McNutt out?
- Thread starter Demger
- Start date
Brian put 5 seasons of a functioning offense on the field before '22. If you're contributing a functioning offense to a winning program, I couldn't care less about offensive rankings. Obviously, Kirk agrees.
When the offense stalled out in '22 it was literally broken. Unable to function. That's another story, even with a team that continues to win. Although on a scale far less than what fans made it into, the non-functioning offense gave reason to be concerned and question.
But when it gets dug into, it is easily discovered that the reason the offense stalled out is was because its engine, the offensive line, was broken.
And when that gets dug into, it is discovered that BF had virtually nothing to do with the circumstances that led to such a raw and underdeveloped line.
Again, I ask if you recall seeing any forward push at all from the O-line in '22.
Then, you can either research the circumstances that led to the condition of that line, or you can trust, that for the reasons I've delineated on here for years, BF had virtually nothing to do with those circumstances
You’d think the OC who was a former OL coach would take some responsibility for having a bad OL. I mean he is the guy in charge of all the offensive positions combined as a collective unit. Funny I’ve seen OL in big 10 alone in the last decade that were worse than that squad and not put historic lows then what the 22’ and 23’ teams did.
If only there was a way Iowa could’ve gotten better OL players that left their former team looking to play elsewhere that were better than what Iowa had….
this is an interesting opinion. Is 7 years not long enough to turn things around? What can be attributed to him? Serious question. not looking to fight.
just decided to come back after a long hiatus... Im glad you're still here Legend!! keep people in line!!!
That's odd...We all just assumed you were Brian Ferentz. Must be talking in 3rd person. The only reason I don't have you on ignore is you make me laugh with your constant nonsense.
Continuing to defend your son I see. Give it a rest Mary. Just be happy he us no longer here destroying your husbands legacy.
Would anyone like to just fill the rest of us in on what McNutt apparently has done to some high school kids?
Here you have demonstrated your lack of information.
Again, research how the line actually got to that place, or trust that I know what I'm talking about. I've explained it all many times over the years, and I'm not going to take the time to do it again today.
That was certainly the worst line I've ever seen at Iowa. And I can't recall having seen any worse elsewhere. I'm not sure how a line could be worse. There wasn't one player who was capable of moving back the guy in front of him.
Regardless, were talking about the offensive regression at Iowa, not anywhere else. Iowa's offense had clearly always been built around its line. Where the engine was located was undeniable. The car may have been an ugly model, with an ugly color, and cheap tires. But it did the job of transporting a winning program from point A to point B. The offense only stalled out once the its engine was broken. Maybe other parts of the offense, that had never been great under Brian, compounded the problem of the broken o-line. But they were not the reason for the broken engine and stalled out offense.
And that's where fans have grossly mischaracterized. They mostly speak of BF's offenses as they appeared in '22/'23. And given that the factors that led to that broken O-line had next to nothing to do with BF, those two seasons were the least characteristic of a BF offense.
As for the portal, the off-season leading into '22 was the first off-season to carry to present portal/NIL dynamic. This is one place that BF could have carried some of the responsibility for the raw line, by not having seeked out portal help. But that portal philosophy falls on Kirk in the end. And I'm not going to beat up KF for not immediately jumping into the portal. It was brand new. And Iowa had long gotten a ton of mileage out of a formula that barely involved transfers.
Give KF credit, as he quickly adjusted, and hit the portal hard the following off-season. But again, I'm not going to beat KF up for initially being cautious about the portal. And I have enough perspective to not attach the narratives to the staff that so many have done about that time period. For one thing, some of the attrition to what was expected to be the '22 O-line, took place after the spring of '22.
All this stuff has already been covered on these boards many times over the years
The first five seasons would be characteristic of a BF offense.
I'm not sure what would have needed to be "turned around" in those seasons.
Again, those 5 seasons contributed functioning offenses to a winning program. I'm not sure how that was ever a problem
While not 100% of everything was BF fault (there are lots of people and moving parts in sports). I also don't put a ton of stock in how many yards per game or stats like that. As different teams obviously play different styles. Most college coaches ive got to talk with look into the efficiency of their units more then anything else.
Brian's offense efficiency every year 2017 35th, 2018 44th, 2019 53rd 2020 57th, 2021 88th, 2022 92nd, 2023 121. 24 and 25 iowa ranked 50th.
Iowas defense efficiency was 2017 17th, 2018 5th, 2019 12th, 2020 8th, 2021 6th, 2022 2nd, 2023 4th, 2024 17th, 2025 8th
Brian's offense efficiency every year 2017 35th, 2018 44th, 2019 53rd 2020 57th, 2021 88th, 2022 92nd, 2023 121. 24 and 25 iowa ranked 50th.
