Iowa Football: Special Teams Continue to Haunt Hawks in Minnesota Loss

There were about 1,000 things that went wrong in the Hawks 21-22 loss to the hapless Minnesota Golden Gophers.

There was third down inefficiency, red zone blunders, an inability to counter blitzes off the edge, defensive breakdowns and a pathetic two-minute offense, just to name a few things.

However, when you put this loss up against many or even most of the losses over the last five years, and specifically over the last two years, one thing consistently pops up: special teams breakdowns.

Before going into any specifics, it is important to define the dynamic of Kirk Ferentz-coached teams. This is something I mentioned after last season's Minnesota collapse, but it bears repeating.

Kirk Ferentz's conservative philosophy depends upon a stout defense that doesn't let up big plays and preys on the other team's mistakes, a dependable offense that doesn't turn the ball over or take backwards plays and exceptional special teams.

His system can withstand a defense that gives up yards between the 20's. It can handle an offense that scores less than 30 points per game.

What it cannot absorb is anything less than exceptional special teams across the board.

Special teams give teams the edge in otherwise even games. Special teams (and turnovers) usually determine the field position battle, which is key for Ferentz. Special teams are generally the difference in games decided by a touchdown or less.

With that in mind, Ferentz, not surprisingly, plays a lot of close games. In the last two seasons, Iowa has played 10 games decided by a touchdown or less, and the Hawks have gone 3-7 in those games.

Even more tellingly, Iowa has played six games decided by a field goal or less, and they have come out of those games with a 1-5 record. Not coincidentally, the Hawks have missed either a field goal or an extra point in three of those five losses.

When one looks over those 10 games, one begins to notice a pattern. Consider the losses in question.

In 2010 against Arizona, special teams was a nightmare. The mishaps included a blocked punt on which the other team scored, a missed extra point, a kickoff returned for a touchdown and overall terrible kickoff return coverage. Iowa lost that game 27-34.

In that same year against Wisconsin, mistakes included a successful fake punt (that everyone in the Midwest outside of Kirk Ferentz saw coming), an offside penalty on a kickoff, inconsistent kickoff coverage, a missed extra point and a botched snap on a field goal attempt. Iowa lost 30-31.

2010 Northwestern was without special teams gaffes. Iowa lost 17-21.

2010 Ohio State included one missed field goal and sub-par kickoff coverage. Iowa lost 17-20.

2010 Minnesota had a successful onside kick. Also, the Iowa coaches had so little confidence in the kickoff coverage they squibbed every kickoff and conceded field position to the Gophers. It also included a Hawkeye kickoff return for a touchdown by the only upperclassman that showed up that day—DJK. Iowa lost 24-27.

This year against Iowa State, the Hawks featured poor kickoff and punt coverage, as well as an out-of-bounds kickoff that destroyed the field-position advantage Iowa had built. Iowa lost 41-44.

Finally, this year against Minnesota, the Hawks missed two field goals and an onside kick that, once again, everybody in the Midwest foresaw except Kirk Ferentz. In fact, look at the Blackheartgoldpants.com second-half game thread. At the 5:14 mark, poster Black and Gold exclaimed "a surprise offside [sic] kick would not surprise me here."

How can a person that incorrectly refers to an onside kick as an "offside kick" possibly be more prescient in football matters than Kirk Ferentz?

The end result was a 21-22 Iowa loss.

As with that Minnesota debacle, there were a number of contributing issues in all of these losses. However, the one consistent issue in all but the 2010 Northwestern loss was poor or inconsistent special teams play.

A pathetic two-minute offense was also a consistently contributing factor, but if the special teams hadn't been such a mess, as often as not, the two-minute O wouldn't have been in play.

Consider how those games might have turned out if Iowa had the exceptional special teams Hawkeye fans came to know in the early part of the decade?

Iowa might have come away 7-3 instead of 3-7. And four extra wins over the last 21 games considerably alters one's assessment of the job Kirk Ferentz has done.

This leads one to question: what has changed over the past eight years that would cause Iowa special teams to fall off a cliff?

After all, the special teams coordinators are and have been linebackers coach Darrell Wilson and running backs (formerly wide receivers) coach Lester Erb.

For me, there are two differences that may (or may not) explain the issue.

First of all, special teams require schemes and discipline, but often, they are about which team wants it more. There is a reason that kickoff coverage is called the suicide squad. Is it possible that the "heart" that has been the key element of Kirk Ferentz's best teams just isn't part of the program anymore?

Secondly, when Iowa had top notch special teams in the early part of the decade, Darrell Wilson's duties included coaching the outside linebackers (which Iowa calls the LEO), as well as special teams.

Meanwhile, Norm Parker was both the defensive coordinator and the inside linebackers coach (which are Iowa's WILL and MIKE linebackers).

Since then, Parker has given up his position coach duties for health reasons and is only the DC. On the other hand, Wilson has picked up inside linebacker coach duties, while maintaining his job as both outside linebacker coach and special teams coordinator.

Perhaps Wilson has been stretched too thin due to Parker's inabilities to handle the typical rigors of a college football DC?

Whatever record the Hawks wind up with this season—and, at this point, only the most fervent optimist would feel Iowa has a shot at seven wins—one has to accept that there was huge turnover last season. In effect, expecting nine wins going into the season was a best case scenario and that was being very optimistic.

Nonetheless, regardless of wins and losses, for the second year in a row the team seems to be underachieving. That is disturbing and speaks of poor coaching.

As previously mentioned, there are a number of things wrong with this team, but most of them have been issues that Iowa used to win in spite of.

The Iowa offense has rarely been more than mediocre under Kirk Ferentz. The two-minute offense has been woeful every year Ferentz has been at the helm outside of 2009. The Hawks have always had trouble countering blitzes off the edge.

I'm not excusing these issues, but making the point that Iowa has had 10-win seasons despite them.

Meanwhile, the defense is worse than could have been expected, but given the turnover and injuries, they are not that much worse. Of course, the Iowa coaches' refusal to adjust their schemes to the personnel they have is another issue, but it is not one I will go into depth about right now.

On the other hand, there is no discernible reason for the special teams to be notably worse than it was in 2002-2004.

Certainly, Nate Kaeding is no longer the kicker and Kirk Ferentz can't account for the loss of a Lou Groza Award winner. However, lack of preparation for an obvious "surprise" onside kick or fake punt, or awful kickoff coverage has nothing to do with talent. It has to do with coaching.

Conversely, an explosive offense or strong defense is not what pops out when you look at the recent success Michigan State has had. The key ingredient to MSU's 17-4 record over the last two seasons has been outstanding special teams.

In short, I don't know exactly what ails Iowa (though I have a definitive opinion as to what needs to be changed).

Nevertheless, as long as Iowa fields less-than-exceptional special teams, we will continue to see losses like we saw against Minnesota.

And if we do continue to see those kinds of losses against obviously inferior teams, then Iowa athletic director Gary Barta will be forced to make some very hard decisions.