Beau Pribula is tearing it up for Mizzou this year. As many may recall, he almost came to Iowa. (I believe Iowa and Mizzou were his final two schools.) When Pribula headed to Mizzou, we turned to Gronowski, who was rated as one of the top QBs in the portal (albeit before it was known he needed surgery.)
Spot on. This is my belief as well. This is primarily a systemic issue, and it's not going away until a new system arrives.
I agree with what you are saying but does anyone know if Gronowski had any other offers? I know Miami was interested until the surgery was revealed. I’m wondering if we paid $2M (or whatever the gross amount is) for a qb not many believed was a FCS level qb to begin with.
Evidence via game-film tells us that talent is not the issue with MG.
I think Kirk would agree with you regarding #2, but his (and the staff's) attempts to address the passing game during the past few years have failed thus far.
Aggressive and creative passing attacks are the square peg to the Ferentz conservative philosophy round hole.
There's also the issue of guys struggling to learn a complex system. Some grasp it quickly, like Vander Zee and Gill, but others don't. Regardless, it has been odd the first two games that there are few downfield routes. You'd think you would have guys run deeper routes at least occasionally, even if you aren't planning to throw many deep balls.
MG is scared to pull the trigger, plus our receivers aren’t high caliber guys
Everyone from the fans to the media know and have commented that a complete lack of a vertical passing game isn't going to yield optimal results. The staff isn't great, but even they know that throwing downfield on a semi-regular basis is a requirement for offensive success. The only explanation for why they won't is because they have no confidence in executing it, and when they do call for it, the QB doesn't have the confidence to pull the trigger and ends up checking down. MG is averaging 6 yards per completion which is historically bad in today's game. As a comparison, Sullivan averaged 12.5. People can point at the receivers and the scheme, but Sullivan was statistically far superior in the same system with the same receivers who now have a full year under their belts playing in this offense. MG is also getting way more time to survey the field than Sullivan ever had. Nobody wants to admit it, but the team would likely be 2-0 and in a much better position had the staff simply stuck with Sullivan and picked up a few pieces to further improve what they had.
I'm starting to come around to this. I think Sullivan bailed too quickly on some passes in the face of pressure, but then I sort of see Gronkowski doing the same thing.
Well that's kind of the problem. We don't have an "okay guy" today. Statistically we have the worst QB in all of FBS. He's been terrible. We had an "okay guy" and basically ran him off by going out and paying big dollars for the terrible guy. If we'd just looked to bring in QB2 and added some pieces in other areas we'd be in a much better spot with a QB in his second year in the system who could have hit the ground running. Instead they bought another fixer-upper who may or may not ever perform like he did before.
Insightful. Anyone who believes that MG hasn't played really poorly these first 2 games was fed lead as a child.
Anyone who thinks MG was the problem on Saturday was fed LEAD as a child. He single handedly kept us in the game. Huge drops and nothing he can do about the routes lester and Kurt called.
Yea, try telling that to these bozos. If he ain’t throwing for 900 and scoring 112 a game they will say he sucks. It’s part of the mental makeup of “fans” around here. They’re waiting for the second coming of Brad Banks or Ricky Stanzi.
Single handedly kept us in the game? He was terrible. Was it the 7 point turnover he threw that resulted in an ISU first down at the 18 that kept Iowa in the game? There was really only one bad drop by Gill that would have resulted in more than a few yards. With respect to the deeper routes, it's obvious the staff has no confidence in their ability to connect or you would see more than one per game. How often over the last 2 games have you seen MG hit a receiver that was moving on a timing route? This isn't peewee football where guys are consistently open by 5 or 10 yards standing still downfield, but those seem to be the only passes that even get thrown. Anderson broke wide open on a fly pattern on the next to last 4th quarter drive. Gronowski sees him but instead of an accurate pass throws the ball in the direction of the safety which he was lucky resulted in a pass interference penalty as Anderson basically ran into him trying to adjust to the errant pass. That could have been the game winner right there.
Liked your post except winning 8-10 games at this point seems a stretch. We made a very bad investment in Gronowski and a very poor choice not to stick with Sullivan.
Not saying they will this year haha….but Kirk has done it before and he loves to remind us of the past
