It’s the bye week and that means no Kirk this week. With KF on break, we’re giving your boy Matt C the day off as well and that means you’re stuck with me and Iowa’s three coordinators.
Not a ton of newsy stuff in the pressers this week, but there was some good content, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Let’s go ahead and dive in to what was said on Tuesday when Phil Parker, LeVar Woods and Tim Lester met with the Iowa media.
Phil Parker and the Iowa Defense
We start with the stalwart here and Phil Parker is the same as
always. Not a ton of info to digest from Parker this week, but he did spend some time talking about the timing of the bye week and how this one is a bit different than the first go around.
Well, I’m kind of a routine guy so I’d like to have no byes and just keep playing, but there’s a bye. It gives us an opportunity, it gives our kids an opportunity to rest a little bit, refresh, and I think it kind of worked out perfect. You have five, you have three, and then there’s the home stretch in there. I think the guys needed it. It’s a wear and tear on your body. It’s a physical game. It’s a wear and tear every day in the weight room. You go all the way back to January to now, these kids have been working really hard.
Wait a minute, you mean to tell me KF’s staff is routine? We landed on the moon!
It’s hard not to agree with Phil here though. It seems like it may have benefited Iowa to have the bye the week after this Oregon matchup when they have to travel west to face off with USC in LA, especially with the Hawkeyes on a roll.
Parker went on to talk through the fact Oregon also has a bye this week and that perhaps they get a little bit of an edge given the travel aspect of this particular matchup.
They have a bye week, too, so does that give them a chance to adjust what they’re thinking. I don’t know where their advantage comes besides they’ve got to travel here and we don’t; we’re already here.
I think it’s all going to be played in between the white lines, the strategy. I think the biggest thing is how do they take advantage of this week and how do they prepare to be ready for the game. That’s the most important thing. How do they process. I think we have a lot of mature kids that understand what it takes.
Iowa has always valued experience and we’ve mocked the union card bit under Ferentz for a long time, but with a DC like Parker who demands knowledge and playing with feel, it certainly makes sense. Phil alludes to that importance being elevated this week with perhaps an expectation Oregon will use tempo to create opportunities.
Awareness is a big thing that I think some guys just don’t understand the awareness, how fast. They could speed up the game. Some guys don’t speed it up, like Minnesota wasn’t going to the line that quickly and fast, fast-paced.
These guys, I can see them switching gears a little bit and trying to get us off pace not lined up, and I think they’ve seen that happen to some other teams already that were watching that didn’t actually get lined up before the ball was snapped.
So, how does Parker counter that? He was asked how he will approach the Ducks after have some success against Indiana, but giving up some big plays on blitzes. Unsurprisingly, he was a bit coy.
Well, if you want me to call Dan I’ll call him and let him know. But no, just going to your point, every game is different in how they’re playing the game. Obviously their personnel is going to be different than the ones we’ve faced.
Obviously there’s times and risk and reward about bringing pressure when you have to, and I’m very selective when I try to do that, and I try to plan it out but sometimes it doesn’t work, and nobody really knows what I called, so I can get away with that…
You can have a plan, but that plan might change during the game. Can we get to the quarterback, how fast is the quarterback getting the ball out, what do they want to do, do they want to run the ball more. We have to be more precise and pick and choose when we want to come after somebody.
Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth. Ironically, while Phil seems to be saying that about Iowa, it feels pretty applicable to virtually every high powered offense that has come to Kinnick over the years. Ho-hum Iowa just sits in there base defense playing zone, they run the ball, we have a plan to attack them and make them play our game. Then you get smacked in the mouth for 45 minutes and next thin you know, it’s the fourth quarter, you’re covered in mud and realize you didn’t bring a rock to the rock fight.
Guess what? Phil Parker ain’t changing!
You pick up little things, but I don’t think I’m going to change the way I’ve been working for the last I don’t know how many years, but it runs out. But I’m going to be the same with how we do it.
