This season, for me, feels a lot like 2004. Exaggerated sloppy play, unnecessary personal fouls, interceptions by the bunch, and a team that consistently found ways to lose games. Riley's first year draws a lot of similarities to Callahan's. Our quarterback is a great athlete that is placed in a role he can't consistently excel at, much like Joe Dailey. There are a few things this first year that, in retrospect, give me pause for concern:
- Multiple times we were told that the schemes would be molded around the players inherited. I now believe that every new coach in America says this, just to calm the nerves of the fans. I'm not sure if our new staff was unable or unwilling (and that distinction is important), but this clearly didn't happen.
- Quarterback development was a non starter. Our QB did not substantially improve from BYU to Iowa, nor this season from last. I think we might give the staff a pass on this, in that quality depth wasn't there. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. All offenses are really only as good as the quarterback, but our style of offense amplifies this to a concerning level.
- Lack of identity. Never so more apparent than yesterday, our football program no longer has an identity. It's painful to say, but right now, we're just "another football team". Mock Iowa all you like, but they have that in spades over us. We've lost that, and I don't know if it's coming back. Ever. We won a lot of football games by knowing who we were and what we did. It's imperative we build a new identity, and I don't honestly believe this time/place/staff is going to do that.
That said, it's not all gloom and doom (it never is). Riley, unlike Callahan, gets the culture here. With a better decision maker under center, our play calling would look much better. As an example, CC was running wide open on the now infamous 4th and 1. The play call is a certain first down with a better decision. Defensively we improved over the course of the year, as our linebackers grew up. Our secondary troubles began to diminish as linebacker play improved. Most importantly the team showed more fire and effort (not less) as the season came to a close.
Now more than ever I'm going to become a recruit-nik. I was a "put the stars on the players" kind of person, but I think only stellar recruiting can return us to college football's elite. It's a longshot, but hey, there's always hope.
- Multiple times we were told that the schemes would be molded around the players inherited. I now believe that every new coach in America says this, just to calm the nerves of the fans. I'm not sure if our new staff was unable or unwilling (and that distinction is important), but this clearly didn't happen.
- Quarterback development was a non starter. Our QB did not substantially improve from BYU to Iowa, nor this season from last. I think we might give the staff a pass on this, in that quality depth wasn't there. In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. All offenses are really only as good as the quarterback, but our style of offense amplifies this to a concerning level.
- Lack of identity. Never so more apparent than yesterday, our football program no longer has an identity. It's painful to say, but right now, we're just "another football team". Mock Iowa all you like, but they have that in spades over us. We've lost that, and I don't know if it's coming back. Ever. We won a lot of football games by knowing who we were and what we did. It's imperative we build a new identity, and I don't honestly believe this time/place/staff is going to do that.
That said, it's not all gloom and doom (it never is). Riley, unlike Callahan, gets the culture here. With a better decision maker under center, our play calling would look much better. As an example, CC was running wide open on the now infamous 4th and 1. The play call is a certain first down with a better decision. Defensively we improved over the course of the year, as our linebackers grew up. Our secondary troubles began to diminish as linebacker play improved. Most importantly the team showed more fire and effort (not less) as the season came to a close.
Now more than ever I'm going to become a recruit-nik. I was a "put the stars on the players" kind of person, but I think only stellar recruiting can return us to college football's elite. It's a longshot, but hey, there's always hope.
