Iowa Coaching Issue

[Hawkinole]

Following the 2016 football season, Iowa made the following offensive coaching changes:

Promoted O-Line Coach Brian Ferentz to O-Coordinator. Play selection, and organization of the offense as a team has been mostly hopeless, except for the Iowa State, and Ohio State games. And against Iowa State they were asleep at the switch for much of the game, and then would suddenly punch the accelerator.

Iowa hired Tim Polasek, former O-Coordinator from NDSU as O-Line coach - despite him having no experience coaching an offensive line at any previous school. He was a QB in college. This season the O-Line has mostly been a disaster, perhaps with exceptions at Iowa State, and against Ohio State.

Iowa re-hired Ken O'Keefe, as QBs coach -- a former Iowa O-Coordinator, known mostly for having moribund offenses, with one or two shining seasons. The Iowa QB has been mostly okay.

Hired Kelton Copeland from NIU as receivers coach -- this seems to have mostly been okay.

I can't help but think that Tim Polasek should have been coordinator, if he were to be hired at all, and that Brian Ferentz, if he were to be kept on the payroll at all, should have remained as O-Line coach.

This is Iowa, so I am willing to give this arrangement another year, but if I were the head coach I would switch Tim Polasek and Brian Ferentz.

Oh, and whatever happened to Iowa's successor head coach waiting in the wings, at Arkansas?  Where do you suppose he will end up next year? Nebraska probably will hang out a "Help Wanted" sign next Saturday.

[847badgerfan]

Has BB written a letter to the Iowa AD yet?

[bayareabadger]

Hasn't Iowa's offensive staff had the same limitations and weirdness for like 20 years?

[betarhoalphadelta]

Hasn't Iowa's offensive staff had the same limitations and weirdness for like 20 years?

Exactly what I was thinking lol...

[847badgerfan]

Yeah, that all starts at the top and trickles down.

Iowa is at its best when it has some future NFL players up front, on both sides. I think they need a new OL coach to be very honest. Something is missing there.

[Hawkinole]

Yeah, that all starts at the top and trickles down.

Iowa is at its best when it has some future NFL players up front, on both sides. I think they need a new OL coach to be very honest. Something is missing there.

You watched the Iowa - Wisconsin game. I think they had everyone or almost everyone returning on the O-Line this year, but unfortunately there were injuries and so people were rotating in and out all season. But the problem that resulted in such a lack of offensive consistency seemed more about coaching to me than injuries. They were good at protecting the passer until the past two weeks.

[847badgerfan]

I've watched almost every Iowa game this year. Keep your friends close and all that.

My eyes tell me that they need better direction.

Kaptain Kirk also needs to get back to recruiting like he did in the early phase of this millennium. He was relentless and found all those diamonds in the rough. Maybe he's just gotten too comfy to poke and prod like that.

[Hawkinole]

I thought they were doing better in recruiting. Iowa is pulling some folks out of Wisconsin and Minnesota, again, as they did in the Hayden Fry days. I thought that was a good thing. I thought 7-5 was realistic coming into this season, but wasn't really sure they'd get to 7. I think Iowa is about on target in this rebuilding year. Still wish they would have done better than mediocre.

[fezzador]

Part of the problem is Barta... he's a terrible AD (he's the one who hired Lick after all) and gives KF undeserved contract extensions.  Going 10-2 every 4-ish seasons is great, but not worthy of an extension IMHO.

The other part of the problem is recruiting.  Iowa is way below average in terms of recruiting skill positions, especially WR.  Even Iowa State blows UI out of the water in terms of receivers.  KF & Co. do a pretty good job of coaching up, but most of these kids have a hard ceiling and only a small handful of kids have realistic shots of going pro.  It's extremely rare to see someone from Iowa that's not a defender or an OL/TE get drafted.