What we feared in the pre-season has become reality: The QB experiment has failed. What's next for Iowa's future?

[2D]

Kirk and Lester both went all in on two guys who they believed could lead the program in lieu of getting a QB in the portal. One of these guys was supposed to be our QB for this year and 2027. Now, we are looking at a situation where both of these players are not who we hoped they would be. Kirk and Lester's gamble has failed.

Now Iowa faces a new problem, who will be the QB next year? Neither of these guys should be taken seriously as a potential starter. Will we go into the portal, spending a large sum of our small NIL fund on a one year rental? Or should we throw Bessinger out there, the guy with real potential, despite his inexperience? Either way, this staff has a decision to make. Our QB coaching also must be examined, because they way we develop has proven to be extraordinarily poor.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

What's next for Iowa?

Death, obviously. RIP to our program.

 

[2D]

What's next for Iowa?

Death, obviously. RIP to our program.

Dang, didn't take you for a Husker fan. A shame, really.

 

[Jayb01]

Run the ball. Every time. Forever. No matter what. Until the sun explodes.

 

[2D]

Run the ball. Every time. Forever. No matter what. Until the sun explodes.

Who needs a QB when you can just run forever? Genius!

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Dang, didn't take you for someone who mocks people's pessimism. A shame, really.

Nah, I consider it more of a hobby.

 

[Gonzo_Bloor]

KF sucking at evaluating QB talent?

Who'd have thunk.

Lol.

 

[TRHawkeye28]

Yes - throw Sullivan and Bessinger out there. And not just to hand it off. Need to see whether we need to go portal.

But if you do...also risk losing them too. But maybe that's ok if they suck. You just can't wait until '28 to find out

 

[2D]

Nah, I consider it more of a hobby.

Pessimism is when you have 7 games to evaluate a player's performance backed with statistics and it points to both not developing into the players we need.

I don't like to dunk on you Monkey, but you make it too easy.

 

[2D]

Yes - throw Sullivan and Bessinger out there. And not just to hand it off. Need to see whether we need to go portal.

But if you do...also risk losing them too. But maybe that's ok if they suck. You just can't wait until '28 to find out

Sullivan is a non factor to me. But it's too soon to throw Bessinger out there, Hank and Heck are the guys this year. Give Bessinger a legitimate shot next year after going through another spring and fall camp.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Pessimism is when you have 7 games to evaluate a player's performance backed with statistics and it points to both not developing into the players we need.

I don't like to dunk on you Monkey, but you make it too easy.

Well see you're operating under the assumption that I'm trying to defend something.

When you cry about Iowa's QBs and ask where do we go from here and I make the comment that obviously this means the death for the program, and you get f***ing testy with me because of that.....that's not "dunking" on me......that tells me you're letting your pessimism and emotions get the better of you.

That's merely my job here.

You're welcome btw.

 

[2D]

Well see you're operating under the assumption that I'm trying to defend something.

When you cry about Iowa's QBs and ask where do we go from here and I make the comment that obviously this means the death for the program, and you get f***ing testy with me because of that.....that's not "dunking" on me......that tells me you're letting your pessimism and emotions get the better of you.

That's merely my job here.

You're welcome btw.

Yikes, you actually think that's "getting testy" when it's clearly responding in jest to your comment which was also made in jest? You're better than that Monkey.

And classifying my legitimate criticism as crying comes off as pretty petty. We've flip flopped all season, thinking we have the guy at QB, then we don't. Then we had another guy, then we didn't. Kirk and Lester made a gamble for the long run and it didn't pay off. I think asking what we do from here is a fair question. Do we go the Gronowski route in the portal, or do we give the talented young guy a shot? No one sees either guy going off the last 5 games of the season and making the case for being the starter next year.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Yikes, you actually think that's "getting testy" when it's clearly responding in jest to your comment which was also made in jest? You're better than that Monkey.

And classifying my legitimate criticism as crying comes off as pretty petty. We've flip flopped all season, thinking we have the guy at QB, then we don't. Then we had another guy, then we didn't. Kirk and Lester made a gamble for the long run and it didn't pay off. I think asking what we do from here is a fair question. Do we go the Gronowski route in the portal, or do we give the talented young guy a shot? No one sees either guy going off the last 5 games of the season and making the case for being the starter next year.

I wasn't just talking about this thread.......

 

[2D]

I wasn't just talking about this thread.......

