Chris White and The T Word

Chris White is the new Brian Ferentz. He's come to Iowa after being an assistant coach in the NFL. He's been engaging on Twitter. And, now he's throwing around the T word...tempo.

Very up-tempo this morning. We are making progress but have a long way to go. #PreparingToBeTheBest

— Brian Ferentz (@CoachBFerentz) August 4, 2012

Last year, Brian Ferentz tweeted a lot about how Iowa's offense was practicing uptempo and going no-huddle. Then Greg Davis started talking about it. He said during the fall that he wanted the offense to get set on the line with 18 seconds left on the play clock after huddling. He talked about how Kirk Ferentz wanted to explore the no-huddle. And I bought in. I even wrote before the Kid's Day last year, "I think Greg Davis can have some real success with the no-huddle." Well, that's embarrassing.

The no-huddle, hurry-up offense last year was a complete failure. It's pretty hard to be worse than Iowa's "normal" offense was last year, but the hurry-up manage to produce 0 points, 3 interceptions, and 2 turnover on downs in 10 tries. Actually, that's what is embarrassing.

Now White is throwing around this tempo word again and I'm perhaps foolishly getting excited. From his presser:

I really believe that we’re going to wear people out, just with the style of our offense, the tempo of our offense

Fool me once, etc... Why I am more optimistic this time around is that this idea of tempo is being thrown around in the context of the running game and not the hurry-up, 3-wide, pass-happy no-huddle that Iowa has employed off and on the past 2 years since the storied Pitt comeback. But this has the potential to be an up-tempo offense that is pounding the ball and wearing down the defense...an offense that from the same personnel moves seamlessly from the I-formation to a 4-wide ace set...an offense that takes advantage of its talented flexible players. I'm not going to predict again that Greg Davis will have success with the no-huddle...but a man can hope.

The rest of the Chris White presser was pretty optimistic as well. He's excitable and gets you kind of jacked up. One of my favor quotes from the presser is, "And we’re going to be exciting to watch next year, just watch."

He has been very impressed with the Mark Weisman/Damon Bullock tandem. On Twitter he called them "the the best 1-2 RB tandem in college football." He talked about having them both on the field at the same time and how each can improve their game. He's also pleased with Jordan Canzeri and as we heard even towards the end of last year, he looks like he was never even injured.

The only concerning thing, possibly, is that it doesn't appear that White is familiar with AIRBHG.

Q. With the injury history does it affect how you guys go through practice this spring a little bit, not that you take it easy on them?

CHRIS WHITE: The history of it?

Oh Chris, you have so much to learn.