Bowl picture will remain unclear
Despite the fact that almost everyone is 99 percent certain the Big Ten will get two teams into BCS Bowls. …
And despite the fact that would automatically put the third 11-1 Big Ten team into the Capital One Bowl. …
It’s unlikely anything is going to be decided until Sunday when the Bowl Championship Series is revealed in prime time.
“I’m 99 percent sure they’ll want to hold all three of them,” BCS executive director Bill Hancock said of Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan State, all 11-1 and ranked in the Top 10. “Their opponents play, and it may change their rankings.”
The BCS has a noon conference call today to decide which teams can be “released” from BCS Bowl consideration and free to pursue a bowl bid.
The Big Ten’s automatic qualifier, in the event of a three-way tie for the conference title, goes to the team that finishes the highest in the final BCS standings. Right now, that’s Wisconsin.
There likely will be two or three BCS at-large bids as well, and it’s very likely either the Buckeyes or Spartans will be called on.
Whichever team doesn’t earn a BCS bid — the BCS can only take two teams from the same conference — will go to the Capital One Bowl, which owns the top non-BCS selection in the Big Ten.
Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes and the rest of the Big Ten, it’s a game of dominos, and the other tiles can’t fall until you know what is going to happen at the start.
The Outback Bowl has the next pick, and they have four 7-5 teams — Iowa, Penn State, Michigan, Northwestern — plus a 6-5 Illinois team, to choose from. All are eligible.
Mike Schulze, the director of communications and sponsorships for the Outback Bowl, said their weekly meeting was Monday night.
“It’s awfully likely we’re going to be choosing from a bunch of teams with the same overall record,” Schulze said. “We’ll look at all potential teams, and who might be able to match up with them.”
Iowa has been to the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., three times in the past six years. Penn State has gone just once (2007) in that time, and Michigan hasn’t been there since 2003.
“We’ve had teams in back-to-back years and had great success,” Schulze said. “Other times, it’s had a negative affect. Every year is a little bit different.
“If a team doesn’t come that often, it can be a bigger deal sometimes.”
Iowa, with a fan base that travels well, usually is an easy sell to any bowl. But the Hawkeyes have lost three in a row to end the season, including a season-ending defeat to Minnesota (3-9).
“Where is the mindset with the fans and the team plays more into it,” Schulz said. “It’s always more fun to have teams that are excited, and excited about being in your game, and who they are playing.”
After the Outback Bowl, the Big Ten picking order is Gator Bowl (Jacksonville, Fla.), Insight.com Bowl (Tempe, Ariz.), Texas Bowl (Houston, Texas), and Ticket City Bowl (Dallas, Texas).
If no Big Ten teams are released by the BCS today, the Hawkeyes’ destination won’t be known for certain until Sunday afternoon.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
It’s real clear to me…..I’m not going bowling this year. What a disgrace. Memo to Gary Barta, you got a train wreck on the way and you better do something about it right now. Namely KOK and Parker. A BCS team but the coaching again is Jr High. Stay home Iowa or you’ll get beat 37 – 3 like the Cal game. Why get embarrassed again.
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Why is everybody always railing on KOK and Parker? We are 7-11 in the past three years in games decided by 7 or fewer points. 3 of those games were against far inferior opponents(UNI, Arkansas State, and Indiana). You take those 3 away and we are a dismall 4-11. Ferentz needs to be held most accountable, after all he is supposed to be the offensive line guru and we can’t even take over games late in the 4th quarter. Neglecting the 2008 season, have we ever been better than average at running the ball? We’re paying Ferentz 3.8 million and we can’t even run the ball when we need to. For his salary, we should be able to run the ball at will 3 out of every 4 seasons(much like what Wisconsin is doing this year). The only honorable thing for Ferentz to do is forfeit at least half of his salary when he doesn’t win at least 10 games.
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1. Ferentz and O’Keefe don’t know how to manage the clock. They don’t know when to spike the ball and when to call time outs. They also don’t know when to run the ball to take time off the clock.
