Press conference at 1:45
- Thread starter squeezebox_1
- Start date
Another social justice warrior sock puppet from the off topic board , yawn
He's been here since 2019 and you've been on board since 2025
Name-calling ... Troll behavior or Substantive contribution ?
Appalachian St beats Mich, no never, oh yes they did, for real. I could happen but that App St team had some damn good players
Hayden and Bump scheduled Colorado when they were very good or at least a few years before that game
All of those programs have national titles. And aspirations for a title this year and every year. And none had a coach who hired and promoted Brian Ferentz.
KF really has brainwashed this fanbase. KF has done a good job. He’s also self-servingly set a ceiling that fans seem more than content with. Little ol’ Iowa should be grateful. Just ask KF. He’ll be the first to tell you.
I don't care how our offense changes. I would still do this every game against us.
To be fair, I am the first ever to complain about it on this board. What can I say other than that I'm a trendsetter.......
As for your demand that I donate real American currency to Iowa football's NIL fund:
Just my two cents. It's not about not playing them both or being given a chance. It's about KF picking the wrong one moving forward. We rode with Deacon Hill over trying guys who went on to have success at the FBS level and not a alternate starter on a bad D2 team.
I'm also worried about the adage of "if you think you have 2 QBs, you usually have none." It's concerning neither separated during camp.
And when they scheduled games like K-State, K-State wasn't good. At all.. And then Snyder went there, and the rest is history.
Question: why do you stay around if you hate KF? It's not like anyone in U of I admin is lurking around, saying to themselves, "Boy I hope that IowaCityLit is able to convince everyone we need to dump Kirk".
Or maybe you ARE stupid enough to believe that...
Thank you for sharing, and for sharing without the need to hurl insults at anyone who might disagree. I think you raise a fair point. At the end of the day, I think all of this hand-wringing about not naming a starter may have more to do with fans' fears that Kirk* is going to end up picking the wrong guy ... particularly when a great number of fans have already made up their mind about who the right guy is.
*-I know it's been reported that this will be Lester's decision, but Lester's decision will be made within the framework of Kirk's expectations. Similar to any organization with a strong leader.
You know I don't hate KF. It's a common, defensive reply to any criticism. I mentioned I think he's done a good job overall...in terms of keeping Iowa "relevant", maintaining some level of consistency, developing NFL players, etc.
But with a lot of college coaches and communities where the coach becomes entrenched, folks can't deal w/ the dichotomy of the situation. They think in binary terms.
KF, IMO, with the hiring/promotion of BF, literally allowed Iowa's offense to regress to the point that it became a laughingstock and national punchline. He (credit a lot to Phil and LeVar here) simultaneously built a top 5 defense and special teams and a bottom-feeder, inept offense. He had a golden opportunity to do what he preaches (complimentary football) that would have elevated Iowa to a CFP contender. But loyalty to his son and his overall stubbornness prevented it. Yet, he somehow managed to get credit for keeping Iowa relevant and winning 7-9 games when in reality he was solely responsible for lowering the ceiling on their potential. And I think it's because his objective really isn't the same as most P4 programs, at least in the SEC and Big 10.
He's trying to rectify it w/ TL hire. But there's no way you can convince me BF wouldn't still be the offensive coordinator if Beth hadn't intervened and done so immediately.
So, you have to acknowledge the good w/ the bad. And now here we are again, as far as I can tell, the only P4 program who's going into the season without a defined starter and with an approach of "first at bat" that just wouldn't fly at most places of Iowa's level.
I think one of the guys will ultimately separate themselves at the QB position, but to go into the regular season and treating the first (if not subsequent games) as auditions for the QB...well it's insanity.
I think I mentioned this already, but it's not insane if neither guy has to this day really shown out to be a starter quality performer. If they had that then they'd have named him. It's certainly not ideal, but they are hoping (and I understand that hope is not a strategy) that one of these guys goes out and doesn't shat the bed. Fans shouldn't expect a lot. IMO, at this point they're just looking for an effective game manager that won't hurt the team.
I generally don't disagree with anything written here.
But I kind of see it in a different light. Every success Kirk Ferentz has had at Iowa -- and every failure -- has been the result of his steadfast belief in the culture of the Iowa Hawkeye program. At Iowa, the steadfast belief is that if you have the right attitude; if you prepare the right way; if you work hard; if you prepare and play smart; if you persevere; you will ultimately see success. Maybe not immediately, but inevitably.
