Above, I note that I hadn’t seen anyone comment on what I call the pro-spread innovation. This seems to be the year that I stop reading the MSM, and get my game stories and analysis off the blogs and sites.

So again, maybe someone wrote about this new offensive look in the Register, but I wouldn’t know, because I don’t bother reading the Register unless I’m out in the wilds of BV County with nothing to do and it’s sitting on the counter, used, at the breakfast place. And of course, even then it’s a day old, about 16 pages, and not even the right 16 pages, as they’ve managed to shrink without eliminating the most annoying columnists and editorialists.

I do still read Hlas and Morehouse, but their blogging software is buggy at the Gazette, so I’ve lost my last post, there.

I’m curious if the group here still visits the MSM papers for game news. I don’t know why you would. They all seem to write the same story, ask the same puffball questions of Ferentz and the players (in order not to lose their access, I guess), print the same verbatim rote answers to the puffball questions.

What’s odd about this is that I grew up in a newspaper family and worked (briefly) for a couple. Reading a paper (or several) over a meal or glass of wine has been one of the most enjoyable ways to wind down a day, for me. But since I’ve been able to read any paper at any time, online, the bland inadequate sameness has become my dominant impression. I think if newspapers have lost an enthusiast like me, at least for some news categories, they are in the tall weeds for good.

We’d expect to look lousy in week 1 if everyone’s struggling to learn new stuff. It may also explain why the receiver corp is kind of odd: each guy may be responsible for learning a piece of the playbook initially and may therefore only be able to play in certain situations.

All speculation on my part. But more fun than working.

I am not sure if I saw five wides very often, and in fact, saw a lot of double tights. But, I saw Stanzi given much more to work with offensively. And your post now has me thinking that the additions to the game plan may have overloaded him initially.

I cannot for the life of me understand how he missed some of these guys. But looking back, he has worked primarily with one side of the field on roll outs in all his starts thus far. So this might be the beginning of KOK and KF taking the training wheels off and exploiting the depth at receiver at the same time. Throw in a RB who can catch and wow. It again comes down to Stanzi’s ability to orchestrate all this. He looked jittery on Saturday.

I think Stoops will throw more blitzes at Iowa than either UNI or ISU did. But were Stanzi’s worst errors when he merely dropped back or did not roll out. I can’t recall. That DJK missed pass really stands out to me thouh and that did not seem like the typical roll out.

at the thought of what you are implying.

Were we really in a 4-2-5 on defense at some point against ISU? With both EPICs as the DB’s?

…because I just drew this formation out up against a 4-wide spread formation and started muttering and giggling happily to myself.

So thanks for that.

When we have three down linemen (i.e. in 3rd-in-long), your 4-5-2 becomes a 3-6-2.

Think about six people available for mid-level zone coverage, with two safeties playing deep.

manic giggling starts again

If Stanzi gets his Outback Bowl form back, we might just be decent this year.

Can we start our own Hawkeye relatedd “Smart Football”-esque series here at BHGP.

It’ll keep us from having to acknowledge basketball.

Different personnel.

and needs to make a living using it, Ferentz is spending time in Foxboro — and not just to see Brian. Think about it.

I thought the game didn’t matter for Iowa fans? Here you are, 4 days away from another game, and are still talking about ISU? Can’t have it both ways.

Just a brilliant freaking post.

And in my opinion you nailed it at the end. If we do impement more of the spread which I agree with, the play action is going to be even more deadly than it already is, and in the past that’s pretty much how we got our passing yards.

But not only WR’s but our tight ends are pretty good too. Moeaki has the ability to make some plays in the passing game, and Reisner has impressed me from what I’ve seen of him.

If we can get one or both of them out there in a spread lined up against a DB we can get 6 yards a pop every time if our line plays to its potential.

Again, two thumbs up on that.

When Iowa beats ISU like it should, then we get the “football aficionados decide Ken O’Keefe really isn’t so bad, in fact, he is the most brilliant innovator that doesn’t already have two national titles (Urban).”

Let us not forget, ISU is awful. I thought they would be better this year, but they will be quite lucky to win 3 or 4 games.

Let us not forget, Iowa played an FCS team on the green green grass of Kinnick (okay, FieldTurf) and only won by a single point, and the win was clinched by the UNI kicker hacking two field goals into the arms of the defensive line.

Let us not forget, the “great” Iowa offense has a total of 26 points per game, and 2 turnovers per game. And of course, a “robust” (sarcasm) 139 rushing yards per game.

Let us not forget that our “extremely deep” receiving corps consists of a converted QB who has dropped at least two pretty easy balls, a white speedster who has been hurt at some point each of the last two years, a possible attitude problem who is currently doing his work from the second line of the depth chart, a smallish guy who has done most of his work as a punt returner (Sandeman), and a track superstar who is probably still 10 catches away from equaling his career drop tally. Oh, and our TEs are Mr. Glass and a dude from Marion. Did I leave anyone out?

Quite frankly, even if KOK is innovating, I expect more from an alleged offensive genius. I also expect a bit more sanity from the regulars here at BHGP. But maybe I should know better than to expect that.

