than A-Rob.

Reisner has the best chance to play in the NFL as a tight end, and DJK may get the opportunity, but he's nothing special. I hope McNutt returns next season because I think he could develope even more. Our receivers are good, but not great.

McNutt will be back and he is the best pro prospect. McNutt, Reisner and DJK will all be drafted in the 1st 4 rounds- probably all 2nd or 3rd rounders. Same with Stanzi. They would be a lot better with a quality offensive coordinator. Look at how well Moeaki is doing in the NFL already. I almost forgot he was on the team in the 2nd half of last season. We didn't even throw him the ball and he was the biggest mismatch we had up against opposing defenses. It was just stupid.

Defensively, we have a great front four and two great safeties,

No, we HAD a great front four. I have no idea what the hell has happened to these guys. Is it conditioning? Is it getting full of themselves? They get almost no pressure up front, especially late in games. Klug, Binns, and Ballard have been almost non-existent most of the year. Clayborn has been just average. What was up with Clayborn needing a breather at the end of the game? Makes me wonder about our conditioning. These guys are needing to come out of the game far too often. Other teams do not have this problem. And Greenwood has been god awful this year. He has been continuously late on getting to the receiver in coverage. They have regressed.

We're lucky to have Ferentz and his staff at the University of Iowa and all of the criticism is not only unjustified, it's plain fucking stupid.

The first part of this statement is correct. The second is wrong. He's paid $3.75 million per year and he's exempt from criticism? Come on Mace......you older Hawkeye fans all have the same opinion. You guys sat through the Bob Comings/George Burns eras and so you just assume that any bit of success is good enough. My dad is the same way. Every HONEST criticism I make about Ferentz, he gets all defensive. Look, the guy needs to make major improvements in game and clock management. How can you deny this? Why is it that because Kirk develops players as well as anyone and has our program at an all-time high that we cannot criticize him for the things he is doing poorly? I don't understand that. I have already stated I am a Ferentz supporter and would be perfectly happy with him being our coach until he retires. But I can also make an honest assessment of the guy.

Plain and simple- he and his staff are poor game managers. Period.

http://www.jhowell.net/cf/scores/Iowa.htm

Go through the Ferentz era and you will begin to remember all of the games our coaches fucked up. Is it really asking too much of Ferentz to NOT lose to a couple of inferior opponents every year? I don't think that it's "unjustified" to do so.

That said..........let's go buttfuck Ohio State in the mouth! I''m hoping that I will be able to score a few extra cheap tickets to this game now because I have some relatives in town that would like to go. So maybe the loss to Northwestern will save me some money!

And here is what's wrong with you young Hawkeye fans: 1) you have no perspective or real insight as to what Ferentz and his coaches have accomplished, 2) you don't have a real understanding of Iowa football history....hell, you don't even know the names of the former coaches...or how to spell correctly....it was Bob Commings and Jerry Burns. George Burns was a comedian. 3) Your expectations are unrealistic and you buy into all of the hype. We are Iowa, not Ohio State. I expected Iowa to be a contender for the conference title this year, and they were...up until yesterday, and I had hopes that they could go 12-0 and play for a national title. Those were my expectations. Neither will come to fruition this season. DJK will likely make an NFL roster next year...Stanzi...possibly. Robinson is a good, tough, reliable back, but he's not a big time back, he's a role player on a great team. We needed Hampton this year the same way that the '85 team needed Harmon....someone with real speed. That is a real need on this team, and future teams.

As for KOK's play calling.....what happens if the receivers actually do their jobs and catch the fucking ball in Iowa's last possession? I don't always agree with his redzone calls but I recognize that he knows the players and the defensive alignment they're facing a lot better than I do....or any ignorant fan in the stands that's yelling for O'Keefe's head. Iowa fans are a classless bunch of morons...especially the younger, frontrunning bitches that fill Kinnick on Saturday afternoons. I'm growing a serious dislike for many Iowa fans who are bitching about the coaches and have absolutely no clue what they're talking about. Hell, I visited the Hawkeye Nation board during the game yesterday and got banned after my first 10 posts for calling the posters "a bunch of morons", and that was in the first quarter of the game. They actually think they know something about the game (and they don't) and see themselves as better coaches than Ferentz and O'Keefe, which is nothing short of laughable.