2. The overall play calling is inconsistent and too conservative. They used up all their time outs in the first half of the M.State game and ran up the score like they should. But they ran of the field with 20sec and two time outs left in the first half against O.State. They did the same thing against O.State last year with 40+sec left on the clock. What kind of message are you sending to your offense? You have to show that you have confidence in your players or they are not going to have confidence in you! Oh BTW would it hurt call a blitz every once in a while?
3. I think people are tired of the same old, same old. The year is not 1920. Football has changed. People coach and play to win. If you don’t like the “gimmick plays” then do something about it. “Gimmick plays” are the reason why Wiscy, M. and O. State are champs and you are not! Quit claiming that every game in the big ten is always going to be a close one. Wisconsin has proved it to be otherwise and that’s why they are the best team in the big ten and one of the best in the nation. You have to score big to win big! And you have to take risks.
4. If you don’t fix 1.2. and 3. and change your mentality your are never going to be able to motivate your players to stay focused on winning every game. No wonder Bulaga and Spievey didn’t want to stay for another year last year. They knew that they got lucky last year and that the success wasn’t going to repeat again this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if McNutt and Sash leave for the NFL.
5. Stanzi’s agenda this season was to impress the NFL scouts and to improve his numbers. I don’t blame him.
6. As far as recruiting goes, Iowa has 4 ROOKIES STARTING in the NFL, Bulaga, Meoaki, Angerer, and Spievey!
This is my constructive criticism. We all love our Hawkeyes and We want them to do good. We pay our coach $3.7 mil a year. We have the right as fans to criticize. I think the “country club” mentality of our coaches needs to change. The Iowa Hawkeyes football team was always known for its tough defense not their polo skills. MT
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Hate to be negative, but it’s so obvious, the coaching has to move into the modern era. I don’t mean the Hawks should run some junk spread offense, 7 wide outs and no running backs, but the play calling and game planning needs a major overhaul. I love the pro set, the tight ends, the fullbacks, that’s Iowa football, but when opponent’s say before every game that Iowa doesn’t do much and they know exactly what Iowa’s going to do, Hello, get the hint already? Why do you think Northwestern beats us every year, they just pull the game plan out from the year before and do it all over again. The Hawks need a charge, the old guard might be getting tired, maybe Ferentz is too loyal. Let’s see some of that energy that the Boise’s and TCU’s play with and stop talking about how you can’t recruit at Iowa. Iowa has the athletes to compete now they need the coaching…
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Agree with that (except the 7 wideouts, since there aren’t that many eligible recievers). Football is a game of preparation and matchups. Ideally, on offense you want to run a play for which the defense is not prepared. On defense, you sometimes have to guess what’s coming and commit to a play. Actually, its rather arrogant of Iowa to run the same few plays, never gamble on defense and figure that you will beat the other team with superior players and execution. Seems like it would be difficult to beat OSU and Wisconsin that way.
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KOK and Norm, thanks for the memories you guys won a lot of games for us. You have plenty of money, go retire in Hawaii on Wakiki Beach. Go drink some fruity drinks with pink umbrellas and play golf for the rest of whatever. Once again I will make the casae for getting Dan McCarney back. Hand the man a blank check and tell him to fill in the zeroes to be the DC.
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It’s a great big old pasture out there for them to roam around in and talk about the good times. Dan McCarney just took the head coaching job at North Texas State, so that’s out. But if Kirk and the boys decide to walk, I wonder what Bob Stoops is doing these days. He’d love to come back to his alma mater and win. It would be an exciting brand of football, and when they get tired of Mike’s antics down at U of A, where he is under appreciated, he can come back and coach the defense and they’ll play 60 minutes.
GO HAWKS!
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Stoops interviewed at the same time as KF. He admitted that the only reason he interviewed with UI is that he “felt obligated” because he’s an alum but had no intention of taking the job if offered. Bob has cut the ties so you might want to scratch him off your wish list.
