Some of my posts about Iowa so far...

#1

BrewHawk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2014
Messages
309
Likes
664
#1
These were all scattered in different threads, so I thought I would compile them in one thread to have all the info in one place. Will try to provide more insight along the way. With that said, here they are. Let me know if you have any particular questions.

Also, really wanted to reiterate just how awesome you guys have been in supporting Patrick McCaffery and to let you know he is doing well and currently has no active cancer in his body. All of us Hawkeye fans are looking forward to him playing for Iowa in another five years or so as he's already a 6'5" 14 year old.

Okay, now here they are...

1.

Jeez, we gotta play you guys in football too? Glad at least we have a respectable opponent with respectful fans.

Ferentz is an outstanding coach who runs a "pro system" with pro talent at positions not involved in handling the ball. This year's Iowa team has had multiple personality disorder that is damn good when they put things together and damn bad when they don't.

The Nebraska game was a microcosm of the season, jumping out to a 24-7 lead despite four turnovers, but then losing the game in the fourth quarter after giving up big punt returns and big pass plays. The Hawks didn't take good advantage of the TOs in the first half and that was the reason they ended up losing. Nebraska had no business winning this game with several players injured, Iowa was just Iowa and played maddeningly inconsistent.

The fanbase is starting to grow restless, but we do have a lot of young talent coming up the ranks. Typically we would be taking 25-30,000 to Florida, but with the way things have gone lately, I wouldn't be surprised to see maybe 15K there.

Iowa does prepare well for bowls and was close last year in a game vs. LSU they had no business being competitive in. As per my hoops posts, I will check in to give thoughts on our team and the game over the next week or so.

Glad to be back here, but not so happy about our season. You guys have a bright future ahead with the job Butch seems to be doing.


2.

This year's Iowa team really disappointed. What was supposed to be a team with a lot of returning talent playing one of the easier schedules they will ever have drastically underachieved to the point both the AD and Ferentz were forced to acknowledge the fact.

Many point the finger at OC Greg Davis, who is in his third year after being fired from Texas, but the defense that has typically been a mainstay year after year really didn't do a consistently great job either.

There were games where we saw offense that many hoped would be there most if not all of the time vs. Indiana and Northwestern. Then there was the vaunted horizontal offense that Iowa just isn't built to run that lost Davis his job as Longhorn OC.

Early in the season, there was no running game and teams just stacked the LOS and dared the QB, Rudock, to throw the ball downfield. That didn't happen and without a prime-time RB we saw our converted FB Mark Weisman (who is awesome, but not a D-1 primary ballcarrier) run into slanting DLs over and over with a painful lack of success.

The defense seemed to be it's normal solid self until Minnesota ran through them like a knife through hot butter to the tune of 51 points. The game was a no-contest ass whipping. That doesn't happen much at Iowa. Nobody plays more close games than Iowa (with good or bad competition).

In defense of the defense, they were breaking in three new LBs who were replacing arguably the best trio in school history (all three last year were on the Butkus watch list). They weren't quite ready for the challenge and at this point are physically underdeveloped. The MLB (Alston) is a big, slow dude who is good in run support when he hits the correct gap, but very shaky in pass D.

Also, special teams, where Iowa has excelled and won games in the past is now a point of weakness with subpar punting that doesn't work when you have a coach that puts a premium on field position and hidden yardage.

I will say, the last two games of the season vs. Wisconsin and Nebraska did show that this team can compete against good quality opponents, I'm just not sure it will translate to success next year because we will be losing a few very good senior starters on both the OL and DL.


3.

When Davis was hired as OC, it was thought that Iowa could mesh Ferentz's zone running concepts with Davis' spread. It has failed pretty miserably. The most success we've had is when we go back to a traditional Iowa offense of running PA passing to get the LBs and safeties off the LOS.

Most defenses had been loading the box and playing man on the wideouts, who couldn't get open early enough to counter the pressure upfront. Weisman (#45) isn't quick enough to make a cutback, so the D would just flow to the sideline and head the play off for a couple yard gain. He is great when there's a north/south seam to hit. No wiggle.

We tried to run quick/fast RS frosh Parker (#10) on jet sweeps the opposite direction as a constraint play with good success, but for some reason haven't gone with this regularly enough to make it anything more than a novelty play. I would love to see this be part of our regular approach.

We do have a couple other RBs, Jr. Canzeri (#33) in particular gives us a bit more of a cutback option, but is injury prone and hasn't done as much as folks expect. Again, not a lot of playing time to develop any sort of rhythm. Also RS frosh Wadley (#25) has gotten some carries and has moves/speed, but is prone to fumbles.