 

[eyesofhawk]

Kirk and Lester both went all in on two guys who they believed could lead the program in lieu of getting a QB in the portal. One of these guys was supposed to be our QB for this year and 2027. Now, we are looking at a situation where both of these players are not who we hoped they would be. Kirk and Lester's gamble has failed.

Now Iowa faces a new problem, who will be the QB next year? Neither of these guys should be taken seriously as a potential starter. Will we go into the portal, spending a large sum of our small NIL fund on a one year rental? Or should we throw Bessinger out there, the guy with real potential, despite his inexperience? Either way, this staff has a decision to make. Our QB coaching also must be examined, because they way we develop has proven to be extraordinarily poor.

No part of this team has failed.

Is this a failed season for you?

You predicted Iowa to go 8-4. And even had some 7-5 days.

Go Hawks!

 

[MeetTheFerentzes]

Yesterday had to be one of the worst days of Lester's coaching career. He had an awful game plan, and the entire offense couldn't execute when plays were actually there to be made. Both of his QB's that he chose to go with this season, after spending >1 year developing them and saying that he was good to go with what he had, as only a handful of P4 programs with no QB with a good deal of college experience, were both god-awful in every aspect of their game. He will literally be picking up the pieces this week as he tries to figure something out for Saturday.

CFP is likely out of reach, but the team still has a lot to play for this season, and now that they have the "luxury" of having nothing to lose, I have no problem with KF and TL going with JSully or Bess at QB. I doubt either Heck or Hank finish their career with Iowa, and I think both could be gone in a few months, so TL has to make a portal hit at least as good as Gronowski to advance Iowa's offense next season, and he needs to take a serious look at what went wrong with the development of these two, because we afford any more big misses.

 

[Palmerhawk]

This is now nfl- lite in college fb.
Like in the NFL, teams have a payroll.
The best shot for teams to make a run is when the have a young qb,like Caleb williams with bears,who is still in the 4yr rookie contract window,allowing teams to put more resources in the rest of the roster
After Caleb starts getting 65 million a year,the rest of the roster will fall back.
Iowa has two bargain bin QBs,allowing them to have a competitive roster.
Unlike in NFL the only limit to payroll in college is each schools resources.
Iowa is 17th of 18 in BIG payroll.
So if we spend 3-4 million for a portal qb,that's 16-20% of our payroll on one guy out of 85.

At illinois,houser got hurt in game 5....then what?
At oregon,moore(5-6 million) got hurt in game 4...they even spent 2 million on a backup and they are still struggling, but do have 50 million payroll.

Kf is trying to put together a playoff team on an extremely limited payroll( relative to our league and top programs)....can we gamble 7 million on an Underwood at Michigan?

 

[DuddyB]

No part of this team has failed.

Is this a failed season for you?

You predicted Iowa to go 8-4. And even had some 7-5 days.

Go Hawks!

If they don’t make the playoffs, it’s a failed season. I felt that way going into the season and feel even stronger about that now.

 

[Titanhawk]

What's next for Iowa?

Death, obviously. RIP to our program.

Another ho-hum 10-3 record

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Another ho-hum 10-3 record

Hey now, we're not accepting any of that optimism crap around here.

Only realists can sit at the big kids table.

 

[Jonesy5960]

Yesterday had to be one of the worst days of Lester's coaching career. He had an awful game plan, and the entire offense couldn't execute when plays were actually there to be made. Both of his QB's that he chose to go with this season, after spending >1 year developing them and saying that he was good to go with what he had, as only a handful of P4 programs with no QB with a good deal of college experience, were both god-awful in every aspect of their game. He will literally be picking up the pieces this week as he tries to figure something out for Saturday.

CFP is likely out of reach, but the team still has a lot to play for this season, and now that they have the "luxury" of having nothing to lose, I have no problem with KF and TL going with JSully or Bess at QB. I doubt either Heck or Hank finish their career with Iowa, and I think both could be gone in a few months, so TL has to make a portal hit at least as good as Gronowski to advance Iowa's offense next season, and he needs to take a serious look at what went wrong with the development of these two, because we afford any more big misses.

Wasn't it Kirk that came out early and said that QB wasn't a portal priority? I don't know that Lester really had much of a choice in this particular instance.

 

[QChawks]

 

[Hawk4Ever!]

