Thoughts and perspective after Wisconsin loss
Posted 10-26-2010 at 08:40 AM by BigFall
I’ve posted a limited amount since Saturday and have more or less taken in the thoughts and feelings of the fan base over the loss the Wisconsin. I have come to some conclusions posted below:
- Ricky Stanzi is a damn good quarterback and anyone placing blame at his feet or calling him out for his loss are flat out ignorant at best. He was 25/37 with 3 TDs and 0 INT’s. Did he miss a couple throws? You bet and he’d be the first to tell you that. Did he make mistakes? Sure. But I challenge you to find a QB in ANY game ANY week who plays perfect and is without fault. The myopathy of fan bases drives me nuts at times because absolute perfection is expected and no room for any kind of error is allowed. This isn’t even remotely realistic but I think a major issue for a lot of die hard fans is that many of them don’t watch other games and other teams play. If they did, they would recognize how good we have it with Ricky Stanzi at the helm. He’s a leader, he’s accurate, and he orchestrates this offense as well as any QB we’ve had under KF. Just look around this weekend and watch some other teams and their QBs and tell me how bad Ricky Stanzi is.
- Along those same lines, this fan base has become spoiled with expectations and unrealistic assumptions for this coaching staff and program, in general. There seems to be a lack of perspective and once again, I think it stems from focusing so hard on your own team and shutting out the rest of the college football world. KF has his flaws no doubt. I’ve been critical of several things in regards to his style and how he handles certain situations. Mainly, I think he is an AWFUL clock manager, I don’t like how he handles redshirts, and I think he sometimes lacks a sense of feel during game and awareness for situational football (ie: going for the throat when a team is down or on it’s heels - like after the Greenwood INT). That being said, the point is similar to the one with Stanzi - we have it pretty damn good! Actually, we have it really damn good! He runs a program that wins games and more importantly, his program instills pride in the fanbase. It’s not realistic to EXPECT National Championships and the sooner you realize that, the happier you’ll be. It may happen, it may not, but the fact is, a program like Iowa has to have a LOT of things fall in line in order to even have a chance at a National Championship, and even then, it’s precarious at best. Bottom line, Iowa does not have the recruiting base year in, year out to compete for National Championships without a lot of help and a lot of breaks falling your way. We get some really good players and produce as well as any program in the country, but we’ll never be Alabama, Florida, Texas, or even Ohio St. in terms of talent so right off the bat, we’re behind. This year was an exception as the powers that be are down, so this is the one year where Iowa had a legitimate shot to do something special and I think that’s where a lot of the frustration comes from. Fact is, the players, not the coaches made multiple mistakes in the Arizona and Wisconsin games and that’s why we lost. Coaching comes to the forefront when you lose, and people are quick to jump on the coaching and outcoached bandwagon. When you win, it’s barely mentioned. Look, the special teams have been atrocious and we all know it, but how much of it is coaching and how much of it is execution by the players? When a 5th year senior allows a high energy player to blow up an extra point - is that coaching? When a long snap is high and the holder panics instead of getting it down, is that coaching? Is a guy being offsides on a kickoff, coaching? Allowing the fake IS on coaching but that play is probably irrelevant if we EXECUTE earlier in the game. Too many times, fans jump coaching when the players are to blame and in both games we lost, the players have made too many mental mistakes that cost of two football games. It’s also forgotten far too often that the other team has good players that are on scholarship and they’re trying to win as well. In both games, the players from the other teams that beat us, made plays with good players. God forbid. Furthermore, if you’re that unhappy with KF and his staff, take a look around at college football and tell me what programs you’d trade places with since 1999. Seriously, do the exercise and tell me who you would trade places with. I did and this is what I came up with:
Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio St., Florida, LSU and maybe Nebraska. That’s it.