In case you were wondering if the Iowa D will be playing any sort of chip on their shoulder this week, Parker’s best line of the day came in response to the last question he fielded. Asked about this high-powered Oregon O, averaging 40-points per game, Parker pulled no punches.
They have some — you start looking at their personnel, they’ve got probably about three or four backs that are really good backs and highly touted backs. The receivers are a couple of young freshmen and they’re playing and they can run and they’re fast. So you worry about that. The two tight ends are dynamic, and a big offensive line. They have the whole package. It’s well funded, if I can put it that way.
Yeah, Phil wants that a$$.
LeVar Woods and the Iowa Special Teams
Let’s turn from defense to special teams where coordinator LeVar Woods brought the juice. In a world where KF gets the bland reputation (I would urge anyone who thinks the guys doesn’t coach with the same level of emotion as red face Fran to pull up any clip of him on the sideline when Iowa is called for a chop block or watch any of the post-game locker room videos that are out there), Woods is all energy both on the sidelines and on the podium. He was amped talking about Kaden Wetjen this week.
With Kaden — the sky’s the limit for him. One, he’s fearless, which you have to be to be a returner, especially a punt returner because there’s not much time you have to make a quick decision, people are bearing down on you right away. He’s built low to the ground, which helps him because he’s sturdy, he’s not going to go down on the first hit, and I think he does a great job making decisions and judgment.
It didn’t always happen that way. It wasn’t that way at the beginning. He had to work. He had to put in his time. I think he’s a very unique story in that when he came here, he was fast and he was going 100 different directions fast but never the right direction, and I think he put in the time and he learned and he studied, and it’s become a thing for him.
This feels like an infomercial for the process the Iowa staff uses. You might get promised early playing time or a starting spot by the boat rower, but you come to Iowa, get coached up and do what we ask and you’re going to succeed long term.
Those people were so excited for him. It’s been fun to watch because he’s become an electric playmaker. He’s become dominant at what he does. You can feel the crowd anytime he’s back there. I can hear it through my headset. All of a sudden you hear the crowd just roar on their feet through a headset and people are talking on that. It’s fun to watch for sure.
I just wanted an excuse to post this clip and remember the excitement I feel every time they kick to this kid.
Speaking of looking for an excuse to post a video, Woods was also asked about KJ Parker’s absurd block on Minnesota’s punter on that Wetjen TD return. Sounds like it was a roller coaster ride of a week for Parker and thankfully, he ended it in the right place.
KJ has been a work in progress over fall camp and into this season and he’s done a really good job. He’ll be the first to tell you I gave him a tongue lashing like nobody’s business last week in practice, but he took it and he made the corrections and he improved and he goes out in the game and does it and does it well and makes two huge plays, almost blocks a punt, guy shanks it off 13 yards, sets up a score for us, and then the other one was a huge block for Kaden’s touchdown.
You can coach kids and you can try to put them in the best position, you can teach them and show them, but at some point they’ve got to go out and make the play, and I think KJ did that. He took the coaching and he’s improved.
Tim Lester and the Iowa Offense
Alright, time for the meaty stuff. Not that the Parker and Woods commentary wasn’t good, but in case you hadn’t noticed, Iowa has a real life, professional offensive coordinator and he is an interesting listen.
Let’s start with some commentary on the backup QBs, Jeremy Hecklinski and Hank Brown, as they battle it out during the bye week.
It’s close. They’re both young, right, but he (Hecklinski) had had a really good day. The day I talked to you, he had had a phenomenal day, and he had a great Wednesday of that first bye week.
Just understanding the offense, seeing where the ball needs to go, having the confidence. He has great anticipation. He hasn’t had to use it much thus far but still has a lot to learn. Made some mistakes today but made some huge throws today, as well.
You know, his anticipation is something that is natural to him, and he needs more reps. Running the plays where we get the coverage we want, understanding the timing of it and where to put the ball. Whereas Hank, who’s had a great day today, he needs to work better on when plays break down. Hank is really good when the picture is clear — it’s everything that every young quarterback goes through, and they’re all a little different, and you’re trying to get them to the same place.