Am I disappointed that Iowa played poorly yesterday? Absolutely. But I'm not bitching about the play calling or Ferentz's perceived "time management problems". He admitted to making a mistake in the Wisconsin game (whether he did or not) but there is so much more to the story than what we know. The timeout called in that game might have been called because Ferentz didn't like the play that was called and wanted to change it. Who knows? Oh, I'll be critical of a coach if he makes a blatant error during a game, but I haven't really seen that out of Ferentz...or O'Keefe, for that matter. O'Keefe calls the plays he thinks will work in a given situation and, when they work, nobody bitches, but when a kid drops a pass or someone misses a block, the naysayers start with the bitching. I learned long ago that there's more than one way to skin a cat.....meaning that there is more than one right way to do things. The way they choose may not be the way I would do it, but my opinon, or those of the idiots in the stands, don't really matter.

Also, KF's salary is not a reason to raise expectations to unrealistic levels. His salary has nothing to do with it. He has been rewarded for past successful seasons and an Orange Bowl win...as he should. How much money does his winning teams bring to Iowa City? $100 million a year? You know, the only intelligent thing I read on HN yesterday was something in response to the bitchers....."we're only one bad coaching hire away from being Minnesota". Absolutely true, and something that the moronic Iowa fans should keep in mind.

Maybe Ferentz and co. could share some of those epic player development skills with the basketball team. Double digit loss to South Dakota St at home in the season opener. Eeeesh. I know, I know...it was their Super Bowl.

MgoBlue-LightSpecial wrote:Maybe Ferentz and co. could share some of those epic player development skills with the basketball team. Double digit loss to South Dakota St at home in the season opener. Eeeesh. I know, I know...it was their Super Bowl.

New system, young team, best player out, first game, low expectations. I wasn't surprised. I don't expect more than 10-12 wins out of this team. I actually don't care one bit about wins and losses this year. It's all about showing improvement as the season goes on. There's some talent on this squad, and you will see a completely different team in about 2 months than what we will see the first part of the season.

The final score was misleading though. It was basically a 2-4 point game the whole game. Just kinda collapsed in the end. I thought SDSU played a very good game too. They executed well and had no problems with our press. Good ballhandlers and shooters on that team.

1) you have no perspective or real insight as to what Ferentz and his coaches have accomplished

Not true at all, Mace. If I had a nickel for every time I have heard about how crappy we were for 20 years prior to Hayden's arrival.....

The 4 top 10 finishes (5 Top 20) in the last 8 years is absolutely amazing for a program like Iowa. I fully acknowledge this.

3) Your expectations are unrealistic and you buy into all of the hype. We are Iowa, not Ohio State. I expected Iowa to be a contender for the conference title this year, and they were...up until yesterday, and I had hopes that they could go 12-0 and play for a national title. Those were my expectations. Neither will come to fruition this season.

Again, this is not true. I didn't buy into the preseason hype. I thought we would either sneak into the BCS or make it to the CapOne Bowl before the season. I had us projected to go 10-2. How is it unrealistic for me to expect us to beat Northwestern once in a while???

Iowa fans are a classless bunch of morons...especially the younger, frontrunning bitches that fill Kinnick on Saturday afternoons

I have never once in my life booed an Iowa player or coach. I was at every game during my entire 4 years at Iowa- this includes the 1-10 and 3-9 seasons my first 2 years. I believe I have missed 2 home games since then as well. I was also at every home game during our 3-8 season in 1998. I am not a frontrunner. Heck, my favorite team is actually not Iowa- it is the Royals. I'm not sure how that makes me a frontrunner. I don't like frontrunners either, but these knuckleheads are helping pay Ferentz' salary.

"we're only one bad coaching hire away from being Minnesota". Absolutely true, and something that the moronic Iowa fans should keep in mind.

Look, I said I don't want him fired. I hope Ferentz retires at Iowa. How many times do I have to say this? But whether you want to admit it or not.......he deserves some criticism. You can defend KOK and Kirk all you want, but you are kidding yourself if you don't think those 2 completely screw up late game situations quite often. I don't care how well you know your team......you have a 1:30 to play and the ball at your own 20 and need a touchdown, you can't be dinking and dunking your way down the field. I don't care if your WR's are 5'6 390 pounds. You have absolutely got to get the ball downfield.

