at least for Brodell. Erb took over RB duties starting in 2008 with the arrival of Soup, so Brodell would have spent the majority of his time at Iowa being under Erb’s tutelage.

10th most profitable program in the country. The AD resigned over the summer. He made them tons of money. Yet, he was forced out. It is very much about who you hire and how they operate. And the buck stops with the AD. Barta did not hire Kirk, he did not hire Brands, but he did hire Lickliter. That’s not a great resume. Fran is going to cancel out Lickliter, but what exactly has Barta done for us outside of that?

In the Big Ten only Northwestern is ranked lower than Iowa in the Directors Cup.

http://thedirectorscup.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Jan-12-DI-by-conf.pdf

then articulated my rationale for that assessment. No one has made a counter rationale that he’s above average. So, I assume every either agrees with my assessment or isn’t capable of supporting their assessment that he’s above average with any facts. They just want to feel like he’s a good dude doing a good job. So, that’s fine. Feel good everyone.

By the way, here is an AWSOME article that touches on the way the athletic department operates win crisis:
http://hawkcentral.com/2012/01/14/hansen-commentary-coker-case-shows-university-a-closed-society/

Wasn’t KF the guy who presided over the three-headed QB monster of Mullen, McCann, and Reiners?

Did he not bring in some douche-bags in those early years (B. Sapp)?

We didn’t mind, because he was improving every year. But once you get to three 10-win seasons, it is very difficult to not take a step back.

He made mistakes in how he went about recruiting and building the team and he seemed to learn some tough lessons about maintaing a winning program, and many assumed the 2009 season was the newly rejuvenated and refreshed and clearer thinking Ferentz. I’m not so sure now. I think the newest Ferentz is entirely too stubborn, defensive, and while he is probably very good to his players who really, really tow the line he seems like a guy who does not suffer fools otherwise.

And why is it a good thing to “suffer fools”? In the current environment of the university administration and IC law enforcement, I think it is actually smart for KF to look a bit more “no-nonsense” and to look like he isn’t coddling guys who have possibly-serious character flaws.

Football at Iowa is cyclical. For our 3 best coaches, they win a Big Ten title or two, and then they have to rebuild. We are pretty fortunate when the re-building times stay above .500.

An off handed slap at someone’s comments, in my book, is totally acceptable. We’re not exactly writing term papers here, with citations and bibliographies. We’re reading and writing in time, often in a reactionary way. But these threads can sometimes mushroom into something more substantial than quick witty repartee and get very interesting.

So, when some people continue to slap instead of transition into a more thoughtful argument seems far less interesting to me. I’l be the first to admit that I (too) often use a tone that might be off putting but my content is my content. The issues remain to be discussed. And, given that Iowa football has had a fair share of crises in the past year and a half (and certainly the Big Ten has had them) it only stands to reason that the community can become divided and disagreement will ensue. My goal is to get my point of view out there, just like most everyone else. And sure, I am also trying to persuade people, there is no use trying not to because it would unavoidable — all communication is persuasive.

The upshot, I don’t see the harm in the disagreements. I don’t see the harm even in the occasional poor tone. I don’t see the harm in protracted arguing even. But when people make it personal and leave the issue that was discussed in the first place, then I get rubbed wrong. The better ending to me is to agree to disagree.