There is a huge divide in the fanbase as to who should be playing QB. On one side you have Rudock (#15) who is a cerebral kid and a great game manager with an adequate arm as long as he's not throwing into the wind. Quite accurate and somewhat mobile. Doesn't make a lot of mistakes, but has a tendancy to turtle under pressure. On the other side is Beathard (#16) is more of a gunslinger/chance taker who has a beautiful release and strong arm, but doesn't read defenses as well. Also is better in the read option game, but still isn't what I would consider a running QB. Odds are if he got the same amount of PT that Rudock has he would be entrenched as the starter by now, but Ferentz is loyal to the upperclassmen (I don't blame him) and doesn't want players looking over their shoulder.

Beathard needs to step up and win the job for Iowa to be a better team. I really like Rudock, but he often hesitates to make throws which leads to bad outcomes rather than great plays. He's gotta be better at pulling the trigger. Beathard is probably trigger happy at this point.


4.

Inconsistency is the word for the whole team and entire season.

We seem to play better when we commit to the PA scheme, but our OC can't get away from the horizontal spread game.

Likely to be low scoring, but have no idea what to expect based on our inconsistent performance.

Team speed is good in places, not good in others. We have a couple receivers who can fly, but they aren't complete players, so they don't see the field a lot.

Best players on the team are LT Scherff (#68), DTs Davis (#71) and Trinca-Pasat (#90), RB Weisman (#45 and out of position, will be FB in NFL), CB King (#14), WR Smith (#4) and TE Duzey (#87). RT Donnal (#78) should land in the league as well.

Lot of young speed that doesn't see the field yet. Iowa has to have time to develop players as they aren't ready to play as underclassmen. You won't need to worry about them.


5.

Secondary:

Best of the bunch is soph CB King (#14) who is as close to a lockdown corner as we've had at Iowa and there are actually more than a few NFL players in the mix. Limited Beckham and Landry last year in the Outback Bowl vs. LSU. Very good in run support. Weakness is top end speed, but does everything else pretty darn well.

Other corner is Mabin (#13) who has great physical gifts, but is still learning on the fly and has some trouble finding the ball on deep passes. Switched from WR this year and won the job. Lots of talent, but only a RS frosh. Will be very good eventually.

SS is senior John Lowdermilk (#37) who has become very solid in run support, but isn't the fastest guy in the world and has some issues covering slot receivers in man coverage. Typically Iowa has played a lot of cover six zone, but has gone to more man with blitzing than they had in the past due to a different DC.

FS is junior Jordan Lomax (#27). Has improved as the season has gone on after a necessary move from CB due to a lack of depth after the departure of a couple players. Solid in pass D and not afraid to come up and lay some hits on RB either. Melvin Gordon knows who he is after Lomax put some licks on him a couple weeks ago.

Special teams used to be a source of Iowa pride and probably won us a few games over the years. Now we don't have a good long-field punter and have given up more than a few big returns where we used to be near the top in the nation. Punt return is pretty much non-existent since Ferentz has been burned so many times on fake punts. Now pretty much punt safe every time. Kickoffs are a touchback by Koehn if he's not kicking into a strong breeze. Really powerful leg and has been pretty consistent with FG kicking as the season has worn on as well.

I would love to say we'll make a big play on ST, but it just hasn't really happened in a while. The last really good moment was last year when Kevonte Martin-Manley ran two punts back for TDs vs. Western Michigan, but he doesn't even fill that slot anymore due to the dropsies.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 18 people
#3
#3
BH, is Beathard starting for the bowl?
 
Last edited:
#4
#4
Thanks for your thoughts. Expect to get flamed for too many words. When you do, don't feel like the Lone Ranger.

lol, good point. "round heere" it's a positive to post often with less thought.

Thanks OP, to be honest, I have 0 info on Iowa.
All info is helpful as a fan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people
#8
#8
summary:Iowa isnt very good and we gonna whip dey azz...:D

my wife and her entire family are from Iowa,but they all live in TN now,so this is going to be good... I cant gloat too much if UT WINS, we are all taking his motorhome to the Battle at Bristol...or I may find myself over in the primitive campground with the dirty hippies
 
Last edited:
#9
#9
These were all scattered in different threads, so I thought I would compile them in one thread to have all the info in one place. Will try to provide more insight along the way. With that said, here they are. Let me know if you have any particular questions.

Also, really wanted to reiterate just how awesome you guys have been in supporting Patrick McCaffery and to let you know he is doing well and currently has no active cancer in his body. All of us Hawkeye fans are looking forward to him playing for Iowa in another five years or so as he's already a 6'5" 14 year old.

