I am so sick of hearing how great a coach Kirk Ferentz is. Iowa is a chronically underachieving team, they regularly place multiple players in the NFL at both skill and line posistions, yet they have not been to a Rose Bowl in 20 years and have never come close to even being mentioned in contention for a national championship by the end of the year.

In 3 losses this year, Iowa was tied or ahead late in the 4th quarter. In the case of the Arizona game, they never should have been in position to be tied in the first place, but their special teams play was so unspeakably bad it put the team in a 21 point hole they could not get completely out of. Iowa is not lacking athletes, so the multiple instances of poor play in the same game reflect on the coaching.

In each of these games that were in doubt late in the 4th quarter, the opposing team marched down the field and scored a clinching TD (in the case of NW, they did it twice). In the Wisc game, Iowa did force a 4th down on the Wisc side of the field, but then fucktardedly was not looking for a fake punt during an obvious scenario where the other team would be desperate, knowing if they kick the ball away they might not get it back. Ferentz (to his credit) took responsiblity for this saying he made a terrible mistake. No kidding?

Any team can have a bad game. When something happens twice, it's time to start asking questions. Three times, and there is definitely a problem. At a minimum, Iowa is poorly conditioned, their end-of-game performance in these big games shows awful conditioning and inability to stop teams when it matters. This also is a reflection on the coaching, I suppose the players can share some blame as well if you want to call them choke artists, but when it happens 3 times, that's when a pattern is forming.

While this post is likely to guarantee a win for Iowa today over Ohio State, a win will not erase the fact that poor coaching this year has cost Iowa a shot at at least a Rose Bowl, if not a NC shot IMO.

is kirk ferentz a bad coach or just outclassed in the big ten? then again i guess he would be outclassed in all of the top 5 conferences.

i guess the question you have to ask if ur an iowa fan is the grass greener on the other side?

on the one hand you can keep ferentz consistently put up 8-9 win seasons or you could go in another direction that could fail and ur down w/ the likes of illinois.

I dont think you should fear change but again as someone said they dont have a top recruiting class but they develop lower ranked players into NFL talent. Is iowa the type of program that top flight coaches want to come to? Is iowa a school you can expect a top ranked recruiting class? if it isnt either of those two does that now make kirk ferentz a great player developer perfect for this program?

You make a fair point yut, but are 5* players 5* based on talent, or who is recruiting them? It's some combination of both, just not sure where the pendulum swings on that. USC, Texas, and Florida don't reach into Iowa or the Dakotas much, so that may have something to do with the ranking.

Seems like a complex equation to have such a concrete answer.

The real winners in CFB are melding the best talent with a paradigm shift in game theory/strategy, practice implementation, and/or creating x's n o's.

From simple observation I would have to predict that Ferentz is the classical minimax game theorist who just hates risk and loves status quo and the old way of doing things.

It's not his fault as it is a consistent strategy. But with the built in limitations to their talent pool, it will take a monumental change to how they approach the game as a program, or massive amounts of luck, to net a Natl Championship.

 

Originally Posted by Randers

From simple observation I would have to predict that Ferentz is the classical minimax game theorist who just hates risk and loves status quo and the old way of doing things.

Plus a major problem Ferentz has here is that he is in a conference with a coach with the exact same mindset - who also happens to be better at this than he is, and also pulls better recruits. So OSU will just about always get closer to a Natl Championship than Iowa will until one of these things changes.

It can't be good if you're never able to win a title in a conference like the Big 10.

 

Originally Posted by Tread

I am so sick of hearing how great a coach Kirk Ferentz is. Iowa is a chronically underachieving team, they regularly place multiple players in the NFL at both skill and line posistions, yet they have not been to a Rose Bowl in 20 years and have never come close to even being mentioned in contention for a national championship by the end of the year.

In 3 losses this year, Iowa was tied or ahead late in the 4th quarter. In the case of the Arizona game, they never should have been in position to be tied in the first place, but their special teams play was so unspeakably bad it put the team in a 21 point hole they could not get completely out of. Iowa is not lacking athletes, so the multiple instances of poor play in the same game reflect on the coaching.

In each of these games that were in doubt late in the 4th quarter, the opposing team marched down the field and scored a clinching TD (in the case of NW, they did it twice). In the Wisc game, Iowa did force a 4th down on the Wisc side of the field, but then fucktardedly was not looking for a fake punt during an obvious scenario where the other team would be desperate, knowing if they kick the ball away they might not get it back. Ferentz (to his credit) took responsiblity for this saying he made a terrible mistake. No kidding?

Any team can have a bad game. When something happens twice, it's time to start asking questions. Three times, and there is definitely a problem. At a minimum, Iowa is poorly conditioned, their end-of-game performance in these big games shows awful conditioning and inability to stop teams when it matters. This also is a reflection on the coaching, I suppose the players can share some blame as well if you want to call them choke artists, but when it happens 3 times, that's when a pattern is forming.

While this post is likely to guarantee a win for Iowa today over Ohio State, a win will not erase the fact that poor coaching this year has cost Iowa a shot at at least a Rose Bowl, if not a NC shot IMO.

I think this is an argument for Iowa being a really well coached team. The Hawks aren't able to pull in 5 star recruits year in and year out like Ohio State, yet they are still able to compete on a national scale, especially in the post season (check out the results of their past 5-6 bowl games). Iowa also has produced many solid NFL players in recent years and will continue to do so. This year, Iowa was overrated, simple as that. The important thing is that they are building a tradition that will hopefully help them land some of those 4 and 5 star recruits. In my opinion, Iowa would be far worse without Ferentz.

