Zakhari inheriting a whole lot with that #4...
My distaste for Wisconsin "gamesmanship" goes back to 1993.
Not to rain on your parade, but hoping the defense just gets fixed is putting a lot of weight on the word “hope.” Aaron Henry may have just been inexperienced last year but I didn’t really see any signs of improvement from start to finish. His post-game pressers were always just “we’ll make changes because we have to” which tells you nothing, and then nothing would result. Bret could have taken over the defense but he didn’t, and we’ve got Aaron Henry served up for a year two now. Jim Leonhard left for the Broncos so there’s not even really the hope that he could do something (not that he showed me any benefit being on staff last year).I know I’m drinking the kool-aid (I do almost every year), but I think we surprise people and win 8 games.
Last year, our offensive line was solid when healthy but literally only 5 deep such that they were awful the first half of the year when we were playing through injuries. Our offense was pretty good the second half of the year when guys got healthy. We’ve now got depth such that we should never be as bad as we were the first half of w year.
Second year in the system for Luke who I think was top 5 in QBR last year. We lost some talent at WR but replace it with inexperienced talent and Franklin who is the active leader in receiving yards in this offense. We have a stable of big physical backs. We should be able to RPO people to death and I think we are going to score a lot of points.
Defense last year was just bad. We lost our 2 stud DTs but landed some key portal additions including an all conference caliber DB from a playoff team We also committed a lot of penalties and other self inflicted wounds. Bad defense and mistakes are very un-Bret-like. I think Bret can get us to at least an average defense that minimizes mistakes as has been his MO for 15+ years.
In short, I think we cleaned up a lot of things that killed us on offense and defense. Scoring a lot of points with a decent defense sounds is a recipe to win games!
He, who helped revolutionize Big10 football......Fickell or Ryan Walters - who does Coach B. dislike more? Shades of the Mike White days. Back then, White had only one friend amongst Big Ten coaching brethren, Haden Fry at Iowa. The other coaches were outright hostile towards White, with Bo and George Perles the worst of a bad bunch.
I have concluded Iowa is the same team every single year. Their record is reflected by how good the other teams are; Iowa doesn’t get better or worse. Being in the BIG West, teams have not been very good so their record has been good.They've been doing it for a decade
10 years ago BB would’ve been in this category lolB1G has quite a few HCs that are punks - Fickell, Walters, Day, Fleck to name a few. Can see why BB would be annoyed with them.
so true, and he'd say the same (which is one of the things that impressed me about him early on)10 years ago BB would’ve been in this category lol
Historically, you are probably correct - and that's an interesting perspective. This year will be different for Iowa, and especially next year. It's hard to predict what an effective offense combined with their consistently great defense will look like.I have concluded Iowa is the same team every single year. Their record is reflected by how good the other teams are; Iowa doesn’t get better or worse. Being in the BIG West, teams have not been very good so their record has been good.
It can only differ to the extent their HC is willing to take some chances offensively. How much of their offense is a result of his game philosophy vs weak offensive coaching?This year will be different for Iowa, and especially next year. It's hard to predict what an effective offense combined with their consistently great defense will look like.
They have a knack for staying close in games against teams with superior talent and winning more close games than they lose.I have concluded Iowa is the same team every single year. Their record is reflected by how good the other teams are; Iowa doesn’t get better or worse. Being in the BIG West, teams have not been very good so their record has been good.
Yeah, a majority of my buddies are Iowa fans, and they always complain as if the football they have to watch is the most painful thing possible. While I get where they're coming from (although last year the offense reached such futility that it actually provided comedic value even for them, lol), it's kind of an ironic opposite of how I always felt growing up watching talented Illini teams play dumb football and conjure up 3-4 wins. Iowa fans can pretty much count on 6+ wins every single year, and that has been a goal of Illini football for going on 30 years now...They have a knack for staying close in games against teams with superior talent and winning more close games than they lose.
He’s our punk now10 years ago BB would’ve been in this category lol
I believe Iowa has the most returning starters in the B10 this year, including the 4 new teams. That means Iowa is going to be extra tough. I think they're really being overlooked nationally.
Excluding Rice & Hardy of courseYeah, a majority of my buddies are Iowa fans, and they always complain as if the football they have to watch is the most painful thing possible. While I get where they're coming from (although last year the offense reached such futility that it actually provided comedic value even for them, lol), it's kind of an ironic opposite of how I always felt growing up watching talented Illini teams play dumb football and conjure up 3-4 wins. Iowa fans can pretty much count on 6+ wins every single year, and that has been a goal of Illini football for going on 30 years now...
Iowa was 10-4 last season (starting 10-2) and they almost literally could not score. They scored 28 points in their last 4 games. Combined. Zero in the last two games. They have the most returning starters and they finally fired Brian Ferentz. The offense will be improved. The offense doesn't even have to be good. They just need to be better than disgusting. Experience + improved offense = trouble for the rest of the league. Iowa has been in the national title race before. I expect them to be this year. They'll lose at Ohio State. The rest of their games are all winnable. They could finish 11-1.The 12 team playoff format is going to make things very exciting. Lotta teams churning down in the top-25 will have have hope even late in the season, and a lot of names are going to be sleepers. So many changes in college football at this time, but the expanded playoff is one I wholeheartedly endorse.
Love that the staff is expanding. Would like to see an experienced dc on the staff as an analyst. Also wouldn’t mind to see them add another assistant for OL and DL
I also wouldn’t mind to see us add a coach like Ken Leonard or John Holecek. Both are retired hs coaches that are very respected in state.
I had that too, on anyone's athletic site with a similar template to ours. You have an ad-blocker that is preventing it from running.is the Uof I website down or not loading? This is all I am getting when I go to Dele's link
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