Okay, now here they are...

1.

Jeez, we gotta play you guys in football too? Glad at least we have a respectable opponent with respectful fans.

Ferentz is an outstanding coach who runs a "pro system" with pro talent at positions not involved in handling the ball. This year's Iowa team has had multiple personality disorder that is damn good when they put things together and damn bad when they don't.

The Nebraska game was a microcosm of the season, jumping out to a 24-7 lead despite four turnovers, but then losing the game in the fourth quarter after giving up big punt returns and big pass plays. The Hawks didn't take good advantage of the TOs in the first half and that was the reason they ended up losing. Nebraska had no business winning this game with several players injured, Iowa was just Iowa and played maddeningly inconsistent.

The fanbase is starting to grow restless, but we do have a lot of young talent coming up the ranks. Typically we would be taking 25-30,000 to Florida, but with the way things have gone lately, I wouldn't be surprised to see maybe 15K there.

Iowa does prepare well for bowls and was close last year in a game vs. LSU they had no business being competitive in. As per my hoops posts, I will check in to give thoughts on our team and the game over the next week or so.

Glad to be back here, but not so happy about our season. You guys have a bright future ahead with the job Butch seems to be doing.


2.

This year's Iowa team really disappointed. What was supposed to be a team with a lot of returning talent playing one of the easier schedules they will ever have drastically underachieved to the point both the AD and Ferentz were forced to acknowledge the fact.

Many point the finger at OC Greg Davis, who is in his third year after being fired from Texas, but the defense that has typically been a mainstay year after year really didn't do a consistently great job either.

There were games where we saw offense that many hoped would be there most if not all of the time vs. Indiana and Northwestern. Then there was the vaunted horizontal offense that Iowa just isn't built to run that lost Davis his job as Longhorn OC.

Early in the season, there was no running game and teams just stacked the LOS and dared the QB, Rudock, to throw the ball downfield. That didn't happen and without a prime-time RB we saw our converted FB Mark Weisman (who is awesome, but not a D-1 primary ballcarrier) run into slanting DLs over and over with a painful lack of success.

The defense seemed to be it's normal solid self until Minnesota ran through them like a knife through hot butter to the tune of 51 points. The game was a no-contest ass whipping. That doesn't happen much at Iowa. Nobody plays more close games than Iowa (with good or bad competition).

In defense of the defense, they were breaking in three new LBs who were replacing arguably the best trio in school history (all three last year were on the Butkus watch list). They weren't quite ready for the challenge and at this point are physically underdeveloped. The MLB (Alston) is a big, slow dude who is good in run support when he hits the correct gap, but very shaky in pass D.

Also, special teams, where Iowa has excelled and won games in the past is now a point of weakness with subpar punting that doesn't work when you have a coach that puts a premium on field position and hidden yardage.

I will say, the last two games of the season vs. Wisconsin and Nebraska did show that this team can compete against good quality opponents, I'm just not sure it will translate to success next year because we will be losing a few very good senior starters on both the OL and DL.


3.

When Davis was hired as OC, it was thought that Iowa could mesh Ferentz's zone running concepts with Davis' spread. It has failed pretty miserably. The most success we've had is when we go back to a traditional Iowa offense of running PA passing to get the LBs and safeties off the LOS.

Most defenses had been loading the box and playing man on the wideouts, who couldn't get open early enough to counter the pressure upfront. Weisman (#45) isn't quick enough to make a cutback, so the D would just flow to the sideline and head the play off for a couple yard gain. He is great when there's a north/south seam to hit. No wiggle.

We tried to run quick/fast RS frosh Parker (#10) on jet sweeps the opposite direction as a constraint play with good success, but for some reason haven't gone with this regularly enough to make it anything more than a novelty play. I would love to see this be part of our regular approach.

We do have a couple other RBs, Jr. Canzeri (#33) in particular gives us a bit more of a cutback option, but is injury prone and hasn't done as much as folks expect. Again, not a lot of playing time to develop any sort of rhythm. Also RS frosh Wadley (#25) has gotten some carries and has moves/speed, but is prone to fumbles.

There is a huge divide in the fanbase as to who should be playing QB. On one side you have Rudock (#15) who is a cerebral kid and a great game manager with an adequate arm as long as he's not throwing into the wind. Quite accurate and somewhat mobile. Doesn't make a lot of mistakes, but has a tendancy to turtle under pressure. On the other side is Beathard (#16) is more of a gunslinger/chance taker who has a beautiful release and strong arm, but doesn't read defenses as well. Also is better in the read option game, but still isn't what I would consider a running QB. Odds are if he got the same amount of PT that Rudock has he would be entrenched as the starter by now, but Ferentz is loyal to the upperclassmen (I don't blame him) and doesn't want players looking over their shoulder.