But Heck has done a great job. He’s been relaxed when he went in there. RPO decisions have been solid. I wanted him to dump the ball off on the inverted triple option, but he chose to run it in, which is fine, which is weird because I would not have bet that he would not have passed that up and took it himself.
He was pretty excited to get in the paint, so it was fun to see. But he’s continuing to get better, and they’re competing.
This is a big week for them. Today was a good day, and tomorrow will be another one.
More on Hecklinski, who seems to be pretty clearly ahead of Brown at this point.
Really, I think one of the things that’s unique about him is his timing. He gets rid of the ball quick now. He doesn’t have to get his feet set. He can just blink and the ball is gone, which is different than Mark. Mark gets his feet set, gets it underneath him, so it takes him sometimes a little bit longer.
The biggest thing for him was time on task and understanding the play and where we’re trying to hit it because once he understands the play, then his skills really show. Early on he was trying to run that play, the timing of the play, what he’s looking at, what kind of RPO is it, what kind of check is it, run check wise. He had a couple run checks in the game I was proud of him, it’s not something I think he’s done a ton.
That’s the biggest thing is the more he’s around it, the more he understands where we’re going and why we’re going there and the timing of the whole thing, he’s got an unbelievable hard count, he got them to jump on the first play.
He’s starting to get comfortable with it, and then his skills can start showing you even more because he can start using them within the offensive structure, right…
He made a check out there today that was awesome. I don’t think anybody that was in there with him knew the check, but it was the right check. He had to tell everybody what to do to get the play off, but it was impressive.
I think this is the thing that is easiest to lose sight of as a fan in the stands. There is understanding the playbook as a position player and then there is understanding the playbook, where every player is supposed to go and knowing which play is appropriate vs certain fronts, coverages, etc. when given the choice at the line of scrimmage. Lester and the Hawkeyes are asking a lot of the QB and it take some time to get there.
Lester talked through Gronowski’s mastery of that aspect as well.
That’s the fun part about coaching Mark is you rarely have to correct him. He normally tells me what I’m about to say, like I have to hit that. You’re like, yes. Because I was about to say that.
So it’s fun to have a guy that really gets it and is trying to improve and understand what is we’re trying to do. We have to continue to get better doing it…
You saw him in and out of a ton this weekend. He went into one, into the one and then reracked the other one. I’m like, we just went into a play, out of a play, back into a play. Him and No. 3, they were literally staring at each other, like what are you going to do. He’d back up and he would go like this and then he’d come down and he’d do this, so we can go all day. He ended up picking the right one because the guy spun to the middle and we ran counter.
We had a deceptive play that he got out of and then turned it back on, and I wish he would have just stayed out of it because the safety was messing with him and the safety won that one.
But yeah, it’s been a lot of fun to watch his knowledge of the run game and being in control — it started at Rutgers; he was on it. It doesn’t mean you’re going to gash him when you run at their weakness, but the more you do it, when you hit it, you’re going to hit it. Two-yard runs or 4-yard runs, he just was able to get us into plays.
Give credit to everybody when you’re calling two plays in the huddle. Those guys are all dialed into which way when you’re going on, off, to rerack it. So that part is fun.
While Gronowski seems to have mastered the offense, Lester did address some of the issues throwing downfield and the impact of his knee injury on making those throws.
He got through his progressions a couple times, he’ll be the first to tell you that we were off balance a little bit. The ball accuracy wasn’t where we needed it to be, and that’s something he can do. He’s just getting comfortable. He’s wearing a brace on his front knee now, which it’s different to throw with that thing on. He’s getting more comfortable with it.
I think it’s just going to continue to get better…
As far as the passing game, yeah, the biggest thing is he sailed two corner routes, kind of locked out of his front knee. He has to balance that front knee out. He’s leading his back hip really well right now because that’s the healthy one. He’s actually playing lower, which I like. He has a ton of power. We have to control that front leg. He’s getting more and more comfortable with the — you have to twist. You have to rotate through that thing. When he gets it locked out, it sails. He has such a strong arm, it never comes down, it just keeps going. I think one of those corner routes might have landed in the stands, was like two weeks ago.