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Seems to me that Ohio St and Wisconsin both were very successful doing exactly what you guys are saying Iowa should get away from doing (which is also what Iowa has built all their previous success on). As for running a play the defense isn’t prepared for; it seems like a good idea unless it completely plays to one of your own weaknesses and away from your strengths. Perfect example this year is Wisconsin. Everyone knows they are going to run the ball but it doesn’t matter because nobody can stop it. Ohio St turned Prior into a pocket passer because it fit their offense. Yes he does still run at times, but Tressel wasn’t going to completely change his offense so Prior could run a RichRod type spread. If Iowa had won the close games this year like they did last year nobody would be complaining at all. Also I don’t know anyone that would have been complaining at the beginning of the year if I had told them that Iowa would build a lead in every game (only one exception, they were tied in one game) late into the 4th quarter and lean on their D to stop the opposing offense in the last 5 minutes. The offense wasn’t the biggest problem this year, the defense failed with the game on the line 5 times. The major problem with the offense was that Stanzi was not capable of running the 2 minute offense. Other than that Iowa was able to move the ball and score on everyone they played
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There’s nothing wrong with the offensive scheme. I’d like to see the defense take more chances, stunt more, blitz a little, but we have the players. If they hadn’t gone into negative overdrive in the 4th quarter of the final three games (and/or the two others) we’d be singing their praises.
To all the fair whether whining weeines in here, I say GO HAWKS.
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Memo to Gary Barta;
Please no more ‘raises’ or ‘contract extensions’ for Kirk Ferentz and this coaching staff until Iowa is in the Rose Bowl. It’s obvious to me that Ferentz and his staff have grown very comfortable at Iowa and have forgotten why they’re here. TO GET TO THE FRIGGIN’ ROSE BOWL!!
Top ten talent and barely bowl eligible coaching & heart.
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Yes indeed…Kirk needs to take some of that dough out his fat pockets and hire a QB coach and a special teams coach. And if Norm hangs it up, get some maniac who will call a blitz.
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#1 Oregon pays their coach $1,500,000
#2 Auburn pays their coach $2,000,000
#3 Tcu pays their coacH 1,100,000
# 4 Wisconsin pays their coach 1,400,000
Boise pays their coach $900,000
NOT RANKED IOWA PAYS THEIR COACH $3,030,000
Why are we paying our coach MORE than the Best?
We might be able to hire a “great” coach for much less….oh wait I forgot we gave him an unheard of 10 year contract.
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Because we think like hicks.
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jake8 hit a home run with the pay rate for some successful coaches. Watch out, if Jim Harbaugh goes to Michigan or San Diego Chargers, Bob Bowlsby will be knocking on Ferentz’ door again. And Barta isn’t too adept at selecting coaches judging by the whiff on Todd Lickliter. Hawk fans better get their thinking caps on to help Barta picking the next FB coach sooner than you think.
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I would never tell people their opinions are not valid, but you folks who spew such negative venom about the coaching and the AD all are people who I hope NEVER sit in the Iowa stands next to me, by me, or anywhere near me. In fact, please save your money and stay home and yell at your TV’s. Your negativity towards the program is horrible. If you own Black and Gold, PLEASE consider trading it in for some other colors and root against Iowa all you want. I am embarrassed that folks like you wear the colors. “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT for Iowa” mean anything to you? Consider supporting your team. The coaches made erros this year, but I am counting on them to adjust.
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Thank you, brother. You’re right. It’s okay to criticize the coaches for what they get paid, but a lot of these guys are ready to jump ship. FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT for Iowa means to also fight when things are going against the team. Go Hawks! Kick butt in whatever bowl they invite us to.
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and what year, if any, did you graduate wearing the colors? or are you just another wanna be, pretending that supporting a football team actually makes a difference? no offense, but no, “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT for Iowa” means about jack effing squat to me. or is this where i’m supposed to cry black and gold for a bunch of idiots pretending to be students? Sorry not going to happen – and to the real students, heading into finals – luck. It is worth the effort. Sorry you couldn’t be at a top tier university, but it’s still worth your effort to do the best you can.
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If the coachs at Auburn, Oregon, TCU and Wisconsin are selling out their stadiums with season ticket sales after 10 years with their programs, their compensation will be right up there with Kirk’s.
Once again, the pay is a function of economics. Kirk gets paid alot to stick around and keep the money flowing.
