The bye week is the perfect opportunity for a team to self reflect on their season thus far, and to try and root out any internal issues presenting themselves on the field. You get a whole week off to try and fix some key issues, getting your team on track to be at their best for the home stretch of the season.
For Iowa, it’s a bit harder than identifying one issue, as offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz alluded to in his bye week press conference, transcribed in full here by Hawkeyes Wire managing editor Josh Helmer. There really isn’t a root cause. Iowa has to really “look at everything.”
In reality, pretty much everything is a mess with Iowa’s offense. Nothing has been good enough, and it hasn’t really been for the past few years now. We are just seeing the worst version of the same bad offense that has been trotting out over the past few seasons.
Of course, the question about changing quarterbacks was always going to come up. Fans were ready to make a change midway through the first game against South Dakota State, and the sentiment around the fanbase in Iowa City hasn’t really changed since.
After pretty much as bad of an offensive performance as you can get, only scoring six points against Illinois and failing to mount a game-winning drive, of course the media was going to present the question at this press conference. It led to some rather interesting answers from the Hawkeyes’ OC.
When first asked the question, Ferentz recognized the potential success of change for change’s sake. It has worked for other teams.
“I don’t disagree with the philosophy of changing for change’s sake. I think it has been effective for people. I think it exists in the world. It’s like any philosophy. You can point to times it’s successful. You can point to times it’s not successful. Just like sticking with somebody, right? That’s going to cut both ways at some point as well. It’s not a philosophy that we adhere to,” Ferentz said.
It is a weird point, considering a couple of questions later he stated that he is “not interested in making a change for change’s sake.” Pretty much, Ferentz claims that the quarterback position is like any other spot on the team. They evaluate and ultimately roll with the guy they feel gives them the best chance to win, which in their minds is Spencer Petras.
“But right now the best way I can describe the quarterback position is this: It’s like any position on our football team. We’re evaluating everybody all the time on everything. The quarterback position is very simple. Who can do the job the absolute best?
“What are we looking at? We’re looking at metrics. Not just games. Practice. You’re talking about decisions, reads, timing, location, all those things. The good news with the quarterback position it’s very tangible. There’s not a lot of gray area when you are grading those factors.
“So the reality is we do like Alex. We would feel comfortable with Alex in the game. We feel like he is a good player, but the reason that Spencer is our quarterback is we feel like he gives us the best chance to win,” Ferentz said.
All of that was fine, well and good. That is, until this response was unearthed a few questions later about Padilla. In a video that has gone viral on Twitter, Ferentz deflected a question on the downside of bringing in Padilla by asking, “What is the upside?”
Yikes!
Q: What would be the downside of giving (backup QB) Alex Padilla a shot? pic.twitter.com/8P64ZSCCnp
— Heavens!👻 (@HeavensFX) October 12, 2022
I can’t even imagine how Alex Padilla must feel listening to that.
Ferentz puts a lot of stock in knowing what Petras provides for the team, and how he fits their system. A lot of the upside that Padilla would bring is in terms of mobility, which is a point that Ferentz shot down in the presser.
“I understand that question. Let me explain it this way. The passing game is a system, and the system is built on timing and location in the zone coverage world or if we’re dealing with man-to-man coverage, matchup leverage throws,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz would go on to use examples of timing being a heavy part of their system from the past game before making a pretty definitive statement on the topic.
“You are looking at those things and saying that’s improvement. That’s what you like. That’s what you are looking for. But if that answers your question, I don’t know that the mobility — just having a guy running around, I’m not sure that’s going to solve any of our issues. You’re not going to be any more open just because a guy is running around,” Ferentz said.
That all sounds great, if the current system was working and if the quarterback was excelling in the system. As we’ve seen in the past week, throughout this entire season, and over the past few seasons, neither statements are accurate. The offense has largely been a mess since Ferentz took over as offensive coordinator and quarterback has not been a top tier position for Iowa during that time either. You can read more about the offensive woes under Ferentz here.
I don’t think anything said in this press conference about the quarterback situation and how Iowa views everything should surprise anyone at all. It should, however, be insulting to fans listening to the complete complacency in the current situation.
Through their words and actions, it seems that Iowa truly believes in what they are doing, and that with a few minor tweaks and some more time for cohesion, everything will be back to normal all hunky-dory. Everything is fine and the fans are overreacting!
Don’t expect any real changes or innovations to be implemented over this bye week in preparation for Ohio State.
[listicle id=11272]
[listicle id=11064]
[lawrence-related id=11175]
[lawrence-related id=11210]
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Jacob on Twitter: @Jacobkeppen
Let us know your thoughts, and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today.