Iowas defense efficiency was 2017 17th, 2018 5th, 2019 12th, 2020 8th, 2021 6th, 2022 2nd, 2023 4th, 2024 17th, 2025 8th
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You are an idiot. How long did it take you to write that novel that no one is going to read?
So, obviously defensive efficiency is more important than offensive efficiency.
Because when you look at team efficiency, KF's winningest stretch of seasons were with BF at OC.
This also shows exactly what I've been saying all along; that the level of negativity from the community that Iowa withstood during such a successful stretch, was completely unwarranted. It was born out of fans not being entertained, rather than fans having any justifiable gripe about team performance.
Some of them were complaining about offenses ranked in the 50's in '19 and 20'.
And those fans are still proving entertainment to be their priority, as fan negativity has significantly decreased with the improvement of the offense over the last two years, while being accompanied by less winning
So decent with the talent he inherited and as they left and he had what he built they went in the tank. The numbers support that. The excuses are just those, excuses
Such a laughable narrative.
Again I ask, do you recall seeing the '22 O-line able to get any forward push at all?
Yes or no. And if you can't remember, it's ok to go back and watch a few plays
The buck stops here. He’s in charge of the offense. Which he oversees the OL. Any good leader takes credit for success or failure. Offense sunk to embarrassing lows under his watch no denying it. Some coaches are good coordinators but not HC, some position coaches are good but not suited to be coordinators. BF definitely falls into the latter
Fact is BF was not a good OC. If he was why is it 3 years later not one school has offered him that same spot on any level of D1 or FCS. using your lame OL reasoning you’d think schools would realize that’s really why the iowa offense failed so bad and not because of him and snatch up a former B10 OC. unless you are saying you’re smarter than these schools that understand your theory…. You can cry about the OL but old saying goes excuses are like @sses…. Fact that people still defending him is baffling to me
We have all seen this at work, whatever your business is. Somebody is very good at his job and promoted to a position where he is average at best, perhaps less than average. He may have been promoted before he was ready for it, or he may have hit his professional ceiling in the old job.
It is great to reward those who deserve it, you want the best leaders leading. I don't blame anybody for taking a promotion and salary increase, but sometimes it doesn't work out.
So after 5 years and the players he inherited being gone he had ‘built’ the ‘22 online.
Maybe hook up with Joes Place, he could give you a ‘pro tip’
Might go like this
Don’t call a narrative laughable and then provide information that supports said narrative.
I'm not defending BF as an OC. I never cared much for him in that role. From my grossly underinformed position, he didn't seem to have a good feel for playcalling.
I'm calling out fans for making it into something it wasn't. Their narratives are underinformed and have been taken WAY too far.
The current BF narrative would have never reached its level without the '22 and '23 seasons. And AGAIN, what stalled out the offense in '22, and turned this thing into a whole other animal, had almost nothing to do with BF.
Do you think I would just make something like that up? I've already told you guys that this is something I've broken down on this board many times the past few years. Evidently I'm being forced to do so again. SMH.
As for "the buck stops here", any prolonged issues would fall more on KF than BF. Such as the laughable thought that the '22 O-line is what "BF built with his recruits". KF signs off on every recruit. Yes, he turns much of recruiting over to his coordinators. If BF would have brought in a weak class of recruits, that's pretty much on him. But years of weak classes, as implied in the narrative, would fall entirely on KF.
And of course, putting that narrative on KF wouldn't be accurate either. Anyone who believes one of the best offensive line coaches in the history of the game, would have "built" that '22 O-line by plan, I'm not sure I can help. But I will continue to spell it out for you guys.
I'm a "buck stops here" guy as much as anyone. But there is also such a thing a bad luck. Massive attrition hit Iowa at offensive line. It could be argued that EIGHT players projected to be rotational lineman in '22 were lost and did not play a single snap in '22. Injuries, retirement, early departure to the NFL. One guy transferred after Doyle was gone, citing that reason. Another all-pro left tackle recruit, that by all accounts was heading to Iowa, backed out after the loss of Doyle.
That much loss is going to put a dent into every program's offensive line. At Iowa, where margin for error is thin, and talent is never a surplus, it devastated the line.
I've already discussed in the thread why the portal wasn't hit for help at that time. I think even if it were, it would have been patchwork at best. Certainly, eight players weren't going to be replaced through the portal. And what would the cost have been? Would guys down the road, like Jackson and Gronowski, have ended up being affordable? And would we have ended up seeing as good of O-lines as we did in '24 and '25? There were good players stepping in at O-line. They just weren't anywhere near ready. And so, I think the staff correctly chose to invest in the development of those new lineman, and rebuild the line, brick by brick.
So, guys that weren't ready got forced into action. But there's a whole other layer of significance in just how unready they were, which was born out of three factors.
1. Iowa had long gotten mileage out of recruiting lighter offensive lineman with good feet, with the plan of building them up with their difference making strength and conditioning coach (Doyle).
