I really hope this is the last year of the Ferentz regime.
The Offense (Positives, Negatives, and what I'm neutral on)
- Positive: Abu Sama has some real potential. Only had 25 yards as Norton got the lion's share of carries. But anyone who knows football can see that this guy has some ability. Ability with burst, and make you miss. He reminds me of Alexander Robinson, good back we had in the Rhoads years.
- Jayden Higgins is a dawg, 95 yards and 1 TD. We should have gone to him more downfield today. He has high end ability.
- Ben Brahmer, this guy catches everything. In two games he is already better than Easton Dean. He's going to be special.
- Negatives: Jaylin Noel. I am sorry, I can't accept that this guy is our #2 receiver moving forward. Against UNI he had 4 receptions for 6 yards (not a typo). Today he has 3 drops, and he had 8 catches for a 6 yard average. He tends to NOT break any tackles, or take a small catch for a YAC gain. I'd frankly rather see more throws go to Jayden Higgins, Ben Brahmer, Aidan Bitter, or even Dimitri Stanley (he can burn people deep). He stayed in the game after all these drops which I can only shake my head at.
- Negatives: The lack of downfield throwing. Why not test Iowa's other corner (opposite Dejean) down the field more often? Again, keeping everything tight play's right into Iowa's hands. Daniel Jackson had a nice 13 yard catch, Higgins had a couple past 10 yards. Don't know why we didn't stress them more.
- Negative: I love Cartevious Norton as the hammer back and the short yardage back. But he has no business running out routes, he doesn't have the speed or bend to do this. IF we are going to complement a RB in the pass game, make that Abu Sama please.
- Neutral: O Line. We did have 90 yards rushing against what will be the toughest D we will face this year. I think this O line will get better as the year goes along. But they are in "prove it" mode for sure. For me it is too early to condemn them as similar to last year. I'm actually excited to see them in league play.
- Neutral: Scheelhaase. The UNI game is always strange, and Iowa is always very talented. Let's see how he does against Ohio and the Big 12. There were too many out rout passes today. I'll also say, we HAVE TO make defenses account for Rocco as a runner more. We cannot treat him like a glass doll, he has to run for some yards 4-5 times a game. That cost us the 4th down today obviously. Hopefully that is coached back into him moving forward.
Defense
- What can you say? The rest of the staff should be treating Heacock to steak dinners every month. Many games would be out of hand if not for the brillian play of our defense.
- Beau Freyler today looked like a high level NFL strong safety. Tackles well, big size, and makes key hits.
- Jeremiah Cooper is "Honey Badger Light". Man what a hell of a player.
- Cade McNamara was a little too comfy at times. We had some blitzes that narrowly missed. That's football I guess.
Misc.
- I think we as a fanbase can somewhat worry less and less about ND and Ohio State poaching our coach. Why? Look at his record in the Iowa rivalry and in close games the last 3 years.
- The biggest thing I want to see from now until the end of the season is offensive improvement. We need to be more creative on offense, mix in varying tempo's, and just keep defenses honest more. I think this includes more sprinkled in QB zone read runs, down field tosses, different plays in the run game. The shotgun handoff up the middle is a staple, and we have to deviate off of it when it's not working.
The Offense (Positives, Negatives, and what I'm neutral on)
- Positive: Abu Sama has some real potential. Only had 25 yards as Norton got the lion's share of carries. But anyone who knows football can see that this guy has some ability. Ability with burst, and make you miss. He reminds me of Alexander Robinson, good back we had in the Rhoads years.
- Jayden Higgins is a dawg, 95 yards and 1 TD. We should have gone to him more downfield today. He has high end ability.
- Ben Brahmer, this guy catches everything. In two games he is already better than Easton Dean. He's going to be special.
- Negatives: Jaylin Noel. I am sorry, I can't accept that this guy is our #2 receiver moving forward. Against UNI he had 4 receptions for 6 yards (not a typo). Today he has 3 drops, and he had 8 catches for a 6 yard average. He tends to NOT break any tackles, or take a small catch for a YAC gain. I'd frankly rather see more throws go to Jayden Higgins, Ben Brahmer, Aidan Bitter, or even Dimitri Stanley (he can burn people deep). He stayed in the game after all these drops which I can only shake my head at.
- Negatives: The lack of downfield throwing. Why not test Iowa's other corner (opposite Dejean) down the field more often? Again, keeping everything tight play's right into Iowa's hands. Daniel Jackson had a nice 13 yard catch, Higgins had a couple past 10 yards. Don't know why we didn't stress them more.
- Negative: I love Cartevious Norton as the hammer back and the short yardage back. But he has no business running out routes, he doesn't have the speed or bend to do this. IF we are going to complement a RB in the pass game, make that Abu Sama please.
- Neutral: O Line. We did have 90 yards rushing against what will be the toughest D we will face this year. I think this O line will get better as the year goes along. But they are in "prove it" mode for sure. For me it is too early to condemn them as similar to last year. I'm actually excited to see them in league play.
- Neutral: Scheelhaase. The UNI game is always strange, and Iowa is always very talented. Let's see how he does against Ohio and the Big 12. There were too many out rout passes today. I'll also say, we HAVE TO make defenses account for Rocco as a runner more. We cannot treat him like a glass doll, he has to run for some yards 4-5 times a game. That cost us the 4th down today obviously. Hopefully that is coached back into him moving forward.
Defense
- What can you say? The rest of the staff should be treating Heacock to steak dinners every month. Many games would be out of hand if not for the brillian play of our defense.
- Beau Freyler today looked like a high level NFL strong safety. Tackles well, big size, and makes key hits.
- Jeremiah Cooper is "Honey Badger Light". Man what a hell of a player.
- Cade McNamara was a little too comfy at times. We had some blitzes that narrowly missed. That's football I guess.
Misc.
- I think we as a fanbase can somewhat worry less and less about ND and Ohio State poaching our coach. Why? Look at his record in the Iowa rivalry and in close games the last 3 years.
- The biggest thing I want to see from now until the end of the season is offensive improvement. We need to be more creative on offense, mix in varying tempo's, and just keep defenses honest more. I think this includes more sprinkled in QB zone read runs, down field tosses, different plays in the run game. The shotgun handoff up the middle is a staple, and we have to deviate off of it when it's not working.
