 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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Indiana 24; Iowa 21 – Vacuuming up the mess
Indiana wins - Iowa needs to go 2-for-3 or no bowl for 2012
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — In the end, the place just oozed with imagery that not only told the story but screamed it.
The first down that Indiana notched to drain the clock down to prayers for the Hawkeyes did everything it could to stir the Memorial Stadium crowd of 40,646, a generous count in a mostly gray aluminum bleacher mass for a game that was delayed an hour because of severe weather.
More telling. The stairway from the elevator that the assistant coaches take from the press box to the lockerrooms had Indiana coaches on the left and Iowa coaches on the right. Once they hit the last stair, Hoosiers coaches took off on a dead sprint to the left, while Iowa coaches shuffled to the right, hands in pockets and blank looks on their faces.
Most telling. Before Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz took to the table to answer questions about not going for it on a fourth-and-1, a killing interception, a killing long play in a tight game, a member of the Memorial Stadium services quietly vacuumed the red carpet.
Iowa (4-5, 2-3 Big Ten) is in clean-up mode.
Saturday’s 24-21 loss at Indiana (4-5, 2-3) dropped the Hawkeyes below .500 for the first time since October 2007. They lost their third straight game for the first time since 2008 and their third straight Big Ten game for the first time since finishing the ’10 season with losses to Northwestern, Ohio State and Minnesota.
The kicker for the here and the now is if the Hawkeyes want to go to a bowl game, they will have to beat one of college football’s blue bloods.
Iowa sits 4-5 with Purdue next week at Kinnick Stadium, at Michigan and the Black Friday finale at home against Nebraska.
Call the guy with the vacuum, clean up in aisle Hawkeye.
“We’re not putting the flag up,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “We’ve got three games scheduled. We have every intention of . . .”
The thought drifted away.
The first gory detail is the fourth-and-1 at Iowa’s 28 with about five minutes left and the Hawkeyes trailing 24-21.
On third-and-7, quarterback James Vandenberg completed a 6-yard pass to Keenan Davis. The Hawkeyes lined up to go for it with less than a yard to go, but the play was then reviewed. After the call on the field was upheld, Ferentz sent out punter Connor Kornbrath.
Here’s what he said, “We felt like if we had tempo, we could take a shot at it right there and try to catch them back on their heels,” Ferentz said. “The play got stopped to review the spot. That kind of changed the complexion.
“We’ve got 4:43, so as you might imagine we were hoping to get a good punt . . . and we’re playing for a stop at that point.”
The Hawkeyes got that stop . . . 4:25 later. They got the ball back with 18 seconds left. For the second time this season, Iowa ended a game doing the desperate and fruitless lateral thing.
“The way we see it, we’ve got three and possibly four chances to play in the black and gold ever,” quarterback James Vandenberg said. “We’re going to take it one game at a time and throw as many punches as we can.”
Vandenberg offered this after a thorough breakdown of the interception he threw on Iowa’s first drive of the second half. The Hawkeyes drove to Indiana’s 12. On third-and-goal, Vandenberg tried to put the ball on wide receiver Jordan Cotton’s back shoulder. Why not? IU cornerback Antonio Marshall wasn’t looking, Vandenberg said.
Vandenberg caught IU in a safety blitz. The Hoosiers secondary recovered. He made a throw that he wanted back.
“I didn’t think he was looking, I thought we could stick one on Jordan’s back shoulder,” said Vandenberg, who completed 21 of 34 for 249 yards, an interception and TD. “The ball should never have been thrown. That was me.”
On third-and-8 on the Hoosiers’ answer, quarterback Cam Coffman hit wide receiver Kofi Hughes for a 77-yard gain to Iowa’s 1. Coffman, who spun Iowa for three TD passes — all to wide receiver Cody Latimer — scrambled toward the line of scrimmage. Iowa was in nickel and cornerback Greg Castillo left Hughes and went toward the line of scrimmage.
“It’s an age-old issue in football,” Ferentz said, “when quarterbacks start running around, rule No. 1 is DBs have to stay in coverage and the guys up front have to handle it. . . . We violated a defensive principle there.”
Coffman, who was pulled early by coach Kevin Wilson, hit Latimer for a 17-14 lead with 7:28 left in the third. Iowa surged ahead on running back Damon Bullock’s 4-yard TD run with 12:17 left, but the Hoosiers made it look easy on a four-play, 61-yard drive capped by Coffman to Latimer for a 30-yard score and a 24-21 lead with 10:58 left.
That drive was launched by a 39-yard kick return by Isiah Roundtree. The Hoosiers racked up 473 yards total offense, the third straight week Iowa has allowed 400-plus, its worst stretch of defense since ’07.