In almost every close game we have, I can point to at least 1 boneheaded coaching decision. Running out the clock in regulation against Ohio State last year is one of the WORST coaching decisions I have ever seen. Biggest game of your career and you play for overtime against a better team on the road? Come on, Mace, you have seen enough football to know that's just dumb.

Why can you not admit to Ferentz' faults? Are you afraid that it will make you a Ferentz hater? Why is a coach making that kind of money (or any coach, really) above criticism? What does the fact that our program was terrible before I was even born have to do with whether or not Ferentz and KOK have screwed up a bunch of late game decisions in their careers? We sucked 30 years ago so that means you can't criticize the coach when he screws up???? Hu???

I get it.........we were terrible in the 60's and 70's. My expectations are not too high. I have said it a million times.........we will never be Ohio State. We will never consistently win Big-10 titles and go to BCS bowls. But when we have a legitimate shot at doing something special, it's very frustrating to see us screw it up. I don't care what our record is........we had a real shot this year to make a serious national title run. Everything was in place. The schedule set up well. Tons of starters back. And every game we have had an opportunity to win it late. 12 points, Mace. 12 points, and we're unbeaten. 3 plays. That's it. We make 3 more plays and we're playing Ohio State on Saturday in what would have been the biggest game in school history. Now, because of a couple of bad special teams mistakes and coaching screwups we are playing to salvage the season.

Perhaps I've been too harsh on Kirk, but you are being too soft. Just because I respect the guy doesn't mean I can't criticize him when he deserves it. And, while you may not admit to it, he does have some faults. He is not a perfect coach.

Hell, I visited the Hawkeye Nation board during the game yesterday and got banned after my first 10 posts for calling the posters "a bunch of morons"

I don't know if I should rack you or rip on you for that.....

Rack you for getting banned from the site. Unrack you for actually going over to that cesspool. Hawkeyereport.com is even worse. Talk about a cesspool....

Jon Miller is a douchebag. Saw that toolbag at 3Bag in WDM one Friday night about a year ago and dude walks in like he's fucking cool and is sporting a pair of Crocs. His morning show with Deace was okay but only because of Deace. Miller just parroted everything he said. How on earth he got where he is completely baffles my mind. His takes are terrible and he's not entertaining. I have no idea why the BTN gave him a show- though, I'm not surprised it only lasted a few weeks. He has no talent. He's done a good job marketing Hawkeyenation.com, but how on earth did running that site make him some sort of Voice of the Hawkeye nation??

TheJON wrote:I have never once in my life booed an Iowa player or coach. I was at every game during my entire 4 years at Iowa- this includes the 1-10 and 3-9 seasons my first 2 years. I believe I have missed 2 home games since then as well. I was also at every home game during our 3-8 season in 1998. I am not a frontrunner. Heck, my favorite team is actually not Iowa- it is the Royals. I'm not sure how that makes me a frontrunner. I don't like frontrunners either, but these knuckleheads are helping pay Ferentz' salary.

I didn't say you were a frontrunner, JON, I said that Kinnick is filled with young frontrunners, but I didn't direct that at you.

Look, I said I don't want him fired. I hope Ferentz retires at Iowa. How many times do I have to say this? But whether you want to admit it or not.......he deserves some criticism. You can defend KOK and Kirk all you want, but you are kidding yourself if you don't think those 2 completely screw up late game situations quite often. I don't care how well you know your team......you have a 1:30 to play and the ball at your own 20 and need a touchdown, you can't be dinking and dunking your way down the field. I don't care if your WR's are 5'6 390 pounds. You have absolutely got to get the ball downfield.

I didn't say that you want Ferentz fired or that the coaching staff never makes a poor call, but throwing the ball down field into a stiff wind would have been stupid, imo, especially when given the fact that Stanzi had already thrown one INT trying to go deep into the wind and has a history of doing that when he gets greedy. The coach's stategy of hitting the short passes was not the problem, especially with 2 TOs. The problem was the receivers dropping balls. If you're looking to blame someone, blame Robinson, DJK, McNutt, and Chaney for dropping well thrown balls. THAT'S what kept us from marching down the field to set up a TD strike, not the strategy.

