Comments on: A Closer Look: MSU

By: mihawk

mihawk — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:04:15 +0000

just curious,
did anyone every ask KF at a presser after the Wisky game if Stanzi had been told NOT to throw or if he had an option to throw there?

By: cody

cody — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:09:49 +0000

one thing i do like about o keefe’s playcalling lately is the rare occasion when he has either gone to 5 wide or motioned the running back out of the backfield as a receiver…stanzi CAN be trusted with this offense, it just needs to be a little more passer friendly like it was with tate. don’t be afraid to spread teams out a little with a 4 or 5 wide set. i’m not a fan of going exclusively to the spread, and we shouldn’t suddenly become a pass first team, but i think it would help our offense a lot if we would run 7-8 passing plays out of the 4 or 5 receiever set. then we can also mix in a draw play out of it also. it will give stanzi more options and his pre-snap reads will be easier. more than likely he will have a reciever against a linebacker or safety, plus you can use moeaki in some different ways. as long as he can do a good job seeing blitzes and calling hot routes he should be able to pick teams apart that way.

By: sdschroe

sdschroe — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:37:52 +0000

Great article. And excellent point about Tate’s strengths vs. Stanzi’s.

I find the staff’s aversion to trying to score with 2:30 or so left until halftime and the ball to be extremely frustrating. Clearly, there is a much better chance of scoring by being aggressive than the other team scoring. But we never choose to be aggressive.

The truth is that the staff has a tremendous amount of trust in its defense and its punting game, and little trust in Stanzi and the passing game. The staff also seems to think that in games where we have a physical advantage, the less risk the better. So what if we win 24-21, as long as we win.

That being said, remember the Northwestern game last year. Brodell received a punt right before halftime and he fumbled simply because he was trying to do too much. If he doesn’t fumble, it is hard to believe we lose that game.

By: rabbit999

rabbit999 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:33:14 +0000

I thought they could have put the Ark St game away sooner by continuing to throw the ball down the field against one of the worst pass defenses in the country. It certainly worked in the first quarter. I know they want to pound the ball and control the clock, but there were at least 2 d-linemen who will be playing on Sundays that made running difficult. Building a bigger lead through the air would have broken their spirit sooner. JMO.
Go Hawks!

By: Tmel

Tmel — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:29:58 +0000

What ever happened to handing the ball of to a fullback for a yard- I would think that in 2 downs we could get 1 yard. Oh well, Morse is probably gonna get some more looks as he will be, in reality, our #2 back.

By: mchaki

mchaki — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:06:41 +0000

Very Good article, I like the thought process with the almost play by play structure.

By: Ron Broessel

Ron Broessel — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:12:13 +0000

Great Article! This is why I will never fully believe in this coaching staff. They get too conservative and predictable during, and especially at the end of games and instead of taking the killshot, they run something lame and then punt, putting the ball in the hands of the other team to win or tie the game. Every team Iowa has played this year, except ISU, was given the opportunity to win/tie the game late in the 4th after a conservative series of Iowa downs. You can’t expect your defense to get a game-ending turnover EVERY SINGLE GAME, or someone like MSU is going to beat you.

By: tc91526

tc91526 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:46:14 +0000

I agree. It’s time to take the leash of Stanzi. If this team is going to reach it’s full potential, it has to be able to threaten down the field in the vertical passing game [on a regular basis]. We have the receivers [DJK, Stross, McNutt and Moeaki]. Let’s use them.

By: bigport75

bigport75 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:34:03 +0000

Spot On! I think you run wegher as well. The only thing that drove me nuts on the playcalling was no playaction on 1st down. We just kept running at them. Do PA one time PLEASE!

By: Charles Pigneri

Charles Pigneri — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:15:07 +0000

All I know is when you are 2 and Goal with literally a foot to paydirt you don’t pass, you don’t run Robinson outside the tackle you freakin line Wegher up in the backfield and let him jump the pile 3 times if need be. Kirk can call O’Keefe’s call on the goal line brilliant but it shouldn’t have even come to that. Your comments are right on…we see the same things.

CPig