Iowa Football 2011: Following Hawkeyes' Loss to Nebraska, Is It Time for Change?

Last Saturday, Iowa capped off a second straight disappointing season with a 20-7 loss to Nebraska.

Given the talent Iowa has demonstrated throughout the 2011 season, the blowout loss and the mediocre season leading up to it leave me wondering if the time has come to start thinking about the Hawkeyes' future.

That thought should be tempered with the admission that the Hawks really weren't expected to do a lot this year. Though there were a few preseason compliments thrown in Iowa's direction, the sheer number and quality of stars lost to attrition made it a long shot that Iowa would put together a great season.

I myself took an awfully long time in a spring article to say that Iowa could end up anywhere between 7-5 and 11-1. Everything lined up so that the Hawks could have shined, but there was more than enough reason to believe they might not also.

So, why should anyone be upset that Iowa is within range of most predictions and will still be bowling this season?

The talent was there for more

Whatever woes the Hawkeyes may have had this year, a lack of talent wasn't one of them. There were plenty of playmakers, solid performers and veteran leaders to take this team places.

WR Marvin McNutt practically rewrote the Iowa record books.

We knew he was good coming into the year, but did anyone really expect him to unseat just about every record holder at the University of Iowa? Including Derrell Johnson-Koulianos?

RB Marcus Coker didn't quite have the dominant, Shonn Greene-like season that some of us expected. Still, the sophomore rushed for 1,384 yards, averaged almost five yards per carry and scored 15 rushing touchdowns.

He also showed an ability to be a threat catching the ball. Coker hauled in 21 catches for 157 yards. That's a better yard-per-game average than any of Iowa's tight ends.

QB James Vandenberg completed 59.4 percent of his passes and threw 23 touchdowns to just 6 interceptions.

While he may not have been as flashy as some past quarterbacks (like Brad Banks) or as savvy as others (Ricky Stanzi), Vandenberg was a solid quarterback that took good care of the football.

The defense certainly had its issues. I won't even pretend that it was a typical Norm Parker defensive year.

Still, LB James Morris and LB Tyler Nielsen showed a lot of promise and LB Christian Kirksey made a name for himself with spectacular play this season.

DE Broderick Binns put together arguably his best season to date with 5.5 sacks, 11.5 tackles for loss, 58 tackles, eight broken passes, six quarterback hurries, a forced fumble and a partridge in a pear tree.

DE Mike Daniels and DT Lebron Daniel both had decent stats and at times looked like the kind of linemen Iowa has built a reputation on.

Yet with all of this promise, talent and experience, Iowa was outplayed by teams like Iowa State and MInnesota. They were manhandled by Penn State, Michigan State and Nebraska.

Someone dropped the ball, and I don't just mean the receivers. For years fans have marveled at how Iowa's staff "coached up" lesser players and turned walk-ons into Pro Bowlers.

So, why couldn't they do more with more? Iowa was in a rebuilding year, but not like rebuilding years of the past. There was a core base to work with.

The team had no clear identity

Ask any Iowa fan what kind of team Iowa has been under Kirk Ferentz and the answer is pretty simple.

They're a hard-nosed, straight-forward, run-first, old-school football team that doesn't do anything fancy. They just win playing good fundamental football.

Sometimes that's not the best approach. When the personnel isn't up to speed, you sometimes have to make adjustments that include changing your philosophy somewhat.

This was one of those years.

To Kirk Ferentz and Ken O'Keefe's credit, they quickly realized that Iowa was a good passing team. More to the point, they were good at running a fast-paced, no-huddle offense. It worked well against Pitt and looked good again against Lousiana-Monroe.

However, when it wasn't immediately effective against Penn State, it went out the window. Except it didn't, either. Ferentz and O'Keefe pulled it back out a couple of times, but only sparingly, and they never gave it time to work.

We saw it briefly against Nebraska, but when it failed to produce immediate results, it was shelved.

We saw it before that against Michigan State, but again was put back on the shelf when the Spartan defense didn't show the expected confusion and willingness to rollover to the quick attack.

What came of the situation was a team that didn't seem to know who they were. Were they a no-huddle, fast-attack offense? Or were they a slow-grind run team? Still further, were they a pass-first, yet slow-paced offense?

Fans couldn't put their finger on exactly which team Iowa was and it appeared to create a measure of confusion for the team as well. They never settled into any one role and grew with it.