In almost every close game we have, I can point to at least 1 boneheaded coaching decision. Running out the clock in regulation against Ohio State last year is one of the WORST coaching decisions I have ever seen. Biggest game of your career and you play for overtime against a better team on the road? Come on, Mace, you have seen enough football to know that's just dumb.

It's not what I would have done but I completely understood that decision with a freshman QB starting his first game. It wasn't "dumb", it was conservative, and not a coaching mistake.

Why can you not admit to Ferentz' faults? Are you afraid that it will make you a Ferentz hater? Why is a coach making that kind of money (or any coach, really) above criticism? What does the fact that our program was terrible before I was even born have to do with whether or not Ferentz and KOK have screwed up a bunch of late game decisions in their careers? We sucked 30 years ago so that means you can't criticize the coach when he screws up???? Hu???

What you consider coaching "screwups", aren't screw ups at all. I'm not going to get into everything that goes in to a coach making a decision, but their perspective of what needs to be done in any particular situation is more valid than your perspective, or mine. Just because they don't do it the way you think it should be done doesn't make it wrong. Like I said earlier, blame the players for dropping the passes, or Stanzi's decisions to throw to the wrong receiver. Ken O'Keefe isn't throwing the ball, he's calling the plays. You mentioned Moeaki earlier, and, again, O'Keefe wasn't the one not throwing the ball to him, it was Stanzi....unless you're telling me that Moeaki was never running a pass route on those plays.

Perhaps I've been too harsh on Kirk, but you are being too soft. Just because I respect the guy doesn't mean I can't criticize him when he deserves it. And, while you may not admit to it, he does have some faults. He is not a perfect coach.

I'm not being soft on Ferentz. I just trust that he knows more than you or any of the other Monday morning QBs....and I'm damn sure that I'm right about that one. And, for the record, no one is perfect, not even KF, but he's a hell of a football coach and knows far more than any of the morons in the stands or on the message boards. I don't feel the need to be critical of a coach just because Iowa loses a game that they should have won. The team lost the game because they didn't execute....the same reasons they lost the other two games.

Ken O'Keefe isn't throwing the ball, he's calling the plays. You mentioned Moeaki earlier, and, again, O'Keefe wasn't the one not throwing the ball to him, it was Stanzi....unless you're telling me that Moeaki was never running a pass route on those plays.

Actually, Moeaki was used as a blocker a lot more last year than as a receiver. that's my problem. While you say Stanzi might not have been throwing him the ball on plays he was running a route, I disagree. The coaching staff should have gameplanned to find a way to get Moeaki the ball. I find it hard to believe Stanzi just didn't want to throw him the ball. Getting Tony the football consistently was clearly NOT a focus of KOK's game preparations and it's a real shame.

I said that Kinnick is filled with young frontrunners, but I didn't direct that at you.

But what decent sports team isn't? Most fans are frontrunners. If you didn't have any of them at games, there would be no such thing as a sellout for any team in any sport. Royals-yankees or Royals-Red Sox games in Kansas City are half filled by opposing teams "fans". Funny how none of those fans have a Boston or New York accent. Amazing!

but throwing the ball down field into a stiff wind would have been stupid,

Doesn't matter the wind at this point. We needed a touchdown. Our only way of scoring a touchdown with 1:30 to go and 80 yards away was to throw it downfield. If Stanzi throws a pick, then so be it. While you mention he had just thrown a pick, you have to realize he has 4 interceptions on the season. You can't nickel and dime your way downfield in that amount of time. Eventually you are going to have to launch it downfield. It would be different if we needed a FG. The problem is we waited until the very end to throw downfield, and because of it we were forced to chuck a hail mary. The first 5 plays were 3-5 yard passes. That is poor playcalling given the situation. I don't care if you run a triple option offense. At that point, you absolutely cannot be calling those plays. It's downfield or it's lose. At least give yourself a shot to win. Period.

It's not what I would have done but I completely understood that decision with a freshman QB starting his first game. It wasn't "dumb", it was conservative, and not a coaching mistake.

I disagree. I think it was a HUGE coaching mistake. It wasn't conservative- it was straight up sackless. Conservative would have been to throw a few 6-7 yard outs and see if you can't sneak your way into FG range. I actually would have been okay with this method. If we got into FG range, great. If not, at least we gave it a shot without being too risky. But to just sit on the ball? That is sackless and, yes, it is dumb. You find me another coach that would have played for OT in that spot and I will find you a coach that does not win close games.