So, O-lineman forced into early action at Iowa are typically going to be less physically developed than at other programs.
2. To put the physical development of those replacement lineman even more behind, those lighter players had lost developmental workouts, early in their careers, during the Covid shutdown.
Sure, every program lost workouts during that time. But most of them could play their upperclassmen, that had already physically developed. Even if there were programs that felt the loss of those workouts, it was probably worse at Iowa.
3. That's because Doyle was lost during that same time period. Rest assured that Iowa's strength and conditioning program took a bit of a hit during that transition period.
So, the line in '22 not only was underdeveloped, but WAY underdeveloped. All of what's spelled out above is how '22 ended up with the worst O-line I've ever seen at Iowa. It's how you end up with not one lineman that can knock the guy in front of him back off the line of scrimmage.
Even good pieces on an O-line have to gel, to get production. But imagine a line that doesn't have one properly firing piston, and you will see the '22 O- line.
That's why the offense stalled out in '22. The pistons in its engine couldn't fire. People can say whatever they want about BF's first five offenses. But those cars were functional. The car didn’t even run in '22 and '23. Those offenses were completely broken, and the reason was the broken O-line. They simply weren't yet big and strong enough to get the job done.
How else do most of same group of guys that made up the worst O-line I've seen at Iowa, develop into guys on NFL rosters, highly rated college players, and a Joe Moore winning line?
Barnett didn't all of the sudden learn how to coach. He's been working his magic all along. And he's told us that the physical development, to be able to move D-lineman, is what's been key. He certainly didn't credit the use of motion, or throwing deep balls, for the development of his line.
Concepts brought in by Lester have also helped the line reach a high level. But let's not forget, that KF told us BEFORE Lester was hired, that the offense would take a significant jump in '24, because he expected the O-line to be in a good place.
The offense stalled out when its O-line simply was physically weak. Were those same players physically weak after years of development? Of course not.
How do you think a lineman is able to play with physicality? By utilizing physics. Yes, speed and technique can help create force (and much of that was also being developed). But if you don't have mass and/or strength, you aren't going to move anything.
I guess a lot of you don't understand the significance of that. But players and coaches have been telling us for 150+ years that the game is won up-front. It's a simple game. It can be a very sophisticated game. But all of that is secondary and flows from what happens up-front. And it's all at the mercy of what happens up-front. It's a simple game that does not favor physical weakness.
And again folks, '22 wasn't a poor O-line, it was a historically bad O-line. Literally broken.
'23 saw incremental improvement in the O-line. Portal fortification was brought in. One guy helped. One got injured and didn't contribute. And an all-American left tackle, that would have started, flipped his commitment. The staff was able to get some mileage out of an adjustment to far more gap schemed blocking.
But any further development in the offense was stunted by an emergency QB having to play most of the season. Here's a place where the staff (primarily KF) could take some blame (from my underinformed position), as the emergency QB probably wouldn't have had to play as much of the season had QB1 not been playing hurt, which likely contributed to his season-ending injury.
But how that situation was subsequently navigated to a 10-2, division title, regular season was some of the most brilliant coaching to ever be seen.
BF was part of that. As I've said, he completely leaned into an elite defense and special teams with his every decision, which is what was needed to win games in those seasons.
He also deserves credit for comitting to a rebuild approach, and paring down the offense enough to allow for brick-by-brick building.
Coupled with the emergency QB in '23, things had to be pared down for a couple years. That makes playcalls more predictable.
Idiot fans want to cite BF's predictability, when the staff consciously CHOSE to be more predictable in a sense, to help deal with the circumstances of '22 and '23.
The narratives are laughable. The program was hit with some major bad luck. In classic KF form, just as he had built the program decades earlier, he chose to rebuild the line brick-by-brick. That approach and investment into the development of raw lineman paid off huge. Also not having seeked out quick fixes, allowed for the rest of the program to maintain its form, and continue to develop. All along the while, Iowa averaged 9 wins during that "rebuild" of '22 and '23.
Rather than fans recognizing a program that had truly been hit with a confluence of bad luck factors, and rather than digging in, to support a coach that should have earned their trust decades earlier, they grew negativity in the community to an all-time high.
As KF and staff navigated the two year circumstances into an average of 9 wins, the toxicity grew.
And as the staff's approach to rebuild in '22 and '23 is still paying off to date, fans are still blinded by, and echoing the narratives.
Those many fans, who've been so butthurt from either a lack of feeling entertained, and/or a sensitivity to nepotism, have missed something very simple. They've tried to justify their butthurt by inventing wildly baseless narratives. And have missed something very simple
Educate yourself, perhaps staring with post #69 in this thread
‘Staring’ is what I would need to do at that novel. Ayn Rand would be proud. I do enjoy your use of ‘because eye say it then it must be true’
I chuckle at some of your rationalizations. The ‘Doyle left’ one is classic. If you swap the last names there is probably a solid chance that BF would have been the coach dismissed. The reports and depositions weren’t very flattering to BF. Perhaps with a better OC those recruits are reeled in rather than lost. Completely agree on his play calling knack. You keep pounding the drum that it wasn’t BF’s fault. Just bad luck, bad recruiting, KF’s fault, etc.
