 Marc MorehouseHi, I'm Marc Morehouse. I've covered sports for more than 15 years, mostly in Eastern Iowa. I've had Hayden Fry [...] |
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Vandenberg takes the hit for shipwrecked pass offense
In lieu of specifics, calls for the backup QB begin in earnest
Iowa Hawkeyes quarterback James Vandenberg (center) is brought down by Central Michigan defenders during the first half of their game at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 22, 2012, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette-KCRG)
IOWA CITY — James Vandenberg handles the ball every time he walks on the field. He’s the quarterback. If he sneezes, it’s on video and probably a GIF in the snark-tastic world of the world wide web.
He knew that. That’s what he signed up for. He hasn’t heard the “Put Jake Rudock in” call, not personally, anyway, but he knows it’s out there. The Iowa quarterback room is all business with a touch of good humor in the down time, but there’s no joking about this one.
Vandenberg’s humor is wearing thin. You know he wants this to work, and you know it pains him that it, simply, doesn’t.
“In all honesty, I only hear [the call for the backup, Rudock] from you guys,” Vandenberg said Tuesday. “I live in a cave. I go to school and I go to football and that’s about it during the season. I haven’t heard much of it.
“All you can do is keep trying to do your job and keep moving forward. You can’t control what people think. You just have to keep trying to get better and keep doing your job.”
Going into the Hawkeyes (2-2) Big Ten opener against Minnesota (4-0), the Iowa passing game is shipwrecked. Vandenberg is 11th in the conference in efficiency (111.07) and yards per attempt (6.3, 98th in the country, one spot behind Wisconsin’s Danny O’Brien, who was pulled this week). You know all too well he has just one TD pass this season after throwing 25 as a junior.
This is not all on Vandenberg, but in lieu of any specifics on what exactly is misfiring in the passing game (is it the “sight adjustments” introduced with first-year offensive coordinator Greg Davis?), the quick target of fan frustration and media scrutiny will be the quarterback.
This is a time-tested truism that will reign as long as football is on the planet. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz would like you to view the bigger picture.
“To just look at the quarterback, which I understand is what everybody does on offensive analysis, it’s not quite as simple as that,” Ferentz said. “I’ll just say this: I’m glad he’s our quarterback, and I’m glad he’s going to be our quarterback the next eight games. I think he’s a heck of a player, and I think he’s a heck of a young man.”
Given the chance to explain what’s being asked of Vandenberg, Ferentz doesn’t offer specifics. (Vandenberg did say earlier this season that in a quick-passing scheme, he eliminates up to 95 percent of the routes before the snap. And sight adjustments are something that need to be identified by the QB and receivers.)
“It’s a different language that he’s thinking. I mean, he’s thinking like all of us are thinking,” Ferentz said. “So, it’s a whole different language he’s thinking. Some of the plays are very different, and some aren’t, but I think we’re all beyond that.”
Before he grabbed the role as Iowa’s short-range punter this season, John Wienke played quarterback for the Hawkeyes. He and Vandenberg are close, both being fifth-year seniors and coming from small towns in Illinois and Iowa, respectively, about 230 miles apart.
Wienke points to the mileage and consistency Iowa has gotten out of Vandenberg, whose 2011 season bleeds everywhere in the Iowa record books (25 TDs is third all time; 3,022 yards is fourth; 404 pass attempts is No. 2; and 3,083 yards total offense is fifth all time).
“I don’t think there’s much need for that talk [call for the No. 2], he’s always done a good job,” Wienke said. “He’s pretty much always done what the game plan and the coaches have asked of him.”
Wienke knows the new Iowa passing game. It’s a pro-style offense in the same realm of what Iowa has run the last few years.
“I don’t think James is seeing the game any differently, I think it comes down to us running the offense right now,” Wienke said.
When you do get specifics, sometimes they don’t make a whole lot of sense.
In the first half in last week’s disappointing loss to Central Michigan, Vandenberg missed wide receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley for an easy touchdown. CMU ran a blitz. Martin-Manley broke off his route and ran into open space, where a safety should’ve been.