Iowa had Indiana on the ropes early in this one. Vandenberg led Iowa on a first-quarter scoring drive and linebacker Christian Kirksey followed it up with an 18-yard interception return for a TD, his second of the season.
But there’s no finish in this team. And now, there’s no margin of error if it wants to bowl.
That sound you hear is a vacuum.
This is how it ended for the Hawkeyes, a 24-21 loser at Indiana. (Brian Ray/The Gazette)
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Now I’m sure “real” fans like Todd Johnson and others will disagree, but going to crappy bowl after crappy bowl under the guise of “reward for a good season” is insulting to both fans and players. Why?
1. 6-6/7-5 is very mediocre. Fans AND players know it.
2. The extra practices, while claimed to be so beneficial to the program, haven’t done a heck of a lot of good since 2008 ( I say 2008 because there was very little rotation between starters/substitutes in 2009/2010 – so who exactly was being “groomed” or developed during these extra practices?).
I also realize that “real” fans like Todd and others are 100% OK with being dominated on both sides of the lines of scrimmage by INDIANA and NORTHWESTERN; that little old Iowa should go to church twice each Sunday after a 9-3/10-2 season; that because I’m not a football coach I don’t understand that poor old Iowa should accept – and expect – to be mediocre a majority of the time.
That’s fine if they’re OK with that, but here’s something to consider: once the old-timers are gone/stop giving donations, I can guarantee there are many more “middle-generation” and young fans that will have no problem just clicking the channel, loading a new webpage, etc. rather than supporting/accepting mediocrity for the majority of the time from the Iowa football program. It doesn’t make them “less” of a fan either – just less blindly loyal. If (or more likely WHEN) that happens, it will be unfortunate, but the old-timers, blindly loyal program supporters will be to blame. Sad, but true, This isn’t 1965, 1975, 1985, 1995, etc., and Iowa CAN and IS CAPABLE of being better than just 7-5/8-4 with a rare 10-win team = even if we don’t have all the advantages of Michigan, Alabama or Kansas State…
” I can guarantee there are many more “middle-generation” and young fans that will have no problem just clicking the channel”
I can’t wait to attend the opening of the Miller Center for accomplished football programs. You can post on the Gazette when you wire the funds to the U of I. Bless your heart.
” Iowa CAN and IS CAPABLE ”
You do know that we lost 2 starting linemen and Weisman did not play last Sat. I mean you do follow the personnel changes during the games. Right?
John Abernathy:
1. Wow, great non-response! Keep on ignoring reality.
2. Iowa’s struggles go back much further than just a single game with two injured OL; of course, you don’t have much you can say about the big picture, so attempt to zero in on a single game instead (a game in which we were DOMINATED on both sides of the line!).
3. Re: your comment below about obscene amounts of $$ spent on sports = I actually agree, but since Iowa doesn’t make the rules, they need to play by them in order to be successful. You DO know that more people learn about Iowa from seeing/hearing about them through sports, right?
John A: Sorry, the comment about $$ spent on sports was John H, not you. I apologize.
KF the only thing to do now is play for the future, you might beat Purdue but there is no way on earth you beat Michigan or Nebraska so the best you do is 5-7 so play for the next couple of years, that means set that lousy QB (might be a great guy but lousy QB) JVB down and let someone get so experience.
And the same with the D line, set the seniors play for next year
that vacuum was sucking the life out of Iowa football!!!!!!!
This is what you get when you combine a lack of talent with a lack of imagination and throw in dollop of cowardice. It is getting harder and harder to find reasons to watch this team. They don’t seem to want it as much as the fans do.
If Kirk believes in this team like he says he does, how come he doesn’t believe they can get a fourth and inches late in a game. Seriously the fumble was a minor miracle sent from above. Does Kirk think that kind of “gift” comes around all the time. Iowa should be playing like the desperate team they are. Chances to win a game like today are coming less and less often. I can’t even say anything bad about the players, I know they are playing hard, but the play calling is so based on not losing that the coaching staff doesn’t know how to “win” a game anymore. Up 14 points and Vanderberg on path for a big day, we effectively “iced” him. Two series with multiple running plays into the one of the Big Tens best defensive lines simple energized the Hoosers. It was just what they needed to settle down and get back in the game. They were reeling from our passing game and we had a chance to step on their throats and deliver the knockout but we backed off and gave them life. I can’t even put into words how disappointing it is to see a player playing well and take the game out of his hands. Thank God basketball is around the corner because there aint gonna be no bowl game. I guess the commit that de-committed from Iowa to Indiana was just a little more perceptive on the future of the two programs than I was.
Somebody needs to tell Ferentz that hoping your opponent screws up is not a valid gameplan.
The program is fine. Kirk is the right man for the job and I believe James gives them the best chance to win games. If winning games in the Big 10 was so easy then Nick Saban would still be winning BCS titles at Michigan State.
