SB Nation User Blog: chitownhawkeye

National _otW. Two of'em

chitownhawkeye — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:54:43 -0000

National _otW. Two of'em

Shonn is obvious for player. But Norm gets some hardware too as the coordinator.
I know...you were expecting KOK.

Poor journalism

chitownhawkeye — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:04:42 -0000

Or just shear stupidity? Over the last couple of days I’ve been looking at SI’s Iowa page to read stories from various sources. As part of that, they have a loop of 10 pictures that rotate past, letting us see some snapshots from the last games.

Which would be great…IF 3 OF THEM WEREN’T FROM IOWA STATE VS NEBRASKA!

What the hell? Do you think they confuse Miami (OH) and Miami (FL)? Are there picture swaps between Michigan and Michigan State? Seriously people, this isn’t that difficult. Even Iowa State's are correct, so it’s not like they switched some pictures.

Just venting, but it pisses me off and seems symptomatic of their lack of interest in us in particular and teams not in the top 25 in general.

Thanks a lot guys.

As expected, Iowa sweeps PotW awards

chitownhawkeye — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:24:03 -0000

As expected, Iowa sweeps PotW awards

Sure, it's no ref tackling somebody, but they both had a good week.

Sometimes it's not so easy to stop what you know is coming

chitownhawkeye — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:16:53 -0000

That felt good. I don't think there is any other way to say it. No miscues, no "what the hell" sort of plays, just solid football. They couldn't stop the run, so we ran. Occasional play action. Simple. Effective. (as opposed to the normal "Simple. Ineffective.")

Just a couple of quick thoughts on the game:

Once Stanzi settled in, he looked great. So did the O-line. Buy him some time, and he's going to be good. Hopefully a lot of the turnovers have been worked out of his system as he's gotten more experience. I'm still a little nervous about him when there's pressure though.

Could the BTN crew gush about KOK any more? Sure, the offense was clicking on all cylinders, but there still wasn't anything surprising about what we did. This was where execution and talent finally showed superiority over a weaker program that knew what was coming.

They can keep talking up King all they want

Jewel Heist is going to be a beast after a year in the S&C program.

Shonn is already a beast. He's going to run you over. That's not a threat, it's a warning. He's running mad right now. Looking for people to hit.

Wait a minute, was that a deep pass to Brodell? With the running game working, we need more of that. Don't get me wrong, play action is a good thing, but a deep threat, even just the occasionally throw down there to keep everybody honest, goes a long way to opening up the middle.

Wisky has certainly dropped. After their last couple of games, I'm starting to feel good about this coming week. It'll still be a tough game, but if we can avoid turnovers and penalties...this is not the loss it looked like earlier in the year.

Anybody else get the feeling that this is a team that, win or lose, other teams don't want to play? Right now we are out hitting everybody. The injury report is not going to be pretty this week for Indiana. We may not win, but right now, whoever has us on the schedule knows they're going to get pounded on.

5 games left, and with 4 teams ahead of us having already locked in bowl eligibility I think we need 3 more wins. 2 will probably slot us for Detroit, but since that's a fate only slightly better than death and I still don't trust Outback, I think we need 3. I like Wisconsin and Purdue. Illinois I still think we can win, but you never know how they'll play. Penn State and Minnesota are the big ones. History says that we don't do well against highly ranked teams (take that for whatever it's worth, it's not like highly ranked teams are typically bad) or at night. At least we get Penn State at home. And probably Minnesota as well. As long as keep not beating ourselves.

A win like this is very relaxing, very cathartic. We needed it. We're getting better. We're feeling confident. Bring'em on.

J Leman is back to save us from terrorist color commentary

chitownhawkeye — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 22:35:35 -0000

J Leman is back to save us from terrorist color commentary

J Leman is going to be on TV and I had to find out about it from another source? For shame.
But still, I know my saturday will be full of freedom!

An Offensive Explosion Coming Soon

chitownhawkeye — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:20:46 -0000

An Offensive Explosion Coming Soon

It'd better. Or the sound of high explosives isn't the sound that we're going to be hearing.

The Family Tree is a Stick

chitownhawkeye — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:14:20 -0000

[bumped. also, his second tag would be a better title.--OPS]

I had a thought the other day. Maybe it's nothing.

I assume that most coaches careers follow a curve. Certainly not a standard distribution one, but for the most part, I would imagine that that they are not as successful in the beginning, more successful in the middle, and again less successful at the end, resulting in being fired or retiring.

Following this through, it makes sense to me that a lot of early failures, either within a single program, or across more than one job, are due to coaching mistakes and not having the personnel, players and assistants that you want. Both of these are correctable (in theory) over time, so that by the time the coach gets to the middle of their career (or single job), their success can be seen coming. The effort that it has taken to get the proper people in the proper scheme making the proper calls pays off in victories that are built upon the lessons learned in the past. But then at the end, what happens? You can't tell me that the coach doesn't get the people he wants; he knows who works based on the past. In older coaches, the game is sometimes said to "pass them by", but parts of the game haven't changed in a century. It’s just the application of those parts that’s passing.