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And do folks really believe this Iowa team has “top 10 talent”? Illinois probably has equal talent, and also Penn State. Michigan has great talent. So for whom do you want to trade Ferentz?
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we had good enough players to come within 1 point of wisconsin and 3 of ohio state and destroy msu, yet we won as many games as northwestern who got killed by wisconsin. there is no denying that these players are capable of more wins, and why can’t you blame the coaches? the players don’t quit playing in the last 4 minutes of every game, the opposing team adjusts their tactics and we keep playing like it’s the first half. does anyone here think ferentz would have called the fake punt wisconsin did? or going for it on 4th and 10 like ohio state? or the four straight blitzes like arizona?
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Dancing Bull
And do who you think is responsible for the type of talent we get here at Iowa. I think our 3 million dollar coach has something to do with it. I would like to trade Frentz for any coach that has his team in the top twenty….less money and better coaching
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I am turning from angry about this latest loss to a bit relieved. now nobody can act like this season wasn’t a massive disappointment. i’m tired of acting like we need to have lower standards than all the rest of college football. is it harder to contend at iowa than wisconsin or boise or michigan state? at least there are no instate teams to challenge us for recruiting. ferentz has lost at least 5 games in 4 of the last 6 years. is that acceptable from one of the countrys highest paid coaches? there needs to be some kind of “meet expectations or replace your assistants” mandate. that would be fair. i don’t feel like hayden fry would have gone around pretending that all these losses are acceptable and “the ball bounced the wrong way for us today”
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cmac04o I beg to differ on a few points.
1. “the opposing team adjusts their tactics”
Not really. Wisky continued to run like they did all game and that is what won. OSU ran the same offense throughout the game as did NW and Minn.
2. “players don’t quit playing in the last 4 minutes”
You are right they didn’t quit, they just got outplayed, not out coached, at a time in the game when the D-line should have dominated.
3. “does anyone here think ferentz would have called the fake punt wisconsin did? or going for it on 4th and 10 like ohio st? or the 4 straight blitzes like arizona?”
Ferentz would not have called the fake punt and neither would most coaches; which is why it work so well. OSU had no choice but to go for it on 4th and 10. They were down 4 points with less than 3:30 left in the game and 2 timeouts plus they were at midfield; there was no decision here. You may believe that Arizona blitzed on 4 straight plays by the amount of pressure they got, but they did not blitz. That pressure was applied by their front 4, and Ferentz doesn’t call the defense anyway.
Can everyone accept that the D-line vastly underperformed during times they dominated last year. Also, with the exception of Jerimiah Hunter, the linebacking play was bad if not horrible, partly due to the amount of injuries. Realize that Stanzi has only successfully run the 2 minute offense 1 time in his career (Mich St last year) and failed at least 5 times that I can remember (min. 1 time in 2008 and 4 times in 2010). People love to blame the coaches, which they do deserve some of it, but the key players that returned from last year underperformed.
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Wrong! 4 and 10 with 4:02 on the clock and 3 time outs. you are lying if you say we would have gone for that. against an empty backfield, 4 or 5 receivers and the quarterback in the shotgun, a four man defensive rush isn’t gonna do much. especially when our linebackers cant cover receivers. honestly the only thing we can do is blitz there because our defensive backs can’t really cover receivers either. but to blame clayborn or any of the defensive front for any of our losses other minnesota would be beyond stupid.
i agree about stanzi. what has kept his int’s down also made him ineffective in the 2 minute drill. he seems to be too careful with his check downs. and he has lost a lot of accuracy in his deep ball.
the coaches job is to put the players in the best position to succeed and i believe our conservative approach does good at that but not in the 4th quarter against an agressive offense. if they are not gonna blitz they need to come up with a lighter defensive package with backs that can cover and maybe a middle linebacker to spy the quarter back.
I’m not an idiot, I know ferentz doesn’t call the plays, but he can call for a punt block and he could tell his coordinator to call for a blitz and they will pick what they figure to most likely to succeed. It’s not like he just stands there and claps his hands and chews his gum, he can call for a blitz.
i’m sorry the problems we have now we have had since 2005 and we have had many different players running the same stuff since then. the coaches have to figure it out
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When Iowa goes to bowl I will watch and cheer for them.