I just trust that he knows more than you or any of the other Monday morning QBs....and I'm damn sure that I'm right about that one.

Ferentz does not know more about game management than me- or anyone else that has ever watched football. Do I know more about game preparation, X's and O's, and player development? Absolutely not. But clock management, he is honestly one of the absolute worst you could ever find. That's the truth. You want to disagree with that, but you're wrong.

Mace, we snapped the god damn football with 20 seconds to go on the playclock against UNI with the ball at midfield up 17-16 with 2:30 to play. This is a FACT. How on earth can you tell me that is not absolutely 100% dumb???

The wasted use of a timeout instead of spiking the ball against Wisconsin.........come on, Mace, this is not rocket science here. You don't have to get paid $3.75 million bucks to understand how dumb it was.

Someone on Hawkeyenation posted a list of Ferentz' games in his career that were decided by 7 points or less. I looked through it and it was quite telling.

Here's what I found based on that.........

He is 24-29 in games decided by 7 points or less. Not terrible, not good. You really should be around .500. However, that record is very misleading if you go game-by-game. The truth is he is really about 6-29 in games decided by 7 points or less if you take out the fluke wins that the coaches had absolutely no control over (2000 MSU, 2005 LSU, 2010 Indiana) and the games where the opponent got a late score to make it closer than it really was or we just kinda hung on in the end.

There was a common theme I found, Mace. It was that we constantly had the ball in the final minutes and needed to drive down the field for a score but just couldn't do it. Didn't matter if Kyle McCann, Scott Mullen, Drew Tate, or Ricky Stanzi was the QB. Didn't matter how talented or untalented the team was. The common theme was we just could not find a way to drive down the field for a score to win the game in most of the losses. There were only a few times we actually did (2008 PSU, 2009 MSU, etc). The other losses were all games where we blew a lead late.

6-29, Mace. 6-29 in late clutch situations. That's not my opinion, Mace. That's a factual statistic. Like I said, it doesn't matter who we have on the team, there is a common theme under Ferentz and that is we CANNOT get a game winning drive to save our lives. When it is happening to the same coaching staff for 12 years, don't you think eventually we need to chalk it up as "the coaches just don't know how to manage a game late or effectively call plays in the 2-minute drill"? This is a disturbing 12 year trend. If it isn't the coaches, who is it? It can't be the players if it is happening every single year.

Just admit it, Mace........our coaches do not understand late game management. I promise you it won't make you a Ferentz hater. I'm a HUGE Ferentz supporter but even I cannot defend him on this. Trust me, I wish I could. But whether you like to admit it or not, the guy does have some major coaching flaws and I believe his biggest one is keeping KOK around.

Okay, I give up. :roll:

You should log in at Hawkeye Nation. You'll fit right in.

Mace wrote:Okay, I give up. :roll:

You should log in at Hawkeye Nation. You'll fit right in.

Like I said, it's the truth, Mace. You're just too stubborn to admit to it.

I find it hard to believe there haven't been 20-25 games in the Ferentz era where you yelled at the TV "what the fuck are you doing Ferentz/O'Keefe".

So what is it, Mace? Is it the players every year? We have been losing games the exact same way for 12 years but you don't think the problem is the coaches? I don't see how you can't admit to this being proof of their late game screwups.

Bob Commings isn't walking through those doors again, Mace......it's okay to actually criticize the coaching staff at times instead of just being happy we are actually no longer a shitty program.

You old Hawkeye fans are all the same. Dad, is that you??????? Do you over-50 Hawkeye fans have some sort of secret society where you get together and discuss the rules for criticizing our football coach? I'm not sure there's an over-50 Iowa fan that doesn't have the exact same response to every Iowa football related comment.

"damn you kids, don't you understand how bad we were in 1965!? you have no perspective on things. i used to crap myself every time we would manage a god damn fist down for crying out loud. and now you punk kids are complaining because our coach can't beat Northwestern? shit, I would have given my left nut to have beaten Northwestern back in 1972!"

