First things first: I have decided to stop doing my post-game analysis of Hawkeye football games. To tell the truth I enjoy doing it but sometimes I don't get a chance until late in the week and by then the focus is on the upcoming opponent. I will say that I am not surprised at how Iowa's defense shut down Michigan QB/RB Denard Robinson. Sure Denard got over 100 yards rushing but his longest run was 12 yards. He was also knocked out of the game midway through the 3rd quarter (I did predict he wouldn't make it to the 4th). This game pretty much knocked him out of ABC/ESPN's Heisman contenders list (which he shouldn't have been on anyway).
As I watched the game last weekend I realized that Ricky Stanzi has been the starting QB for Iowa for 2+ seasons and he has gotten better with each season. This may seem like a simple thing but it has been the exact opposite for the last few years at Iowa. With Drew Tate and Jake Christensen it seemed as though the QBs actually regressed. Tate's best year came in his first year as a starter. The same could be said of Christensen (although his first year as a starter ended at 6-6 with no bowl game), but he lost his job to Stanzi in his 2nd year of starting. Fans were blaming the coaches for this, mainly offensive coordinator and QB coach Ken O'Keefe. Please realize that I'm not a big fan of how Coach O'Keefe has called plays in the past but his play calling has gotten a lot better since 2007. Before, his plays were too predictable and the calls wouldn't get to the huddle very quickly. Both of those have changed and the offense has improved because of it.
Back to the QB situation. In 2008 Stanzi took over after a few games and never looked back, causing Christensen to transfer to Eastern Illinois where he did start in 2009 and played fairly well. Stanzi led Iowa to a huge upset of #3 Penn St in Iowa City and seemed to have a ton of confidence in his own ability. In 2009 he got even better (outside of the interceptions) and only lost 1 game that he started (although he was injured and didn't finish). If he was going to follow the trend 2010 would be his worst.
Surprisingly enough it has been even better than 2009 was. He has thrown 1 interception, and that wasn't really his fault (the WR dropped a pass that was caught by a defender). He has made some very good decisions and has actually checked-off his primary receivers and is not staring them down either. So why can Stanzi progress while the previous two QBs regressed? It has to be the coaches right? No. Stanzi has progressed because of who he is and who he doesn't have around him. Stanzi is a film junkie. He will stay in the football complex long hours watching film so that he knows what to expect. Marc Morehouse asked him about his class load at this week's media day. Right now Stanzi is in 2 classes. That provides him with even more time to study film.
I'm sure that Tate and Christensen studied film but what they had around them affected them in a negative way. Tate was the step-son of a successful Texas high school football coach. His step-dad was always trying to help him out rather that letting him rely on the offensive coaches to help him with the offense.
Christensen is the son of a former NFL back-up QB, Jeff Christensen. There always seemed to be some disconnect between Jake and the coaches as Jeff seemed to be making a lot of decisions for his son. Instead of having Jake work with the team and watch film over the summer, Jeff set him up with some of his former NFL QB buddies to work on his mechanics. This took Jake away from the bonding time with teammates and affected the chemistry.
Are these concrete reasons as to why Tate and Christensen regressed? No, just my opinion. If you think about it it does make sense. Tate and Christensen had father figures who "knew" more than Iowa's coaches and they regressed. Stanzi is his own man and is listening to the coaches and he is progressing. Stanzi is coach-able, Tate and Christensen were not.
No comments:
Post a Comment