Eagle-96

Then we can dig it. He's a complicated man but no one understands him but his woman.

Apparently Sagarin disagrees: 2005 rankings: CONFERENCE CENTRAL MEAN SIMPLE AVERAGE TEAMS 1 BIG TEN (A) = 80.76 80.34 ( 1) 11 2 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 79.78 79.49 ( 3) 12 3 PAC-10 (A) = 79.43 79.63 ( 2) 10 4 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 77.91 77.81 ( 4) 12 5 BIG 12 (A) = 75.55 75.97 ( 5) 12 6 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 72.15 71.41 ( 7) 9 7 BIG EAST (A) = 71.48 72.13 ( 6) 8 8 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 67.51 68.34 ( 8) 3 9 CONFERENCE USA (A) = 64.71 65.15 ( 10) 12 2004 Final Rankings: CONFERENCE CENTRAL MEAN SIMPLE AVERAGE TEAMS 1 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 77.91 78.09 ( 2) 11 2 PAC-10 (A) = 77.84 78.89 ( 1) 10 3 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 76.98 76.98 ( 4) 2 4 BIG 12 (A) = 76.42 77.08 ( 3) 12 5 BIG TEN (A) = 75.63 75.29 ( 5) 11 6 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 74.13 74.31 ( 6) 12 7 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 72.08 72.91 ( 7) 8 8 BIG EAST (A) = 71.98 71.56 ( 8) 7 9 WESTERN ATHLETIC (A) = 67.40 68.40 ( 9) 10 2003 Final Rankings: CONFERENCE CENTRAL MEAN SIMPLE AVERAGE TEAMS 1 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 79.91 79.11 ( 1) 9 2 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 79.62 78.67 ( 2) 12 3 BIG TEN (A) = 77.59 76.44 ( 4) 11 4 PAC-10 (A) = 76.37 76.79 ( 3) 10 5 BIG 12 (A) = 76.25 75.61 ( 5) 12 6 BIG EAST (A) = 74.45 73.86 ( 6) 8 7 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 71.85 72.14 ( 7) 8 8 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 70.49 70.08 ( 8) 4 9 CONFERENCE USA (A) = 65.12 64.16 ( 10) 11 2002 Final Rankings: CONFERENCE CENTRAL MEAN SIMPLE AVERAGE TEAMS 1 BIG 12 (A) = 79.01 78.17 ( 2) 12 2 PAC-10 (A) = 78.84 79.14 ( 1) 10 3 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 78.69 78.13 ( 3) 12 4 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 77.99 77.38 ( 4) 9 5 BIG TEN (A) = 77.50 77.12 ( 5) 11 6 BIG EAST (A) = 76.56 75.26 ( 6) 8 7 MOUNTAIN WEST (A) = 66.39 66.71 ( 7) 8 8 CONFERENCE USA (A) = 65.54 64.63 ( 9) 10 9 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 65.03 66.03 ( 8) 6 BTW: My quotes say "pretty good" and "good but not great". That is a far cry from "not too good".

Can't we all just get along?

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from 2001-2004(your timeframe not mine) Utah: 9-4 (69%)(played in a BCS Bowl last season) Bowling Green: 6-2 (75%) Louisville: 8-3 (73%) (parlayed their record into a BCS conference invite) Fresno State: 9-6 (60%)

How is that idiotic? I guess that every team in the SEC is a powerhouse in your opinion. First you say "Take any team in the SEC and then you say minus Vandy. Well they are in the SEC right? What about Miss State the last 4 years they are 11-35. Kentucky is 15-31(outstanding record)Ole Miss is 28-20(not exactly setting the world on fire). South Carolina is 25-22(stellar).

I will admit that OU and UT are powerhouses and are very tough opponents but lets look at the records of the other OOC opponents the year we played them: 2001: TCU: 6-6(not a good team) Texas Tech: 7-5(1 win against 1-AA) South Florida: 8-3(4 wins against 1-AA teams) Troy:7-4(transitional 1-A) Colorado State: 7-5(decent team) 2002: Alabama: 10-3(good but not great) TCU: 10-2(another team that is pretty good) Arizona: 4-8(1 win against 1-AA) South Florida: 9-2(2 wins agains 1-AA) 2003: Air Force: 7-5(1 win against 1-AA) Arkansas: 9-4(pretty good team) Memphis: 9-4 2004: Florida Atlantic: 9-3(transitionl 1-A) Colorado: 8-5(pretty good) Baylor: 3-8(1 win against 1-AA) Southern Miss: 7-5(decent team) Yes I complain about OOC losses to these teams. They are not exactly world beaters we were playing.