I really hate it when Iowa fans act like spoiled children based on some recent success that that we’ve never seen in our program’s history. Instead of being happy and dare I say it, content, with that success, fans want more, more, more. It’s not realistic and it’s a recipe for disaster when a fan base becomes unreasonable. Just ask programs like Texas A&M and others who have success and are competitive year after year, occasionally jumping up for a 10-12 win season, but it’s not enough because the perception is they should be better. Keep ******** about KF if you must, but take a long hard look at where Iowa is now, where they’ve been, and where they’re going before you complain too much. My favorite post from the weekend is the guy who claims Iowa will now go backwards because KFs reputation is ruined and he’ll no longer be able to recruit - all over the loss on Saturday. Seriously?
- The defense has not played as well as many of us thought they would and that’s been disappointing but I think the main issue is the injuries we’ve suffered at LB. That group was inexperienced and untested to start the year and then they’ve lost Tarpinian, a guy who Norm Parker raved about before the year. It’s obviously been a big loss and the results of the last two games are a direct result of teams testing our LBs. Face it guys, we lost two NFL LBs from last year’s team so to expect no drop off in performance was not realistic to begin with, let alone with injuries. Add in the loss of Norm Parker and it's pretty hard to play two of the best offenses we'll see all year and not struggle a little bit.
- The offensive line has been tremendously undersold. Outstanding performance all year outside of Arizona, but they get a pass there as the situation was a very difficult one with them blitzing 6 and 7 guys on every play. They dominated Wisky’s defensive line the other day and made JJ Watt a virtual non factor outside of his blocked XP. His sack on Stanzi was on Stanzi as Zusevics had him stymied but Stanzi ran into him instead of stepping up in the pocket. They are running the ball very effectively and the great news is that we only have one senior in the group with Vandervelde, and McMillan and Gettis will step in and play the two guard spots next year. Ferentz has potential AA written all over him and Reiff and Zusevics are as good of a pair of tackles as I’ve seen play all year.
- Adam Robinson played the best game I’ve ever seen him play Saturday. He seemed to find another gear and was impressive. Really hit the hole hard and had a burst about him I haven’t seen. Hopefully he continues to run with that same vigor as the season progresses. I was disappointed that Coker didn’t get a few carries, but I’ve been vocal enough on that subject.
Lastly, I think this team wins out. Too much talent and too much senior leadership to lay down in this spot. KF, Stanzi, and Clayborn rally the troops this week and you see a sharp, intense, impressive performance versus Michigan St.
- Ricky Stanzi is a damn good quarterback and anyone placing blame at his feet or calling him out for his loss are flat out ignorant at best. He was 25/37 with 3 TDs and 0 INT’s. Did he miss a couple throws? You bet and he’d be the first to tell you that. Did he make mistakes? Sure. But I challenge you to find a QB in ANY game ANY week who plays perfect and is without fault. The myopathy of fan bases drives me nuts at times because absolute perfection is expected and no room for any kind of error is allowed. This isn’t even remotely realistic but I think a major issue for a lot of die hard fans is that many of them don’t watch other games and other teams play. If they did, they would recognize how good we have it with Ricky Stanzi at the helm. He’s a leader, he’s accurate, and he orchestrates this offense as well as any QB we’ve had under KF. Just look around this weekend and watch some other teams and their QBs and tell me how bad Ricky Stanzi is.
