THIS IS AN ARTICLE FOR STUDENT UNION SPORTS, by Luke Maiers.
Think of the most boring, predictable thing you can think of (such as grass growing or paint drying), and you have the Iowa Hawkeye’s offense under Greg Davis for the last five seasons. First, let’s flashback to a time when the Iowa quarterback was a person who could do no wrong, Ricky Stanzi. In my lifetime he has been the standard at qb if you were an Iowa fan. Dropping bombs and quick slants to Marvin McNutt and Derrell Johnson-Koulianos were a thing of beauty. Ask contributor Chris Schneider, he knows. The offense was a well oiled machine under Ken O’Keefe, but then, a storm was brewing down in Texas, and his name was Greg Davis.
Davis At Texas
Greg Davis was seen as a God at Texas, which might have been a tad of an over exaggeration, considering he had two all time great college quarterbacks in that span (Vince Young and Colt McCoy). The seven years that Young and McCoy led the Longhorns, they tallied up 156 touchdowns. Through five seasons at Iowa, with three different quarterbacks, his offense threw 81 touchdowns. Iowa has had some skill at that position in that five year span, so maybe Davis just lost his touch.
Davis at Iowa
Anyone who knows anything about Big Ten football knows that under head coach Kirk Ferentz, the Hawkeyes offense has been a ground and pound team. Fred Russell, Shonn Greene, Adam Robinson, Mark Weisman, LeShun Daniels, and Akrum Wadley are just a list of some of the running backs to have great seasons in this offense. Year after year Iowa was going to take it to you on the ground, the problem with Davis’ offense at Iowa was that he took the predicability to the next level. Let me walk you through a standard three down play set for Iowa: 1st down-run up the middle for a short gain, 2nd down-run up the middle for a short gain, 3rd down-a two yard out route, 4th down-punt. This is not a joke, Davis’ offense made you want to pound your head against a wall until you knocked yourself out.
This section needs two paragraphs to explain the agony of boredom that came from this offense. Another part of Davis’ offense was his audibles. Iowa would line up in a two wide receiver, one tight end, and one running back set, and apparently the only audible Davis had on his play card was a stretch run to the short side of the field. When Iowa fans saw their quarterback crawl away from center and change the play, they knew what was coming. It was Davis’ time to go.
Davis Out/Ferentz In
After Iowa’s disgrace of a game in the Outback Bowl against Florida this season, Greg Davis announced his retirement. I have a theory on this. Davis had two choices: go out on his own terms or get embarrassed by getting fired by Athletic Director, Gary Barta. I think he was forced out. He needed to go either way.
Who does Iowa go to hire though? One of head coach Kirk Ferentz’s sons, Brian Ferentz. Brian Ferentz has been with the Hawkeye football team for a few years now as the running backs coach, and he has done a good job with that. It will be interesting to see what happens with the offense now though. Akrum Wadley is coming back for the 2017 season and that will benefit this team a lot. So the game plan will be to give the ball to Wadley in open field and watch him break some ankles. My hopes are that Brian Ferentz can revive this once great passing game and bring new energy to Iowa City along with new schemes.
Change is Good
Iowa fans deserve to have something to cheer for. They have been loyal to the tigerhawk for a really long time with no results to show for it. In Iowa’s last four Rose Bowl appearances (1982, 1986, 1991, 2016) they have been outscored 164-78. All that I want Brian Ferentz to do is bring energy and something different to the table. Hopefully Greg Davis leaving Iowa brings life to Iowa City.