Two things, Kyle:
1. “The program is fine.” Outside of 2 seasons of the last 8, how would you come to that conclusion? Please use facts.
2. Saban didn’t win any title at Michigan State. He went to an “easier” conference and has won multiple titles at 2 different schools.
1. In the ESPN the magazine franchise issue they ranked Iowa as the 19th best college football over the last 14 years. That’s fourth best in the Big 10.
2. I was sure everyone could sense the sarcasm in the Saban comment. How can you sit and say that the SEC is an easier conference. Of the 13 BCS champions 8 come from the SEC including 7 of the last 8.
If no one else has noticed the most talented high school athletes are in the south and west coast, close to 100 of the ESPN 150 come from that region. Only twenty are in Big 10 states. Iowa is a developmental program, a new coach won’t change that.
When it comes to Iowa football, in the wake of the latest humiliation at Indiana, all I can do is offer these quotes and facts. Do with them as you will:
Dan Gable:
* “If it doesn’t tear your guts out to lose, there’s no meaning. And without meaning, where’s the incentive to win?”
* “I never had the fear of getting beat, which is how most people lose.”
Grandpa Ferentz, in the week before the Indiana game:
* “We need to keep some perspective. It’s only a game.”
Hayden Fry:
“Any player who smiles after a loss, I’ll punch in the mouth. We don’t want fans saying nice things to us after we play well and lose. That’s why Iowa hasn’t won for 17 years. We’re out there to win, not come close.”
Forest Evashevski, after the “fainting Irish,” ranked No. 1, used “injuries” to tie Iowa 14-14 in the 1953 finale:
“When the one great scorer comes to write against our name, he won’t ask whether we won or lost, but how come we got gypped at Notre Dame.”
Fran McCaffery, displeased with his team’s performance, beat up a chair at Michigan State last season and then, a few days ago said this prior to a meaningless exhibition game against D-II Quincy: “…We’re going to try to win the game. You put the uniforms on, put people in the building, we’re keeping score. The focus has to be on, ‘What do we have to do to win?’ ”
Grandpa Ferentz makes about $75,000 a WEEK; $300,000 a MONTH; $4 mil a YEAR. Meanwhile, the median household income in Iowa is $49,427 a year (2011).
Dr. Phil:
Be flexible — “Life is not a success-only journey. Even the best-laid plans sometimes must be changed. Be open to input and consider any potentially viable alternative. Be willing to be wrong and be willing to start over.”
Take risks — “People who consistently win are willing to get out of their comfort zone and try new things. Be willing to plunge into the unknown if necessary and leave behind the safe, unchallenging, and familiar existence in order to have more success. Don’t spend your whole life working for what you don’t want, instead of for what you do want. Sometimes it takes risk.”
“Champions get what they want because they know what that is. They have a vision that keeps them motivated.”
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results.”
Grandpa Ferentz (after every loss, including Indiana): “We need to execute. We believe in what we do, we just need to do it better. We need to clean a few things up, obviously. There is ebb and flow in sports. The world is not ending [because we lose a game] and it’s not the creation of a new civilization when we win. That’s football.”
FACTS: Since the coaching failure that led to Wisconsin’s successful fake punt in 2010, Iowa has won 13 games and lost 15. Of those 15 losses, two each have come at the hands of ISU, Minnesota, and Northwestern, single losses to Central Michigan and Indiana, and narrow escapes against UNI and Arkansas State.
FACTS: Iowa plays before sellout crowds of over 70,000 every home game with single tickets costing about $60 each. Iowa spent about $85 million to renovate Kinnick Stadium recently and is in the midst of an upgrade to football facilities that has added an indoor practice facility and will add new weight training facilities, coaches offices, etc. at a total additional cost of about $53 million. (source: U of I official athletic website).
THE GRANDPA FERENTZ REFRAIN: “It’s only a game.”
Sanj, I like the quotes and can’t wait to see a certain person who comments here complain about you like he always does.
Iowa is not going to a bowl game this year because they can’t and will not win 2 more games and who wants a lousy 6-6 team going anywhere, Its time to put in the players that have another year or two or three and play for the experience forget about the seniors and trying to win the rest of the year. Your only possible win is Purdue and I wouldn’t bet on that with JVB playing. Its just really sad to sit and watch him play like a Freshman week after week making the same bad throws and saying the same excuses after the games. IU played 2 QB’s. Come on Kirk give us a reason to look forward to success in the future and not the same old ” well our QB doesn’t have any experience” bs.