Kirk and Lester both went all in on two guys who they believed could lead the program in lieu of getting a QB in the portal. One of these guys was supposed to be our QB for this year and 2027. Now, we are looking at a situation where both of these players are not who we hoped they would be. Kirk and Lester's gamble has failed.

Now Iowa faces a new problem, who will be the QB next year? Neither of these guys should be taken seriously as a potential starter. Will we go into the portal, spending a large sum of our small NIL fund on a one year rental? Or should we throw Bessinger out there, the guy with real potential, despite his inexperience? Either way, this staff has a decision to make. Our QB coaching also must be examined, because they way we develop has proven to be extraordinarily poor.

QB is obviously a problem, what's new. Helsinki and Brown wouldn't start anywhere in the B10 or even the MAC. But the Oline is soft and slow. Secondary is god awful again, can't cover anyone and can't tackle. Soft schedule saves this roster from a 5-7 every year. No talent.

 

[The Big Z]

This is now nfl- lite in college fb.
Like in the NFL, teams have a payroll.
The best shot for teams to make a run is when the have a young qb,like Caleb williams with bears,who is still in the 4yr rookie contract window,allowing teams to put more resources in the rest of the roster
After Caleb starts getting 65 million a year,the rest of the roster will fall back.
Iowa has two bargain bin QBs,allowing them to have a competitive roster.
Unlike in NFL the only limit to payroll in college is each schools resources.
Iowa is 17th of 18 in BIG payroll.
So if we spend 3-4 million for a portal qb,that's 16-20% of our payroll on one guy out of 85.

At illinois,houser got hurt in game 5....then what?
At oregon,moore(5-6 million) got hurt in game 4...they even spent 2 million on a backup and they are still struggling, but do have 50 million payroll.

Kf is trying to put together a playoff team on an extremely limited payroll( relative to our league and top programs)....can we gamble 7 million on an Underwood at Michigan?

This is a great point. We've managed to cobble together a roster with the 2nd lowest NIL budget in the entire conference. What did we pay Grono last year? 1 million? 1.5? Michigan is supposedly paying Underwood 12 million. Is that over the lifetime of him staying there? There's no way he's making 12 million a year I hope. Like you said, look at Oregon. It's crazy how bad they are without Moore and now they're supposedly paying the fat boy Raiola a fair amount of money and he is certainly not their future.

 

[Outbackbowl2017]

Some of these kids better get paid now cause they ain’t making the league and are going to shiat their pants when they are selling insurance making $80k a year. Welcome to the real world boys.

Regarding Iowa football, relax, Wisconsin had a terrible offense and will be lucky to score 10 points on Saturday. Iowa will play Iowa football waiting on the other team to make mistakes and capitalize on those mistakes as long as the offense can take care of business. Iowa had so many chances to win that game Saturday with so many bad plays in all three phases of the game. Regarding qb play, Brown has got to step up and take command of this offense and Heck needs to relax and let the game come to him, he’s trying to score a td every time of throws a 100 mph fastball.

 

[DukeSlater]

Kirk and Lester both went all in on two guys who they believed could lead the program in lieu of getting a QB in the portal. One of these guys was supposed to be our QB for this year and 2027. Now, we are looking at a situation where both of these players are not who we hoped they would be. Kirk and Lester's gamble has failed.

Now Iowa faces a new problem, who will be the QB next year? Neither of these guys should be taken seriously as a potential starter. Will we go into the portal, spending a large sum of our small NIL fund on a one year rental? Or should we throw Bessinger out there, the guy with real potential, despite his inexperience? Either way, this staff has a decision to make. Our QB coaching also must be examined, because they way we develop has proven to be extraordinarily poor.

Tradon Bessinger is the guy. He has talent and, as the late Bill Walton insightfully observed, "Talent can gain experience. Experience cannot gain talent." So get Bessinger in there. He should get a few series vs. Wisconsin and start the rest of the year. Heck and Hank can transfer if they want.

The Shanahan offense isn't run in college because it's too complicated given the vast turnover in personnel every year, especially now with the portal. Lester isn't the guru he and others have claimed. The Minnesota game is the latest evidence. You score TEN points against a team that just gave up FORTY-ONE to Purdue?! OMG. Sure, some of it is on the players, absolutely. Missed open receivers. Receivers dropping the ball, BUT still, that lack of execution also falls on the coaching.

Bessinger is the future. Play him now.

 

[DukeSlater]

Another ho-hum 10-3 record

With three of those wins coming against one of the worst teams in FBS (NIU), a pathetic Iowa State team, and an FCS team (UNI). Impressive stuff.

