Is Ferentz hurting his player's draft prospects?

[DexterMorgan]

Heard an interesting point on EPSN radio this AM. The point being, Ferentz does such a good job coaching up his players, that they have hit their ceiling in college already. So what you see with Hawkeye players is what you get. They will not continue to improve in the NFL.

Are you buying this? Can you name a former Hawkeye who played for Ferentz then went on to the NFL and played at an even higher level than they did in college?

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but that's an incredibly stupid statement, not you, the people that mentioned it on the radio.

[ICHawk24]

I don't believe Ferentz is hurting their stock. As Mike said, it's the physical talent of the individuals that holds them back, not the coaching. Ferentz maximizes their stock. Otherwise, they'd be less-than-elite athletes with poor technique. In other words, undraftable.

Ok, I'm with ya.

[DwayneTwill]

But this doesn't relate to the original premise of Ferentz "hurting" player's draft stock by getting them closer to their ceiling than most college coaches. Your argument is related to physical talent.

This is true.

[Foval21]

i would think this to be a good thing as the players coming from iowa might not have as high of a ceiling as others but they dont have as low of a floor either.

i would say the one that has really out performed himself is mattison (cant remember if he was drafted or not) but i want to know how playing de in college tapped him out as a guard in the pros. these people that dont understand the basics are sad. iowa players get drafted because they wpnt have to be taught the basics and can jump in and work on the intricacies that make pro football so difficult.

[WinOneThisCentury]

I think this is a ridiculous premise. Players bodies continue to develop and don't peak until their late 20's and early 30's regardless of where they are at draft time. The mental aspect of the game can improve greatly when you no longer have the requirements of school...and experience is huge as you move into professional football. How you say Iowa players have less upside.

[HawkAttack]

It's asinine to say he's hurting their chances when some of those players wouldn't have sniffed the NFL draft if they played for most other schools.

[VintageHawkeye]

whar success for Iowa if Kurt is soooo good at coaching up? why no Rose Bowl or NC?
why only 7 win avg?

[1977Hawkeye]

Or Ferentz could not coach them up and his players may not even get drafted? That KF is "hurting" his players draft prospects is a stupid argument, IMO. Especially when Iowa has had as many players drafted as it has.

Besides, I really don't care that much how KF's players do in the pros. Sure, it's great to see Iowa players do well in the NFL, but Ferentz is a COLLEGE coach.. Getting his players to play well at IOWA is his job. If they have the ability and they are well coached in college, their NFL career will take care of itself IMO.

[1hawkeye1]

I think it's pointing to the fact that they are technically and fundamentally sound where as some other guys, like the Memphis DT are very raw but have huge upside. Mostly he is pointing out that though they aren't 5* guys they are sound and though they have upside it's not untapped raw athletic ability that they can mold as much in the NFL.

That's pretty well said, there.

[SamsonHawk515]

My guess is, the guy on the radio was a cyclone fan, since every thread about Hawkeyes being drafted has been hijaked by lil brother. As others have posted, Yanda was the first player that came to mind to disprove this guys point. Yanda, was not a highly drafted player and earned a spot in the pro bowl last year. He is also considered one of the nastiest gaurds in the NFL by opposing players. His improvement has been vast plain and simple. Another point, the OL is Kirk's specialty and Yanda improved in the NFL after having the captain as his coach. This proves players who had one to one coaching from Ferentz still have an upside.

[cmhawks99]

Great comparison here with McNutt and Blackmon. If you watch both, Blackmon is an athletic freak, but his routes are not good, just run up the field, and he couldn't block a wet paper bag, where McNutt is sound in all aspects and a good athlete, but not as athletic as Blackmon or Wright from Baylor.

I think we often times over state a person’s said athleticism and what we are really looking at is just skill and acumen at playing a position….there are countless players and when I say countless I mean way more NFL players that are pretty average in the athlete department, but just know what they are supposed to do, than the other way around.

Let’s look at Blackmon….he is 6-1 215 ran a 4.46 and jumped 35 vertical and 10-3 broad and has 9 ¼ hands….

Wright is….5-11 ran a 4.41 jumped 38.5 and 10-1 broad and has 8 3/8’s hands…

McNutt is 6-3 217 ran a 4.54 jumped 37 and broad jumped 10—2 with 10 inch hands….

I don’t know what his agility numbers are but Iowa players notoriously run great shuttle and pro agility numbers so I’m not seeing way better athletes here, just apparently better WR’s….now I’d think Marv would get pluses for only playing WR 3 years, but who knows…

[cmhawks99]

whar success for Iowa if Kurt is soooo good at coaching up? why no Rose Bowl or NC?
why only 7 win avg?

I was just thinking it has to make some of our fans mad when they here this....they are convinced they aren't coached very good at all....lol

[TheAvernus]

I dont know what to think about the OPs question. How can he send so many people to the NFL but just be an above average coach. If he were over coaching players we sure as heck wouldnt be hovering around .500 against the lower end teams on our schedule. We wouldnt have stacked teams and fall short as often. Now with that said weve had average teams that impressed and went beyond what most thought. If anything were just an anomaly of a program and we will consider to send 5-7 players to the NFL who just have good careers. Its not like any of the KF era NFL players are HOFers. Sanders would be if he could have stayed healthy. Clark with another year of healthy Manning throwing to him probably. So you could argue either way. I say take the NFL and draft for what they are business decisions that go for you one day and against you the other 364 its a rough tough world and all we can do is watch, speculate, and cheer them on. I would love more wins year in and year out but watching NFL Sundays is a lot more fun with former Hawks on the field so I say change for the better but also keep doing what hes doing at the same time.

[cmhawks99]

I dont know what to think about the OPs question. How can he send so many people to the NFL but just be an above average coach. If he were over coaching players we sure as heck wouldnt be hovering around .500 against the lower end teams on our schedule. We wouldnt have stacked teams and fall short as often. Now with that said weve had average teams that impressed and went beyond what most thought. If anything were just an anomaly of a program and we will consider to send 5-7 players to the NFL who just have good careers. Its not like any of the KF era NFL players are HOFers. Sanders would be if he could have stayed healthy. Clark with another year of healthy Manning throwing to him probably. So you could argue either way. I say take the NFL and draft for what they are business decisions that go for you one day and against you the other 364 its a rough tough world and all we can do is watch, speculate, and cheer them on. I would love more wins year in and year out but watching NFL Sundays is a lot more fun with former Hawks on the field so I say change for the better but also keep doing what hes doing at the same time.

We are a bit of an anomaly……we do have good coaches and we recruit better than the rankings say….we also lack some leadership and chemistry at times it seems. We are consistently a very hard team to beat and just as consistently we lose games we shouldn’t. It’s hard to figure out really, but we are still a name program that’s makes a lot of money and has talent….I’m still glad we are Iowa and KF is our coach..

[VintageHawkeye]

I was just thinking it has to make some of our fans mad when they here this....they are convinced they aren't coached very good at all....lol

Chad, I think Kurt is a good O-line coach, and we've had some stellar defensive players in his time, but he is not a good recruiter or coach of offensive skill positions and therefore we don't win much.
Good o-lineman simply do not translate into championship teams. Sure, they are a part, but not the primary part.
QB & RB...they don't come to Iowa to play for ferentz and compete for championships.
And don't give me any Shonn Greene BS; he was a total fluke and everyone knows it. And we didn't win anything when he was here, anyway.