Sanji,
I am frustrated about KF just as you. You seem to like to drag up little tidbits of Hawkeye history in your posts. You should check your facts, however. Your post on Moorhouse’s article about Greg Davis last week mentioned the Hawks scoring 28 points vs. Indiana in 1979, Fry’s first game as coach. You should check the record books before posting stuff like that, as it appears you have, “an aversion to facts.” I was at that game too, and Iowa did not score 28 points.
Ferentz (and Barta) had their rare golden opportunity this year to replace both coordinators, and blew it again. Lickliter ball, coaching and recruiting is alive and well at Iowa, just morphed into football. Ferentz will most likely never beat Ohio State again in his career, will probably not beat Michigan and Penn State again, may rarely upset Nebraska and Wis., and trade wins with Ill., Minn. Ind. and maybe Mich. State. And, in true Lickliter ball tradition, do it in boring fashion. THIS is Iowa football under Ferentz and Barta.
Kyle this team is NOT fine! It has been in steady decline since the 2009 season, and if you are right that Vandenberg is the “best chance to win”, then these guys cannot develop a quarterback worth a damn! Worse yet the coaches canot see that there is a problem beyond “we have to execute better”. It is attitudes like yours that will keep us in a 6-6, 5-7 mode for the next ten years. Well, I want more than that.
If Hawkeye football is fine and JVB is “our best chance to win” (as stated above) then Hawkeye football is right back to the days of Bob Cummings.
I truthfully feel KF has lost his desire to coach winners. It shows in the comments and excuses he makes. Yes we have had some great success with him as coach but looks to me now that he has his entire family either playing or coaching with him the Hawks are going to be stale until he’s moved on.
Mike Miller nailed it COLD: Saban wins at Alabama and won at LSU because their fans bloody well EXPECT him to win there. Not just games, but everything associated with them. Take recruiting, for example. These guys don’t get all excited because they manage to land a couple of four-star recruits: They expect to win their recruiting battles, meaning four or five four-star guys and at least three five star-athletes. They expect the best guys to sign with them, and they have the swagger that goes with that expectation. Have you ever been to an Alabama or LSU home game? The crowd is not a crowd. It is a writhing, living, bristling fanged serpent set to swallow the opposition whole, and the devil take the hindmost. I am married to an Alabama fan and I have watched games with her family. These people are well-educated, middle class… and frightening to watch at home in front of the TV, much less in the stadium. They WANT IT, in a way Iowa fans could never understand. I have yet to hear anyone offer an excuse for a loss at Bama, however close and rare those losses are. You just won’t hear it. They expect perfection, and in large part because of that expectation, they often get it. They are likely going to their third national title game in four years. No one has ever done that. So decide, Hawkeye Nation: DO YOU WANT IT OR NOT? If you do, I suggest we ship Kirk Ferentz out and replace him with a hungry SEC coordinator who wants a shot at a top job. Otherwise, resign yourselves to the humiliation of timid, boring play for the foreseeable future. And losses. Yeah, lots of those.
Paul, I recommend you read the comment threads on some of the Louisiana newspapers stories about LSU’s loss last night. Pretty much identical to what people have been writing on here for months. And it’s the same thing when Alabama’s status in the title game is jeopardized.
You’ve never looked at the level of importance those people you know in Alabama put on football and thought that it was more than a little… misplaced, shall we say? But you do indirectly raise a good point, boosters make a big difference too. Iowa has good ones, but not in the class of those programs.
I think Iowa’s improving in that area as well though. Our new facilities should help us bring in some recruits, even though I think spending that amount of money on college football is obscene and unethical.
Even if the Hawkeyes miraculously manage to win two more games, they should refuse to accept a bid to low-level bowl game. It would be unfair to force these players, especially the seniors, to another month of practice for the sake of a meaningless postseason exhibition game with a miserly payout. In fact, the university would likely lose money, which it has on many prior bowls. I know those are the rules, but no team should be “rewarded” for a 6-6 season.
I know that to safely lead horses without distractions they use blinders so they can’t see any trouble. Please send me the pair that you have Kyle because like Monty Python’s Life of Brian your seem to always see the bright side of life.
John H.,
I read them. I am a Louisiana native who went to Iowa. The difference? LSU has been to two national title games in the past ten years, winning one. Iowa? Never gotten close. The Bayou Bengal fans EXPECT to win, and take no consolation in having lost to Number One in the nation. Without meaning to, you made my point for me. They don’t tolerate losing or make excuses for losing.
LSU doesn’t tolerate losing, unless it is a coach… Like Nick Saban. The Mad Hatter is no Nick Saban and about 90,000 people in Death Valley were reminded of that on Saturday. By the way, the Hawks were awarded a national title after the 1958 season… ironically enough LSU was awarded one that year too. Too bad it will likely be another 54 years before the Hawks sniff another one with the current coaching staff.
I said “national title game”. There were none in 1958. Agree about our prospects in the Ferentz era.