 

[eyesofhawk]

If they don’t make the playoffs, it’s a failed season. I felt that way going into the season and feel even stronger about that now.

And the expectation experts said 7.5 wins.

I can promise you the team doesn't feel they've failed. So get over yourself

 

[The Big Z]

Tradon Bessinger is the guy. He has talent and, as the late Bill Walton insightfully observed, "Talent can gain experience. Experience cannot gain talent." So get Bessinger in there. He should get a few series vs. Wisconsin and start the rest of the year. Heck and Hank can transfer if they want.

The Shanahan offense isn't run in college because it's too complicated given the vast turnover in personnel every year, especially now with the portal. Lester isn't the guru he and others have claimed. The Minnesota game is the latest evidence. You score TEN points against a team that just gave up FORTY-ONE to Purdue?! OMG. Sure, some of it is on the players, absolutely. Missed open receivers. Receivers dropping the ball, BUT still, that lack of execution also falls on the coaching.

Bessinger is the future. Play him now.

We have no idea if he is the future. We've had a lot of guys who we thought were the future who turned out not to be. I think if there's anything we've learned over the years calling someone the future at QB is fools gold.

 

[Randon]

We've seen the two-QB experiment and it hasn't worked. Why? Because neither QB has performed good enough to keep the other on the bench. This was profoundly evident Saturday with the fiasco in Minnesota.

 

[DuddyB]

And the expectation experts said 7.5 wins.

I can promise you the team doesn't feel they've failed. So get over yourself

Do you think that the number one goal or one of the top goals was not to make the playoffs? Both from an individual and team standpoint it should be one of the stated goals if it wasn’t.

If you don’t achieve your number one goal in any professional situation in a given year you objectively failed. Even if that goal is perceived as a stretch goal. That’s of course, if you only want to be viewed as a high performer. If you want to settle for mediocrity and say yes reached the other goals, and we at least we tried.

Does that mean you should be fired or you’re terrible at your job? No

If you failed that number one goal year after year, should you be fired? Maybe. Obviously a lot of nuance there.

 

[eyesofhawk]

Do you think that the number one goal or one of the top goals was not to make the playoffs? Both from an individual and team standpoint it should be one of the stated goals if it wasn’t.

If you don’t achieve your number one goal in any professional situation in a given year you objectively failed. Even if that goal is perceived as a stretch goal. That’s of course, if you only want to be viewed as a high performer. If you want to settle for mediocrity and say yes reached the other goals, and we at least we tried.

Does that mean you should be fired or you’re terrible at your job? No

If you failed that number one goal year after year, should you be fired? Maybe. Obviously a lot of nuance there.

Watch the team and tell me if you see a bunch of guys playing as if they're failures

 

[TRHawkeye28]

Watch the team and tell me if you see a bunch of guys playing as if they're failures

That wasn't the question or point he was making. But you already knew that. You're the biggest troll on this board and it's not even close

 

[Palmerhawk]

Tradon Bessinger is the guy. He has talent and, as the late Bill Walton insightfully observed, "Talent can gain experience. Experience cannot gain talent." So get Bessinger in there. He should get a few series vs. Wisconsin and start the rest of the year. Heck and Hank can transfer if they want.

The Shanahan offense isn't run in college because it's too complicated given the vast turnover in personnel every year, especially now with the portal. Lester isn't the guru he and others have claimed. The Minnesota game is the latest evidence. You score TEN points against a team that just gave up FORTY-ONE to Purdue?! OMG. Sure, some of it is on the players, absolutely. Missed open receivers. Receivers dropping the ball, BUT still, that lack of execution also falls on the coaching.

Bessinger is the future. Play him now.

Last week you were totally convinced that heck was the guy to lead the hawks to glory,remember? You hammered kf until he announced heck was starting.
Now after 4 possessions on offense forget heck is the savior...now bessinger is the new savior...and no one has seen him take a single snap,even in practice but KF and Lester who have watched hundreds of practice snaps by our QBs are deemed idiots if they don't play the true frosh the rest of year?

Pick a lane...and stay in it for a few snaps.

 

[eyesofhawk]

That wasn't the question or point he was making. But you already knew that. You're the biggest troll on this board and it's not even close

That's the point I'm making.

If the team members don't consider the season a failure, you'd have to be a troll to characterize it as such