But, I do like the increased use of the fullback.

but exactly which part of Bellanca’s post did I misread:

But consider the implications if people have to start using the words “Iowa” and “multivariate offense” in the same sentence. This is constraint-based scheming to the max, and is a great, Iowa-specific, strategic response to spread mania as well as our opponents’ extreme familiarity with our zone rush game. Last, we still have the play-action passing game out of the zone rush look, and frankly, when we don’t drop the ball or throw it to the wrong color jersey, no one has stopped that, either.

How’d you like to play a team that runs like the Broncos and throws like the Pats? “Wow,” I believe one guy would say, post-modern sense of irony fully in check. “That would be some kind of a tough deal, you ask me.”

And when I referred to “regulars at BHGP” I was not really referring to you two (OPS and Ross), because your comments didn’t have a ton to do with anything more than media criticism (Ross) and roasting a Gopher or Clone fan (OPS). So just take it easy, fellas. I thought BHGP was a place you could be sarcastic about the Hawks. But, if we all have to salute Bellanca every time he opines, and pledge allegiance to the coaching staff, then I guess I thought wrong.

And I don’t really have anything against Bellanca and his points, I was simply trying to point out how we (Iowa fans) should not act like one 35-3 win against a bad team has healed all wounds and now our offense is revved up and ready to go. I have a feeling the AZ and PSU defenses are going to show us that we are not the type of team that should get used to scoring 35 a game (especially when the other team’s QB is giving us the ball back twice per quarter.)

Finally, OPS, I think it is quite unfair to call me a Glenn Beck listener and compare my writings to Mein Kampf. I have no love for Nazis or their TV shows. : )
There is no way I am the worst reader imaginable. I may be intellectually dishonest at times, and I expect to be taken seriously only at times. Maybe that makes me a bad commenter, but remember, I’m trying to be funny most of the time.

I think it takes a specially deranged mind to criticize me for being “inured to not give credit to KOK” when you are the one who put this post on the front page at one point (even though you were trying to be funny):

http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2009/3/3/778727/remarchifornication-bracke

It is sort of like doing all those Paterno dialogues and expecting me not to think he hates Spaniards.

and posted in the HOF building, in January, between Wegher’s Heisman trophy and our 2009 BCS championship trophy.

As long as you have him knocked down and in the fetal position I want to get a quick kick in.

“Chazz” No more Fanposts about the Cubs. I don’t care if it is the offseason here, it is annoying to log on and be excited at some new Iowa sports news and then see it is your Cubs junk. They have at least 10 blogs you can take that stuff to. Not all Hawks fans are Cubs fans. If it doesn’t relate to the Hawks I for one don’t want to read it here from you. Hawks playing at Wrigley or Norm Parker singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” — YES! Pretty much all that other garbage un-hawkish — Ummm…put it next to the Fire Hydrant.

No offense, I’ve been wanting to tell you that since July. I wanted to let you know how bad that bugs me and figured since you are already under fire I could throw that in and it wouldn’t hurt your feelings as bad today as it usually would since OPS already softened you up. Thanks.

I too am pleased with the early playcalling, but I remember similar thoughts last year going into the Pitt game. The offensive staff completely blew that game by not running the ball once in the last 5:34 of the game puttiing the ball completely into Christensen’s hands. I guess what I am most pleased with though is the timing of the playcalls. It seems that Iowa is consistently breaking the huddle with 22- 18 seconds left on the playclock giving Stanzi time to line the team up and audible out of a bad play call. I also thought keeping in Moeaki in to block early on Reiff’s side was probably a stroke of genius and completely screwed up several of ISU’s coverage schemes. I think that as Homer would point out our lack of continuity on the oline probably had as much to do with our gameplan as any creativity of KOK but I hope the success will spur the staff to continue to open it up.

Great Post Bellanca, and great conversation except for the clone d-bag

Like any enthusiast, there have been moments when I thought KOK was borderline autistic, a true idiot savant. The playcalling in the MSU game two years ago is my favorite example. We took the first half off, AY was getting huge holes by the middle of the third quarter, and we kept calling for those peculiar 2007 passes into the dirt. It was like KOK didn’t see what was happening in front of him: total cognitive dissonance. In the stands there were rolling thundering pleas and roars: “RUN … THE … BALL!” I suppose the thinking was that they thought Jake was going to suddenly cross the rubicon, and be who they expected him to be, so keep winging it.

But you just have to respect the efficiency of this offense when they have the tools (people who catch, throw and block). Last year Iowa was only 4th in rushing, 8th in passing (in the Big Ten) — and second in scoring. 30 ppg with the 8th ranked passing game, 5th overall. That’s either luck or intelligence, and I don’t think you’re lucky over 13 games. Also, when we average 30, that’s like 40 with many other coaches. These guys always shut it down in the third quarter if we’ve won.

I think adapting a pro-spread scheme is apropos because our coaches, like NFL coaches, are not going to risk losing the QB and the season by running the QB much.

198 yds per game through the air. In contrast, 43 running plays per game, for 214 yds per. I’d call that run-oriented. We used it to set up the play action, which opened up some bigger plays downfield.

I guess I define “conservative” as “using simple plays and tried and true philosophies” while others might define conservative as “not gaining many yards.” And I define “run oriented” as running almost 2/3 of the time and getting most of your yards on the ground. Granted, there were a few games where we passed closer to 30 times and gained more in the passing game, but that was more a case of the other team selling out to stop the run and us taking advantage of it.

In a similar vein, whatever happened to the jailbreak screen?