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I’ll be right there with you M-Hawk.
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When Iowa goes to a bowl, I will judge the competetion, and lay off the best bets available. If there’s to be any competition at all, ….
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I am a badger fan, linked here through espn’s lunch links. Last year, KF was a genius, this year… that time-out against us… thank you?
You were a very good football team this year, and you were a very good football team last year, and the year before that when you were the only team in the Big 10 to win your bowl game. Who exactly would you replace KF with?
I was one of the first and loudest to call for Brett Bielema’s head in 08… how the tables have turned, apparently. The sky is not falling in Iowa City, get over it. You will be competitive next year and the year after that. Send KF up to minnesota if you really don’t want him; the vikings would hire him
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I would replace KF with Carl Sagan, but I think he died… I wonder if he laughed at Garrison Keillor…
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So many whiners and fair weather fans! The Hawks: Love ‘em or leave ‘em. There’s no middle ground. As for me, I love ‘em. They might break my heart from time to time, but that comes with the territory. These kids – and yes, they’re kids! – gave us so much great football and wonderful memories over the last couple seasons. Behind that great football and those memories is a group of great coaches led by one Kirk Ferentz. Remember him? Big 10 Coach of the Year in 2009? That guy who led our Hawks to a BCS bowl victory last year? Yeah, that guy. He’s worth every penny.
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There is middle ground. You can love the Hawks and be critical of their performance. Sticking your head in the sand does not make you a better fan.
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Looks a lot to me like this teams on the take, ala Ronnie Harmon. I have seen too many “missed tackles”, “missed catches”, and “Missed throws” to simpley dismiss it as a struggling team. Watch Kirk go to the pros when the s..t hits the fan
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Wouldn’t it be great if Kirk did go to the pros? He won’t though because he has an unheard of 10 year 30 million dollar contract at Iowa. Also he is not a great coach so a pro team would not want him.
Kirk had a lucky team last year and a unlucky team this year…”a great coach does not rely on luck, he makes things happen”
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[...] Bowl picture will remain unclear It’s unlikely anything will be decided until Sunday when the Bowl Championship Series is revealed in prime time. Read more on The Iowa City Press-Citizen [...]
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“Wrong! 4 and 10 with 4:02 on the clock and 3 time outs. you are lying if you say we would have gone for that.”
I apologize if I was a little fuzzy on the time and timeouts, but still there was no decision here. They were at midfield and whether they punt or go for it they still cannot allow the opposing team to get a first down. So being at the 50, there is much more reward than risk to go for it. If you make it you keep the ball, if you don’t your defense still cannot give up a first down and the opposition isn’t in FG range. Every college coach goes for it in that situation.
“against an empty backfield, 4 or 5 receivers and the quarterback in the shotgun, a four man defensive rush isn’t gonna do much. especially when our linebackers cant cover receivers. honestly the only thing we can do is blitz there because our defensive backs can’t really cover receivers either. but to blame clayborn or any of the defensive front for any of our losses other minnesota would be beyond stupid.”
Actually the LB/D-backs did cover the receivers and the reason OSU picked up the first down was because everyone was covered and Prior had to scramble after the play broke down to get the first down. Also I was not blaming the D-line or Clayborn. I was stating that in similar situations last year they dominated. Comparatively speaking, not blaming, they underperformed.
“I know ferentz doesn’t call the plays, but he can call for a punt block and he could tell his coordinator to call for a blitz and they will pick what they figure to most likely to succeed.”
A fake punt, punt block or return; yes he can call those, but head coaches do not dictate to their coordinators what plays to call in the middle of the game. There are some head coaches who call the offense or defense, but they do it for the entire game/season. Head coaches who have delegated play calling to coordinators do not override them in the middle of the game.