He can coach, they just weren't as good on D this year. No rose bowl due to how the two times they tied came out on tie breaker and pretty sure because at least one of those times rose bowl had the national champ game back when it rotated among the big bowls

2001 Iowa 7–5 4–4 T–4th W Alamo
2002 Iowa 11–2 8–0 T–1st L Orange † 8 8
2003 Iowa 10–3 5–3 T–4th W Outback 8 8
2004 Iowa 10–2 7–1 T–1st W Capital One 8 8
2005 Iowa 7–5 5–3 T–3rd L Outback
2006 Iowa 6–7 2–6 T–8th L Alamo
2007 Iowa 6–6 4–4 T–5th
2008 Iowa 9–4 5–3 T–4th W Outback 20 20
2009 Iowa 11–2 6–2 T–2nd W Orange † 7 7
2010 Iowa 7–3 4–2

Yes, that is absolutely the case. Recruits are ranked based on who recruits them. Unless you are claminig there is a statistical method for assigning stars purely on performance and ability? If Kirk Ferenz recruits a back from Iowa who got no offers from any Big 12 or SEC schools, he will probably get 3* but might be NFL worthy by graduation. Is that because Ferenz is such an exceptional coach or becuase Florida and Texas don't normally recruit in Iowa much?

Loved the record from the last 10 years that was posted. They tied for Big Ten champ once, not twice, the year that OSU went to the nat champ, and they lost their BCS bowl to USC. And the only reason they did tie that year was that they did not play OSU that year. They came in second place in the tie breaker because they lost in the reg season, not because of who had the NC game (which was the fiesta, not the Rose).

 

Originally Posted by Tread

Loved the record from the last 10 years that was posted. They tied for Big Ten champ once, not twice, the year that OSU went to the nat champ, and they lost their BCS bowl to USC. And the only reason they did tie that year was that they did not play OSU that year. They came in second place in the tie breaker because they lost in the reg season, not because of who had the NC game (which was the fiesta, not the Rose).

Also tied for first in 2004 and beat Saban and LSU in the cap one

 

Originally Posted by FullTiltGrinder

I, for one, am losing faith in Captain Kirk. I will be sad for Iowa Football when he does leave, but I will also look forward to a little flavor in rergards to play-calling. Iowa is a very vanilla team on both sides of the ball..and it has been great in the past...Iowa always won the close games in the past. This year for some reason they just dont have 60 minutes in them.

i know nothing abouth iowa football other than they have have been pretty good in ferentz years. the question you have to ask urself is can iowa bring in a coach that can do more? ( either recruit better, coach ur late game better? develop ur players better?) really IDK but as i said in my previous post when you go for it all you lose what was great about ur program and never get to where you wanna go.

basically what im saying kirk can give you 8-10 win season forever but are willing to risk letting him go at a chance at a rose bowl if it ends up 6-7 win teams for a long time?

As others have stated, Kirk Ferentz is a poor in-game coach. But I think he's a great program/player development coach.

The recruiting argument is pretty terrible. When there are talented kids in the Iowa/Wisconsin/Minnesota area -- i.e. Seantrel Henderson -- they're going to get a look at by all the major programs. Iowa gets the best kids from Iowa, but to say that's comparable to a talent-rich area is stupid. If there's a stud in Iowa, he's going to get nationally recruited.

Iowa's last recruit better than a three-star that wasn't from the Midwest was in 2006. That's ridiculous. Obviously the kids Ferentz brings in aren't absolute dogshit, but him and his staff hands down are one of the absolute best at year-in and year-out developing said talent. They're taking second/third-tier recruits and continually turning them into players ready for the next level. If I had more time on my hands and I wasn't drunk, I'd probably do more research and look at stars-to-NFL ratio, but I'm sure Iowa would look excellent in that as well.

That said, Ferentz's clock management this year has been laughable. Don't know why teams don't have a coach specifically in charge of time management/timeouts/situational things, but that's a whole different thread.

Oh and lol at a Michigan fan starting a thread about poorly coached teams. Remember, Michigan offered the job to Ferentz before Rich Rod's name even came up in discussions, so that should tell you something right there, too.

i read this thread and it kind of reminded me of being a wisconsin badger basketball fan. kirk ferentz is kinda like bo ryan is a way. now bo ryan is a better % winner and whatnot. but they run a similar style overall. sticking to a system, getting less than desirable recruits, and coaching them up.

they both are regarded as the upper end of the big ten, but they arent likely yearly champions. the champion title happens on a very good season when all runs well. and even a big ten title is not likely to lead this to a national title. they just dont recruit good enough, run good enough to go the entire way. though they are regarded as seasoned programs.

i dont want to blame their recruiting styles, ill blame location first. but its a good argument. they both probably deserve better classes in general than they are receiving on average. but they are stubborn on sticking to a style and substance of buying into the system.

i feel like your talking about pretty premier programs in the nation in their respective sports. but they just dont go/give that extra mile to be absolutely complete. i could probably chat about it a lot more in a singular discussion. but i feel very strongly about wisconsin basketball being overly underappreciated and respected than they deserve. and i think iowa football can easily fall under that spot. they just fall short overall every season basically.

now they arent any different than most programs falling a game short overall. but its a fair discussion on why it happens.