You should listen to your father and respect his wisdom.

hmmmmm....jonsense. i remember earlier in the year when i brought up the kenpom stats that said iowa lucked their way into three more wins then should have been expected given their yards for and against and you were all bahh, those stats don't really tell the story blah blah blah good teams win iowa state's super bowl and against teams they can't be bothered to get up for blah blah blah. now that they're losing close games you're calling last year a bunch of smoke and mirrors, which great, i fully agree with you.

M Club wrote:hmmmmm....jonsense. i remember earlier in the year when i brought up the kenpom stats that said iowa lucked their way into three more wins then should have been expected given their yards for and against and you were all bahh, those stats don't really tell the story blah blah blah good teams win iowa state's super bowl and against teams they can't be bothered to get up for blah blah blah. now that they're losing close games you're calling last year a bunch of smoke and mirrors, which great, i fully agree with you.

Where did I call last year "a bunch of smoke and mirrors"? I said nothing of the sort.

ja, sorry, i simply characterized what you said rather than quote it verbatim. here you go:

And I'm tired of hearing how clutch this team was last year. Bullshit. They tried choking games away and just barely hung on in games we couldn't put away. We had close scores but the msu game was the only one we came up big in the last few minutes. We tried choking the UNi, Arkansas st, and michigan games away and couldn't come through in the clutch against northwestern or ohio state. People assume they were clutch because we didn't blow teams out, but that's very misleading.

I was going to suggest that Mace and Jon get a fucking room (not really, they already have) until I saw who the last post was by...

M Club cracks me right the fuck up.

M Club wrote:ja, sorry, i simply characterized what you said rather than quote it verbatim. here you go:

And I'm tired of hearing how clutch this team was last year. Bullshit. They tried choking games away and just barely hung on in games we couldn't put away. We had close scores but the msu game was the only one we came up big in the last few minutes. We tried choking the UNi, Arkansas st, and michigan games away and couldn't come through in the clutch against northwestern or ohio state. People assume they were clutch because we didn't blow teams out, but that's very misleading.

Let me ask this again.....

Where did I EVER say last year was all "smoke and mirrors"???

I said we weren't as clutch as people said we were. Show me one sentence I have ever wrote (on this thread or some other) where I said that last year was a fluke or all "smoke and mirrors" and I will give you War Wagon's $300 per week paycheck.

i hate when i have to reword an entirely basic comment since it's still too complex for you to wrap your head around. try to follow, john:

early in the season

john - yeah, iowa, bitches! we're awesome even though we just lost to arizona because it was all 52 of their super bowls ever.

mclub - iowa's not that great of a team. they were a paper tiger last year.

john - no they're not because i know everything about football and great teams win close games.


this week

john - iowa wasn't that good last year. they won a lot of games but tried losing most of them.


analysis

you see, john, some people use the term "smoke and mirrors" to describe a team that wasn't as good as their record indicates. the quoted portion above is you basically agreeing with my early assessment, that ja, iowa won a lot of games but that doesn't mean they were particularly good.

You can say what you want about Iowa's team last year. That's not my point. My point is I never said, or even suggested, Iowa wasn't as good as their record last year.

Iowa had some flaws last year (namely an inability to put teams away), but they were an 11-2 football team both in record and talent.

There are 4 guys from that squad that are already starting in the NFL and there are another 5-6 that will be Top 4 round picks this coming year. We're not talking about some team filled with no talent here.

Plus, what you aren't realizing is we played the majority of last season with essentially our 2nd string offense. No team in the country was hit harder with injuries than Iowa. I get tired of hearing how last year was all "smoke and mirrors" or "luck". Bullshit. This team beat 3 teams away from Kinnick that finished in the Top 15, and took the eventual Rose Bowl champions to overtime- on the road- with their backup QB and a couple other injured players.

Saying that last year was all "smoke and mirrors" is absolutely retarded. Was Iowa a "great" team last year? I suppose it depends on what your definition of "great" is. A very good team? Absolutely.

This team beat 3 teams away from Kinnick BY DOUBLE DIGITS that finished in the Top 15,

What a buncha frauds they were! Worst team ever, right??

Yeah, they had to be a great team to overcome all of the coaching flaws. :roll:

And fuck you, Wags. If I ever get a room with theJON, no one will ever hear from him again. :)