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I was speaking more for our defense at the end of all games. on that play there were only 3 receivers down the field so the fact that they covered them really doesn’t say much especially because the pass on the next play to the 3 yard line was completed on a linebacker. on the fourth down play there were five offensive linemen and a blocking back nothing at all our defensive line could have done against that. i would even say that our defensive line played to expectations better than any other group this year.
good luck defending the coaches every year. you can keep saying that the team didn’t execute, but year after year the coaches are gonna have to own some of that blame. Iowa has lost 5 games in 4 of the last 6 years. any way you look at it that is below the standard of any coach getting paid this much. i like ferentz. i hope he get’s it figured out. i’ll be angry if they don’t have a quarterback coach by next season. and if things don’t pick it up coordinator will have to go. thats just they way it is. a preseason top 10 team loosing 5 games is really unacceptable
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12 seasons
5 seasons with four losses or less
7 seasons with five losses or more
Even if you discount the first two as “rebuilding,” KF is just as bad as he is good. The real question is; Is this performance worthy of the $3 million club? The other five coaches in that salary range are Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Jim Tressel, Bob Stoops and Les Miles. All of whom have won at least one national title.
Some will say yes and I admire your optimism; or lack of reason, whatever it may be but the answer is no, KF does not belong in the club. At least not yet. He is averaging one amazing season every three years which is skewed because he had three of them in a row with a hot mess in between.
Stop blaming the recruiting. We may not get USC talent but do you honestly believe that Boise State and TCU are getting better talent than Iowa? No, you don’t because that’s just ridiculous yet those guys play every game like their head is on fire and their butt is catching.
Every year we put guys in the NFL but we can’t get them to the Rose Bowl? C’mon man. We have the talent, it’s the motivation that’s missing and that’s what coaching is, motivating your players.
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all of those coaches have to perform with expectations that are always as high as ours were this year. i don’t really enjoy talking like this, but this team is making a habit of folding completely under expectations and it kinda ruins our “we get no respect” fun loving mantra. in fact, it makes us look like fools. so i take it a little bit personally because i don’t make 3 million dollars a year. if they can fix it, they need to. i’m not saying that a 4-3 defense is all wrong, we need to blitz on every play or that we need a spread with a qb who can run or anything like that. but we need to do what needs to be done to win. not execute a game plan just like they do in practice with complete indifference to weather it scores points or not.
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Exactly.
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First, I am a Hawkeye through and through. If my grandfather could intently listen to every game in the sixties and seventies when the Hawks were 0-11 or 10-1 then I believe I can handle 7-5 and enjoy the excitment.
Second, When thing are good, and I refer to the 2009 season, then KF is worth every penny. When disappointment sets in then the anti salary sentiment sets in.
I won’t be critical of the sentiment, but rather say if your not old enough to remember when then look over the past records, because some of us do remember when.
Now to side with most of your sentiment I will say this to KF. There once was a great coach who had a saying about playing football. As a coach you might want to think about this. “If it itches we are are going to scratch!”
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You’re being a bit presumptuous. Not all of us have always been KF’s number one fan. When looking beyond the glitter of an 11-2 record we see that in each of those seasons the team could have easily been 7-5. KF himself admits as much. That’s where the fustration lies, in the question, Why does every season have to rely on luck?
It’s important to also note that KF would not be under this much scrutiny if the team didn’t consistantly lay an egg against the conference bottom feeders. Close losses to Wisconsin and OSU wouldn’t sting as bad if we weren’t losing or nearly losing to Mich, Indiana and NU. Especially after having them down by two or three scores (referring to UM & NU) then letting them back in the game.
There has to be a reason why this team underperforms against lesser opponents. Since the talent changes almost on a yearly basis but the results are the same then we’re forced to look at the one common denominator.
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P.S.
In the 60s & 70s, those coaches that were going 0-11 were not amongst the highest paid in their field.
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You really need to consider the environment of Iowa football. You certainly can’t win with the talent the state produces, and unlike Minnesota, Nebraska, and Missouri, you have to compete with another BCS program in the state.
Iowa and Ferentz produce winning seasons (usually)while competing for players in far away areas. If Ferentz coached at Michigan or OSU he certainly would not be paid $3 million plus; those schools don’t need to pay that. aaa has it right,the football tradition here is still shaky, it could easily revert to clone quality football. If you fired Ferentz what do you do; pay a big name the $3 million and expect national championships? Or pay half of that and see what you get?
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