Football, like all sports, evolves. It's been said that the NFL is a copy-cat league, but it really isn't any more so than at the college level. One team finds something that works, and suddenly everyone is doing it...which leads to the next leap frog advance, and obviously in some cases, leads back to schemes that have worked in the past. So it struck me, what if the issue with coaches as their time passes isn't the coach or the assistants? What if it’s simply the schemes being used. What if the success of a coach in the middle of their career with a particular scheme leads to assistants getting their own coaching positions, which leads to new blood being brought into a program, which leads to innovation within the program. What if stagnation is the demon that drags programs down. If this is the case, it seems to me that great coaches with great programs will frequently have significant coaching trees as a result, as opposed to smaller trees based on coaching staffs staying together over time. Obviously, this is something that can't be seen until well after the fact, but you still should see the evidence in staff turnover. Staff turnover isn't the key, however, the key is change. Staff turnover is just any easy way to get there. You can change from the inside, for example, Penn State has been talking about JoePa's retirement for years...but no one is talking about it now. With the "Spread HD" system that they're using, defenses are struggling to adapt to stop it. So it's successful. So he's successful.

Look, I don't know what the turnover rate here has been. I don't know what it's been at Penn State Or Ohio State, for that matter, but isn't it beginning to look like people know what Tressel is doing? That he's still going to win a lot of games based on the talent level there, but in equal talent situations, he's gotten beaten because his opponents know how to beat his team. Isn't that what happened to Carr at Michigan? And that's what's happening to us. It's not that the talent isn't there, but there is no innovation.

There's nothing earth shattering here, just the ramblings coming out of my brain. As fans here, we've been complaining about lack of innovation on offense for several years, and frankly, the same can be said on the defensive side, only the defensive players either have had more talent or better coaching to offset the fact that our opponents know our schemes. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm suddenly looking at this in a slightly different way, not blaming the coaches for week to week or quarter to quarter adjustments, but year to year scheme shifts. That our problems now started back in 2004 when we were having success. Those years didn't translate into new coaching personnel, (with the exception of our line coach, obviously not all change is good) which has lead us to where we are now.

I don't know. Maybe I'm missing something that someone with a better knowledge of our program or football in general can tell me. Maybe it really is all about execution and motivation, and that winning schemes will always be winning schemes. It just seems to me like the important thing is to never stand still. And that's what we've been doing.

I'm tired.

chitownhawkeye — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:09:01 -0000

I'm not mad. I'm not depressed. Either of these things would imply that something completely unexpected happened Saturday.

So I'm just tired. I'm tired of losing games to teams when we supposedly have more talented players. I'm tired of an offensive coordinator who doesn't seem to understand the difference between stage right and audience right, and so has the QB roll to the side opposite their strength. I'm tired of a secondary that is scared enough of weak receivers that they start out 5 yrs off the line on 3rd and 3. I'm tired of underperforming against weak teams and not stepping up against stronger teams. I'm tired of penalties, turnovers, and injuries.

I'm tired.

It wasn't that long ago that teams didn't want to come into Kinnick. It wasn't that long ago that we carried a swagger and a belief that we could win on the road. The talent level isn't less right now, we should be in the middle of our strongest recruiting class in years. The coaches have won before, and seem to be believe that they can win again. I don't know what the problem is. I can guess, but I don't know. I can complain about vanilla offenses. I can complain about lack of intensity from the players. I can complain about unrealistic expectations from us, the fans. None of it helps solve the issues.

I went into this season cautiously optimistic, but that optimism is quickly going south. Not because we're a bad team, but because I no longer believe. We find ways to lose, not to win, and when I look at the last 2 wasted games, while I see improvement in the team as a whole, I still see critical mistakes. And looking forward, I'm having trouble seeing us getting to 7 wins. Can we beat Sparty or Zook away? I don't see it right now. Indiana and Minn I still think we win, but I thought we would beat NW. So what happens if we don't get to a bowl game again this year? It's not that I don't care, I still care deeply what happens to this team. I just can't allow myself to dwell on it. I just can't do it. I'm not blaming anybody.

I'm just tired.

Sheets to start on Saturday

chitownhawkeye — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:18:58 -0000

Sheets to start on Saturday

Gimpy elbow and all. I can't blame the guy for wanting to be out there, and maybe he does feel good. But my gut says he's not going to be at 100%.

Hawks hire Director of Player Development

chitownhawkeye — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 01:16:12 -0000

Hawks hire Director of Player Development

[BUMPED: Anyone else remember Ejiasi? No? Just me?--OPS]

First order of business: making sure all current and incoming players can spell his name while standing on one foot, thus ensuring they can pass a field sobriety test.