Beathard needs to step up and win the job for Iowa to be a better team. I really like Rudock, but he often hesitates to make throws which leads to bad outcomes rather than great plays. He's gotta be better at pulling the trigger. Beathard is probably trigger happy at this point.


4.

Inconsistency is the word for the whole team and entire season.

We seem to play better when we commit to the PA scheme, but our OC can't get away from the horizontal spread game.

Likely to be low scoring, but have no idea what to expect based on our inconsistent performance.

Team speed is good in places, not good in others. We have a couple receivers who can fly, but they aren't complete players, so they don't see the field a lot.

Best players on the team are LT Scherff (#68), DTs Davis (#71) and Trinca-Pasat (#90), RB Weisman (#45 and out of position, will be FB in NFL), CB King (#14), WR Smith (#4) and TE Duzey (#87). RT Donnal (#78) should land in the league as well.

Lot of young speed that doesn't see the field yet. Iowa has to have time to develop players as they aren't ready to play as underclassmen. You won't need to worry about them.


5.

Secondary:

Best of the bunch is soph CB King (#14) who is as close to a lockdown corner as we've had at Iowa and there are actually more than a few NFL players in the mix. Limited Beckham and Landry last year in the Outback Bowl vs. LSU. Very good in run support. Weakness is top end speed, but does everything else pretty darn well.

Other corner is Mabin (#13) who has great physical gifts, but is still learning on the fly and has some trouble finding the ball on deep passes. Switched from WR this year and won the job. Lots of talent, but only a RS frosh. Will be very good eventually.

SS is senior John Lowdermilk (#37) who has become very solid in run support, but isn't the fastest guy in the world and has some issues covering slot receivers in man coverage. Typically Iowa has played a lot of cover six zone, but has gone to more man with blitzing than they had in the past due to a different DC.

FS is junior Jordan Lomax (#27). Has improved as the season has gone on after a necessary move from CB due to a lack of depth after the departure of a couple players. Solid in pass D and not afraid to come up and lay some hits on RB either. Melvin Gordon knows who he is after Lomax put some licks on him a couple weeks ago.

Special teams used to be a source of Iowa pride and probably won us a few games over the years. Now we don't have a good long-field punter and have given up more than a few big returns where we used to be near the top in the nation. Punt return is pretty much non-existent since Ferentz has been burned so many times on fake punts. Now pretty much punt safe every time. Kickoffs are a touchback by Koehn if he's not kicking into a strong breeze. Really powerful leg and has been pretty consistent with FG kicking as the season has worn on as well.

I would love to say we'll make a big play on ST, but it just hasn't really happened in a while. The last really good moment was last year when Kevonte Martin-Manley ran two punts back for TDs vs. Western Michigan, but he doesn't even fill that slot anymore due to the dropsies.


Thanks Hawk...Butch says thanks also. :)

GO VOLS!
 
#11
#11
Thanks Hawk...Butch says thanks also. :)

GO VOLS!

If I can give Butch any help with any of what I post, you guys are in BIG trouble as a program.

In all seriousness, from what I've seen so far watching the better part of three of your games is that you are going to be a handful to deal with next year and I would have the Vols as a major force in the SEC East, mostly due to Dobbs. The kid is really good and only going to get better the more playing time he gets.
 
#12
#12
If I can give Butch any help with any of what I post, you guys are in BIG trouble as a program.

In all seriousness, from what I've seen so far watching the better part of three of your games is that you are going to be a handful to deal with next year and I would have the Vols as a major force in the SEC East, mostly due to Dobbs. The kid is really good and only going to get better the more playing time he gets.

Don't you mean B1G?

:p
 
#16
#16
I haven't seen Iowa play this year. Just two questions.
1. Do you guys have a solid pass rush?
2. Do you guys have a WR with the last name of Cooper?
Those seem to be our kryptonte this year.
 
#19
#19
Iowa has a good pass rush.

And a good o-line, unlike us.

Tennessee is a better team, at least at skill positions. Iowa is good fundamentally.

This is pretty accurate. Pass rush is ok, LB's are slow. Left tackle just won the Outland Trophy.
 
#20
#20
A big Volnation welcome to all the Hawkeye fans out there. Looking forward to a good hard fought game.
 
#24
#24
Just for the record, I follow Iowa football, and I don't agree much with many of the things Brewhawk wrote. Much of it was just rehashed talking points from Iowa message boards that have little bearing in reality.
 

VN Store



Back
Top