Then when he bends it too much, then he ends up being low. So he has kind of a low and high thing going on right now, which we can fix. It’s just time on task.
These are things that weren’t issues pre, and they’re showing up a couple times now, and as soon as he sees it, we talk about it, we drill it, and it’s gone. I’m kind of hoping that’s the same process that we go through with this.
It really makes you wonder what Gronowski and this offense would look like if he had been here for 3-4 years instead of one. Really hope Lester sticks in Iowa City and we get to see some of these younger QBs develop.
And speaking of keeping coaches around, Lester was asked about the impact of the analysts Iowa brought in this offseason.
It’s awesome. I just came out of the meeting. We’ve been in there for about an hour and a half, of just Billy and Warren’s presentation. They’ve been watching Oregon since last Wednesday, and so they summarize everything we’re going to see, they make cut-ups, we all sit and watch together, and we’ll start game planning probably tomorrow on it.
But having someone two or three days ahead — it’s unbelievable — like last year we’d start watching on Sunday night and then you’d have to put a game plan together which you’ve only watched like an hour or two of film, which feels horrible inside, and then you start — really you start getting settled with the defense…
So they’ve been able to speed all of us up by having all that information on day one. They have their ideas out there that have obviously been thought through many, many times from two really smart dudes. It’s helped us. I think it’s helped the scheme. We’ve been able to add our things to it and make adjustments to tie plays together. They actually meet before they present where they can tie the run and the pass together, the shifts, the motions to make plays look like plays and then I’ll normally add a couple more things.
It’s been working how I was hoping it would work, and they’ve done a phenomenal job. It’s great to have Warren in the room because when we’re talking about if something comes up or have they ever done this blitz with that coverage behind, if I don’t know it, I can just turn to him and get the answer immediately.
Not to just totally beat on a dead horse, but Iowa has three people in a room who all are better offensive coordinators than Brian Ferentz. Things are not perfect, but any and all jokes about the Iowa offense and the forward pass are hereby outdated and lazy.
If you needed any more reminder of that, Lester talked through his process on scripting plays and how that evolves each game.
Normally I’ve had as low as 11 and up to 18. It really depends how many slots I have left on my call sheet. I think last week it was like 15, 16.
Now, those are 1st and 2nd down calls. Everyone is different depending on what we’re trying to see. There’s certain times I want to see if they have an unbalanced check. I have to get that done in the first 10. I want to see in 11 or 12 in certain formations how they’re going to play us. Definitely want to move the pocket as fast as possible. Want to get the D-line, start to get them tired as fast as I can, try to get them sideline to sideline.
So there’s a lot of different things that go into that. But last week I just thought our guys did a great job executing. The first play we ran that play for a reason. We wanted to see what the Will linebacker did, we wanted to send a message to them that if they tried to fit this certain run play that way, you couldn’t, and Mark pulled it, they covered him, and Mark ran for eight yards, which we knew if they covered it well, he’d be free to go get some yards.
The Wetj screen was — obviously we’ve been running that play fairly well. Gets harder and harder to hide him, but he’s starting to become better, a better wide receiver, which is fun. But we ran that same play last week and we ran the bubble to him, so this time we brought him back underneath. The lineman did an unbelievable job of getting downfield.
But I come off that script on 3rd down in the red zone, so I think of that first 15, on that first drive we probably used — you guys probably know how many plays it was. It goes fast for me up there. Probably we used six of them, six or seven*, and then we go to the 3rd down, I go to the 3rd down calls, we hit the 25-yard line, I’m in a different box and I go back to it.
There was a game last year, it was Minnesota last year, I think I had like 20 openers, and I didn’t even get — at halftime I wasn’t done with them because you end up in the red zone and you’re not even in the openers. It’s just open field, first 10, first 15, whatever it is.
Professional. OC. Love it.
Here’s a video of the entire presser. Back to KF, Matt C and hopefully some brevity next week!
*Bolded for the kids. IYKYK