The results and firing go against your opinions but keep throwing it out as gospel
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. No one is going to waste their time to read that novel or whatever you call it that you wrote, especially considering the source of it. Fact you took so much time to type that up to be read by no one is hilarious.
Extensive supportive reasoning, not bothered to be read, is one reason fans remain ignorant
Pot meet kettle. Amount of ignorance you display is pretty amazing. People like yourself who are infallible that think they are never wrong. Or best description can find for someone like you who can never not have the last word (such as a response days later in this thread) "a person who always has to have the last word." There are several other words that having the last word might be a symptom of, like stubborn, know-it-all, or egocentric, but again, being a last-worderis a symptom of this traits.” Yeah think that hits the nail on the head.
Word.
People not having strong enough positions to be backed with a response is not my fault.
Do you think, perhaps, it took me some time to write that post? I'd already told you guys in thread that I didn't have time to break it all down again. Perhaps it has nothing to do with the last word?
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Cause of death: watching Brian coach the Hawks offense
'Strong enough position'
Like one backed up with actual statistics and a coach getting fired? That kind of strong position?
or a position based on your assumptions, opinions and theories?
Hmmmmm, tough choice but I have chosen the position with the actual facts, you can stick with the excuses, theories and what if's.
Perhaps you should type your position in all caps, you know the equivalent of the person who keeps repeating the same unfounded position but thinking that if they say it louder that it will suddenly be supported by facts.
You remind me of Joe's Place without the depth of knowledge. He actually made it challenging at times. You? not so much. But, but, but people got hurt and we didn't get any recruits(wonder why), it was his Dad's fault, the moon and the stars weren't aligned, the ball didn't bounce his way. Keep trying, love the Ayn Rand length posts, interesting reading.
The toxicity in the community was so thick, that Beth didn't have a choice but to fire BF.
But that toxicity from fans was completely unfounded. Notice it wasn't the head coach making the firing. That's because he knew BF had little to do with what stalled out the offense (the broken o-line).
You can't put a pile of injuries on KF or BF.
Read better what I said about lost recruits. It's well-known that Alt switched to Notre Dame after Doyle was lost. Ok, one can reach, and put that on KF, for "lack of institutional control." But most that know the specifics, find the racial claims to be nothing but a money-grab by opportunists in what, at the time, was a sensitive social climate.
And yes, Iowa had a recruiting period to "replace" Alt. Turns out they weren't able to find someone good enough to start as a true freshman.
But even if you want to fully fault KF for "lack of institutional control", that makes up one lost transfer and one lost recruit, both attributed to the loss of Doyle. That's only two of EIGHT players. That line still would have been in a lot of trouble.
It's the totality of all the loss that was the problem. And very little of that was on the staff.
Are you going to blame the staff for Linderbaum leaving early? Sure, you want to be a program strong enough to be able to reload. But Iowa will never have a surplus of talent. And a loss like Linderbaum really accentuates a decimated room.
Are you going to blame a highly rated player deciding to quit the game on KF? That would be silly, considering KF's track record of getting high character guys that love the game.
Are you going to blame Proctor flipping on the staff? He would have started on the '23 team. And it's pretty well understood that Bama gave him a bag of money. The line had already been broken for a season. But Proctor certainly would have helped in '23. As it turned out again, Iowa was not able to replace him with a true freshman that was good enough to start.
And I never attributed anything to being BF's "dad's fault". I said prolonged "issues" would be more rightfully attributed to KF than BF. That doesn't mean they existed, or were accurately part of the narratives. Read better.
Simply, the BF narrative wouldn't exist at its current level, without '22 and '23. And the difference making factors that made those offenses broken, had very little to do with BF.
Amazingly enough, they didn't have much to do with hall of fame coach, and one of the best o-line minds in history, either. First, you have to be incredibly butthurt and/or ignorant to believe that. Even without information about why the offense was broken, those with a clue would know that something drastic, outside of KF's control must have happened. They would refuse to put it on KF without seeing the evidence. And what do you know, as soon as the specifics were investigated, it would have been blatantly obvious that what stalled out the offense had very little to do with the staff.
People just have to get past their butthurt and/or educate themselves enough to see a truth that should be blatantly obvious
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Comrades:
Remember to buy Hooked On Phonics ASAP so you too can Read Better (and therefore soak in wisdom better).
Remember to buy Hooked On Phonics ASAP so you too can Read Better (and therefore soak in wisdom better).