Ferentz can blow it off as one of those things that sometimes happens, but that's not good enough. Had they stuck with the faster pace, fans could accept that they went with the best option they had available and it didn't work.

Had they stuck with the ground attack, fans could have said "this is Iowa" and accepted that the pieces weren't in place to make that work.

Not knowing the difference is maddening, though.

Elite pay for elite play

Normally, I would give a measure of slack to an Iowa coach that has done as much for the program as Kirk Ferentz has done for Iowa.

There's no denying that the program has reached heights not seen since 1985 and has gone farther toward sustaining that level of success than virtually any coach in the last 50-plus years.

However, no coach in Iowa history has earned as much money as Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz makes just shy of $3.7 Million annually. He's not just one of the highest paid coaches in the conference, he's also one of the highest paid coaches in the nation.

Typically, when a coach makes that kind of money, there are expectations for conference titles and BCS bowl berths. It's the free market way of doing things. You pay high dollar for big results.

Not Iowa, apparently.

The University of Iowa appears content to pay big-time money for little more than mediocrity. That doesn't sit well with me.

I've read plenty of fan comments about how they would rather that Iowa goes bowling every year than win a national title once in a blue moon and stink the rest of the time.

Why does it have to be either/or? Why is it assumed that to be in the BCS discussion every now and again means you must stink the rest of the time?

LSU has won numerous national titles. Yet even in the years they aren't in the BCS discussion, they're still generally bowling. Same for Florida, Alabama, Texas, Ohio State and about every other major program in America.

Not Iowa.

Iowa goes bowling. That's it. Once in a great while they'll challenge for a Big Ten title and once every 20 years or so, they might get into the BCS discussion (or whatever system has been in place). Yet they're paying their coach for so much more.

Again, rebuilding years happen. It's not uncommon at all for a major program to take a step back while they try to find their next lineup of stars and producers.

However...

This system isn't working anymore

I'll be the first to admit that I can't pinpoint exactly what the next change should be. I've enjoyed the smash-mouth football that Iowa typically plays and have defended them for not making the fad changes that other programs seem to employ to keep up with the "in crowd."

However, Norm Parker's defense hasn't been as good the last two years as we've seen in previous seasons, despite enough raw talent to have made it work.

Ken O'Keefe's offense is still far too predictable and ineffective. Despite record-setting players like McNutt and solid leaders like Vandenberg and Coker, the Hawkeyes don't have the firepower to explode past the tougher defenses in the conference (and out).

In a nutshell, everyone has seen this movie...many times. They know how to attack Iowa and they know how to shut them down.

Lastly, two mediocre seasons in a row is a reason to be concerned

No, this program hasn't slipped to the dregs that they saw in the 1970s. It's time to put that nightmare to rest though.

Iowa still recruits well enough to be competitive. They shouldn't have more than one rebuilding year every four or five seasons. Even then, it shouldn't be that much of a "rebuilding" process, so much as a re-tooling process.

It'll quickly head in the wrong direction though, if things don't improve quickly.

Good recruits want to play for winners. They don't just want to go bowling, they want to be in big bowls. They don't just want a winning season, they want a successful season. There's a difference.

If Iowa doesn't get back to January bowl games and start seriously challenging for conference titles, the good recruits will start looking to places like Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State or Wisconsin before they come to Iowa City.

Winning does mean that much.

A team like Iowa always rides that fine rail between powerful and mediocre. Just when they get good enough to draw national attention, they drop back off the map and have to start from scratch. However, it only takes a couple of sub-par seasons to see the rise back to the top become a pipe dream.

Iowa will soon be flirting with that if they don't get it together.

Is it time for a new head coach? I'm not ready to pull that trigger. Ultimately, I think Kirk Ferentz has earned the benefit of the doubt with what he's accomplished at Iowa.

However, I'm not so lenient with Ken O'Keefe and Norm Parker.

Parker has been a mastermind of building great defenses, but his health has become an issue that he needs to take care of more than he needs to coach a football team.

O'Keefe never was all that great and his predictable, vanilla offenses are getting beyond old.

There needs to be a shake-up at Iowa. Something needs to change while the program still has a good enough name to draw in quality recruits.

For the love of God, before it's too late. Somebody needs to come in and put Iowa back on the map.