Iowa Football 2012: With Greg Davis at OC, Hawkeye Staff Now Complete

The Iowa Hawkeyes now have their offensive coordinator. Monday, Kirk Ferentz announced that former Texas offensive coordinator Greg Davis will be taking over the position vacated by Ken O'Keefe.

Davis has 33 years of experience behind him and coached some of Texas' best offenses and quarterbacks. Names he can toss about at parties include Vince Young, Chris Simms and Colt McCoy, to name a few.

Greg also was there for the Longhorns' national championship following the 2005 season.

He knows how to coach an offense and how to coach quarterbacks. Those will be his tasks once again at Iowa.

Of course, that assessment is if you look solely at statistics and don't figure in extenuating circumstances such as, did the talent pool succeed because of Greg Davis or in spite of Greg Davis? How much influence did Mack Brown have over the play-calling at Texas?

Those are questions Iowa fans have asked about Ken O'Keefe and Texas fans have asked about Greg Davis.

Burnt Orange Nation is still somewhat confused as to what Davis' legacy really is at Texas. I imagine Iowa fans may be as confused over Ken O'Keefe's place in Iowa history as well. (By the way, read through the comments at the end of that link. There's a particularly funny diagram of Davis' playbook that's worth looking over.)

The biggest question that will remain to be seen is whether or not Kirk Ferentz will allow Davis to have enough input to overhaul Iowa's offense. The Hawkeyes have muddled their way through lackluster seasons of late (specifically 2010 and 2011) despite fielding such impressive talent as Ricky Stanzi, Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Marvin McNutt.

That's not to mention strong runners like Marcus Coker, Adam Robinson and Mika'il McCall.

Iowa returns with a plethora of promise. QB James Vandenberg should shine under Davis' tutelage. WR Keenan Davis is due to break out and become a serious receiving threat and WR Kevonte Martin-Manley is developing into a very strong second option.

TE C.J. Fiedorowicz finally emerged late last season as a go-to guy that returns the Hawks to their roots as a tight end factory.

If Davis can do half as much with this group of players as he did with the talent recruited at Texas, Iowa fans should be happy with the production of their new offense.

But don't expect a lot of change.

While Davis was wildly successful at Texas, he was also criticized much the same way Ken O'Keefe was criticized and for much the same reasons. Davis isn't going to institute a spread offense at Iowa (nor should he) and he isn't going to change the conservative nature of the program.

As ESPN's Brian Bennett blogged, the similarities between Davis and O'Keefe are almost staggering. So, when September rolls around, Iowa fans shouldn't expect a sudden explosion of wide-open football on the offensive side of things.

However, Davis has a very successful track record. If he can simply change up the play-calling and improve the two-minute offense, Iowa will already be a step better than it has been the last few years.

With this hire, Iowa's coaching carousel has now come to a stop and the roster is complete. Phil Parker is now in at defensive coordinator, Brian Ferentz takes over the offensive line, LaVar Woods is coaching linebackers and now Davis will handle the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coaching duties.

That's a very strong mix of experience, success and youth. What might be most exciting is the doors that could potentially be opened on the recruiting trail.

Ferentz and Woods are young coaches that can appeal to prospects and speak their language. Their very recent involvement with the NFL (and subsequent ties) should be a major marketing boost.

Meanwhile, Davis' and Parker's experience in working with the very best in the nation at their respective positions could be a huge draw for young talent wanting to work with people who know their football and can help develop them to NFL-worthy talent.

Plus, Davis might be able to reopen some doors to the uber-lucrative Texas recruiting market that have slowly been closing after Hayden Fry's retirement.

All in all, the hire of Greg Davis to Iowa is a big question mark. His resume looks very impressive, but the underlying arguments surrounding him reminds me an awful lot of Ken O'Keefe. Will he or won't he open up the Texas market for recruiting? Will he or won't he bring a better playbook to Iowa?

Who knows?

Give the man a year or two to get settled in Iowa City and I believe the Hawkeye offense will be considerably better than it has been. At least I and a few million other fans hope so.

For the first time since last September, I'm incredibly excited to see the progress Iowa can make. With Parker, Ferentz, Woods and now Davis in place, Iowa could steadily put together one of the toughest teams in the Big Ten, if not the nation.