And it's almost always true. Except when it's not.
With the Brian Ferentz hire as OC -- a hire that was as much a "culture fit" as there's ever been at Iowa -- I think Kirk believed that over time, it would be successful. Brian had the right attitude. He would prepare the right way. He would work hard. He would prepare and coach smart. He would persevere. In time, I'm sure Kirk believed, Brian would be successful. Except he wasn't. Because sometimes, culture alone, isn't enough. You've got to have actual talent and the right experience in your specific area. And despite his many strengths, and despite his devotion to the Iowa culture, Brian simply didn't have the talent and/or experience that you would find in someone like Tim Lester, or any of several qualified, experienced, OCs that could have been hired.
You can't rely on culture alone.
But I think this is Kirk's blind spot. You sometimes see it manifest in other ways, when "culture fit" is weighed too heavily in certain situations. Aside from at least one OC hire, one of the best examples is the team's selection of QBs, which starts from the guys we have recruited and extends right up to the guys we put on the field. I have often wondered whether or not we've put so much emphasis on finding QBs who are "culture fits" -- guys who can "lead the team," in Kirk's words, that we've not put enough emphasis on finding guys who can simply make plays. The hope has been that this would improve with the Tim Lester era, but it remains to be seen. Perhaps we'll know more in a few days.
But you can't really blame Kirk for trusting his culture so devoutly, and I don't. It's the reason he has had the success he has had, which has been tremendous by any objective measure. It's also just resulted in some blind spots, that have, at times, resulted in missed opportunities for greater success.
Apologies for going OT a bit here.
Last edited:
I agree here. I'm not sure there's any other choice. I think it's more about the reality of being in this situation in the first place, or allowing the QB position to be in this type of situation when it seems like the roster overall is otherwise pretty darn solid. It just makes no sense to me.
But these aren't preseason/exhibition games. Iowa "should" be fine against Northern Illinois but who knows. But to potentially go into the Iowa State game still trying to find the best game manager...just setting yourself up for a huge disaster IMO. These 1st 3 games, with this overall roster, should be absolute guaranteed wins. But you and I both know, because of the QB situation, there will be a ton of anxiety and doubt at 3:15 Saturday afternoon. Beyond just the normal hand-wringing.
Really well-stated here. Good points and perspective all the way around. Agree. And again, it's a weird dichotomy. The culture, the brand, the identity, the system, the process...I do think it reflects KF's leadership style and overall approach to building and running a program. And I think he feels like, whatever the outcome, it's the right formula. Believing, generally, the outcome will be net positive. But I've heard too much from KF over these past several years to suggest that he's not necessarily worried about "elevating" Iowa football...or necessarily thinking in terms of CFP as being any sort of metric for success.
I'll be attending HawkTalk live tonight at the Vue. Looking forward to hearing KF comments and for the football season in general!
Kudos to Max and ICLit for an intelligent conversation. Those are rare around here
I think you’re spot on here. I would only add that Kirk brought O’Keefe back as QB coach and more importantly as a mentor for Brian. He tried to make sure the team would be successful as Brian gained experience as an OC. Unfortunately, after O’Keefe retired Brian wasn’t successful on his own.
After that Holiday Bowl against USC, I thought we were off to the races on offense, wow how wrong I was.
So I know a lot of people on here are suggesting that it's all on Kirk, and some of it is. I can guarantee you a discussion was had at the end of last year with the coaches to discuss pressing needs and the budget to address them. I'm fairly certain that Lester wasn't given the option of going out and buying another high profile QB given the fact that they already had on the roster 2 portal QB's who were acquired the previous year along with Sullivan and Bessinger. Other needs, which includes player retention were deemed more pressing by the staff, although it wouldn't surprise me at all if Lester wasn't enamored with either one. Lester also brought in an old grad assistant to coach QB's which seemed kind of odd given Lester's history with QB's.
In any case, I think Lester has been given the latitude to decide who should run the offense, even if he wasn't given the ability to go out and acquire the QB he wanted. Kirk obviously has input, but ultimately I think it's Lester's call.
They did reach out to QBs in the portal, and I do solidly wish they had pulled Marcus Stokes. He looked like a perfect fit for Lester's system against UNLV last week. With that said, I like the approach of strengthening the skill positions. The fact that two transfer WRs are starting shows how weak that group was. I do wish they had allocated a tad bit more to the DT position, but I could be entirely wrong on how that works out.