- Along those same lines, this fan base has become spoiled with expectations and unrealistic assumptions for this coaching staff and program, in general. There seems to be a lack of perspective and once again, I think it stems from focusing so hard on your own team and shutting out the rest of the college football world. KF has his flaws no doubt. I’ve been critical of several things in regards to his style and how he handles certain situations. Mainly, I think he is an AWFUL clock manager, I don’t like how he handles redshirts, and I think he sometimes lacks a sense of feel during game and awareness for situational football (ie: going for the throat when a team is down or on it’s heels - like after the Greenwood INT). That being said, the point is similar to the one with Stanzi - we have it pretty damn good! Actually, we have it really damn good! He runs a program that wins games and more importantly, his program instills pride in the fanbase. It’s not realistic to EXPECT National Championships and the sooner you realize that, the happier you’ll be. It may happen, it may not, but the fact is, a program like Iowa has to have a LOT of things fall in line in order to even have a chance at a National Championship, and even then, it’s precarious at best. Bottom line, Iowa does not have the recruiting base year in, year out to compete for National Championships without a lot of help and a lot of breaks falling your way. We get some really good players and produce as well as any program in the country, but we’ll never be Alabama, Florida, Texas, or even Ohio St. in terms of talent so right off the bat, we’re behind. This year was an exception as the powers that be are down, so this is the one year where Iowa had a legitimate shot to do something special and I think that’s where a lot of the frustration comes from. Fact is, the players, not the coaches made multiple mistakes in the Arizona and Wisconsin games and that’s why we lost. Coaching comes to the forefront when you lose, and people are quick to jump on the coaching and outcoached bandwagon. When you win, it’s barely mentioned. Look, the special teams have been atrocious and we all know it, but how much of it is coaching and how much of it is execution by the players? When a 5th year senior allows a high energy player to blow up an extra point - is that coaching? When a long snap is high and the holder panics instead of getting it down, is that coaching? Is a guy being offsides on a kickoff, coaching? Allowing the fake IS on coaching but that play is probably irrelevant if we EXECUTE earlier in the game. Too many times, fans jump coaching when the players are to blame and in both games we lost, the players have made too many mental mistakes that cost of two football games. It’s also forgotten far too often that the other team has good players that are on scholarship and they’re trying to win as well. In both games, the players from the other teams that beat us, made plays with good players. God forbid. Furthermore, if you’re that unhappy with KF and his staff, take a look around at college football and tell me what programs you’d trade places with since 1999. Seriously, do the exercise and tell me who you would trade places with. I did and this is what I came up with:
Oklahoma, Texas, Ohio St., Florida, LSU and maybe Nebraska. That’s it.
I really hate it when Iowa fans act like spoiled children based on some recent success that that we’ve never seen in our program’s history. Instead of being happy and dare I say it, content, with that success, fans want more, more, more. It’s not realistic and it’s a recipe for disaster when a fan base becomes unreasonable. Just ask programs like Texas A&M and others who have success and are competitive year after year, occasionally jumping up for a 10-12 win season, but it’s not enough because the perception is they should be better. Keep ******** about KF if you must, but take a long hard look at where Iowa is now, where they’ve been, and where they’re going before you complain too much. My favorite post from the weekend is the guy who claims Iowa will now go backwards because KFs reputation is ruined and he’ll no longer be able to recruit - all over the loss on Saturday. Seriously?
- The defense has not played as well as many of us thought they would and that’s been disappointing but I think the main issue is the injuries we’ve suffered at LB. That group was inexperienced and untested to start the year and then they’ve lost Tarpinian, a guy who Norm Parker raved about before the year. It’s obviously been a big loss and the results of the last two games are a direct result of teams testing our LBs. Face it guys, we lost two NFL LBs from last year’s team so to expect no drop off in performance was not realistic to begin with, let alone with injuries. Add in the loss of Norm Parker and it's pretty hard to play two of the best offenses we'll see all year and not struggle a little bit.
- The offensive line has been tremendously undersold. Outstanding performance all year outside of Arizona, but they get a pass there as the situation was a very difficult one with them blitzing 6 and 7 guys on every play. They dominated Wisky’s defensive line the other day and made JJ Watt a virtual non factor outside of his blocked XP. His sack on Stanzi was on Stanzi as Zusevics had him stymied but Stanzi ran into him instead of stepping up in the pocket. They are running the ball very effectively and the great news is that we only have one senior in the group with Vandervelde, and McMillan and Gettis will step in and play the two guard spots next year. Ferentz has potential AA written all over him and Reiff and Zusevics are as good of a pair of tackles as I’ve seen play all year.
- Adam Robinson played the best game I’ve ever seen him play Saturday. He seemed to find another gear and was impressive. Really hit the hole hard and had a burst about him I haven’t seen. Hopefully he continues to run with that same vigor as the season progresses. I was disappointed that Coker didn’t get a few carries, but I’ve been vocal enough on that subject.
Lastly, I think this team wins out. Too much talent and too much senior leadership to lay down in this spot. KF, Stanzi, and Clayborn rally the troops this week and you see a sharp, intense, impressive performance versus Michigan St.
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