“People on the outside look at that and go, ‘Oh my God, look at that,’ ” Martin-Manley said, “but the thing is, it was a busted coverage and I wasn’t supposed to be that wide open. I didn’t run the exact route, I ran straight instead of breaking off on my corner.
“James didn’t know I was going to do that, that’s why he missed me.”
Maybe it’s better not to know the specifics.
Floyd of Rosedale Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010 at the Hayden Fry Football Complex in Iowa City. (Brian Ray/ SourceMedia Group News)
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Well, ok, I guess that’s an explanation but that just leads me to believe that they’ve got JVB so overcoached and robotic on where to look, etc that there’s no room for deviation or improvisation from the QB position.
Martin-Manley’s just sticking up for his guy but a wide open receiver is a wide open receiver.
OK, I’m done with the damn Central Michigan game. Bad loss. Really bad loss but moving on….
Mike, I included the KMM explanation because I thought it showed how crossed up things seem to be right now.
I don’t disagree with your post. There doesn’t seem to be much free flow going on in any phase of Iowa’s passing game.
JVB is a 5th year senior, I’m tired of hearing excuses. He is a very smart young man so its time for him to man up. When he is on the field he IS the coach, he’s been here long enough to see the field and find the open receiver. If not then man up and take yourself out of the game (be a team player).
NO MORE EXCUSES, MAN UP!
I’ve never been sold on James, things just seem to unravel too easily on him. I’m just am disturbed that a QB under no pressure throws a pass to the covered outside receiver and pays no attention to the guy running uncovered down the same side of the field. If he can’t find open receivers with the defense putting 9 guys in the box and a running back running for 200 plus yards what chance will he have when someone stops our running game. It’s not a personal thing I’m sure he’s a great guy but when do you say this is not working. I think Kirk would rather lose than make a change, example being Jake Christiansen. Look what happened to that team when they finally made the change, they took off. I honestly think Iowa will come out all business against Minnesota and win the game but I think we do it by running the ball which will just prolong the problem until Michigan State. At that point with Michigan State stopping the run will again see a poor passing game.
lonhawk,
That is a nice comparison, but I don’t see a Ricky Stanzi waiting in the wings. I don’t think Rudock, for all his potential, is ready to be the starter, and Weinke showed us long ago that being the tenth-rated pro-set QB in the country out of high school does not always translate into success. I don’t see any other choice in sticking with JVB. Sokol has yet to learn the system, as does Beatherd. Rudock is raw and Weinke has never taken control of his chance to play, otherwise he would have been the QB the last three games when Stanzi got hurt in 2009. Not any fun to consider, but there it is.
Yes, James is working with a new coordinator but aren’t Matt McGloin and Braxton Miller? James is extremely intelligent and learns quickly so I don’t agree it’s a new system issue. It’s a puzzle.
sure helps having Marvin McNutt doesn’t it?
Can James make the players around him better? Did Stanzi?
I think Iowa’s WRs need to be elevated. I think Vandenberg needs the pieces of the offense to do their jobs. It’s all interdependent and I think that’s what we’re seeing.
BTW, I’ve been made the moderator. I appreciate the level-headed discussion. Thanks for posting!
Marc, I think that we’re seeing that too. Cotton has started to stick out a bit more … both in games and apparently in practice. Other guys, not to name names, haven’t been doing their jobs as consistently and have been repeatedly making mistakes. As teachers, the coaches let the guys make some mistakes … but given that the mistakes had persisted … that’s presumably why we’ve seen Smith (#81) get a chance to play.
The WRs need to make opposing teams suffer for playing aggressively. Unfortunately, they really haven’t been too successful thus far and that only compounds other issues that we’ve had on O. Certainly the TE play, QB play, and blocking could improve as well. Heck, while Bullock has played well … he’s inexperience has been evident and consequently he’s left a lot of yards on the field as well. Also, I’d contend that Bullock’s absence has been felt in our passing game. While Weisman has been great with his downhill running … Bullock provides us with an added dimension in the passing game. Of course, in Weisman’s defense, I was pretty impressed with his receiving in the game against UNI … however, he benefited from the fact that they were slow to cover him out of the backfield.