Do not taunt Happy Fun Cerebus.

I agree with you about the level of class displayed by Shaft. I was embarrased by the fact that we both support the same school after the comment about Drew. I do however beleive that Shaft has the right to say it and then deal with the comments that everyone else on the board makes about the assinine comment he/she made. As long as someone is not attacking someone else or spewing profane or hateful language, I say let 'em post.

I don't think Shaft should be banned. We do live in America ya know. That being said, I do think his/her post was way out of line and uncalled for. Shame on you Shaft.

The straight answer is DD doesn't let his QB's audible. As slow as plays get in from the sidelines there isn't any time to audible anyway.

Sorry, were you serious?

This may not sound right at first but I think that DD needs to open up the entire playbook to Meager. When Drew came in for Hall a few years ago he was limited to 40-50% of the playbook in the words of DD. Meager is in the same boat as DD stated that he would simplify things for Daniel. This just sets Meager up for failure. with 40% of the playbook it may makes the offense waaaayyyyy to predictable and allows the defense to tee us up. Troy put 8 men in the box all night long. They brought linebackers from the outside. They stunted their lineman. They allowed their safeties to fill the gaps up front. They basically used one safety in coverage and rolled him to where ever JQ was at. If Meager has more diversity in the play selection then it might keep the defenses guessing and would give him more opportunities to succeed.

1. Balance DOES NOT equate to creativity. Let's say you run the same 4-5 running plays 80% of the time and the same 4-5 passing plays 20% of the time. That is unimaginative AND uncreative. If you balance those same 4-5 running plays and 4-5 passing plays to 50-50 than you have more balance but the same amount of creativity and imagination. 2. Look at our passing plays: inside wide receiver screen quick out swing pass(and I don't mean the type where the rb is the 3rd or 4th option. I mean the one where that is the designed play.) straight go by one receiver with max protection then lay it up and hope the receiver can catch it in double coverage. Where are the mis-direction and crossing patterns. Where are the bootlegs of the non-naked variety. Where is the double tight end release out of the jumbo set. Where are the designed rolling pockets. Where is the shovel pass. 3. Look at our running plays. Where are the counters Where are the trap plays Where are the short handoffs out of the power I. Where are the sweeps and naked bootlegs down at the goalline. We continue to zone block and defenses continue to stunt and blitz which will confuse the zone scheme and leave 1-2 players in the backfiled 70% of the time. We need to go back to straight-up man blocking until we can gain some consistency.

Some great quotes from Hayden Fry: "It's a lot easier to turn a program around with a chucker and a catcher than with big bulls up front." "It would be wonderful if I could be a real nice guy and get it done, but I can't." "Next year we'll have Nebraska right where we want 'em. Off our schedule." "I believe in treating a player like a king until he shows me he's a bum." "I'm a salesman. I think 95 percent of coaching is selling, because you're working with people. Where I come from it's called selling the sizzle before the steak." "Show me a coach who's a real good golfer and I will whip him in football." "You've got to dance with the one who brung you."

Great Fry Article: http://www.hawkcentral.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...0309/1053/HAWKS Imagine life without the University of Iowa football team. Weird, isn't it? In the late 1970s, after nearly two decades of losing, there were some people who thought UI would be better off not having a football team. In stepped Hayden Fry, hired to rescue the sinking program in December 1978. "There were a number of people in town, particularly in the academic world, that thought the football program was so embarrassing we should do away with it," Fry said recently from his home in Mesquite, Nev. "I even had some of them write me letters when I first arrived and just flat out told me that I had taken over an impossible job." The letter writers underestimated Fry, who will be among the 22 people enshrined today at the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Ind. With a style born in the South, Fry won 232 football games as a head coach. Only 10 coaches have more wins. When he came to Iowa in 1978, Fry already had won 89 games by rebuilding the football programs at Southern Methodist University and North Texas State. He walked into Iowa City determined to do the same at Iowa. The letters simply made him more determined. Before long, nobody was talking about dropping football, but they were talking about the Iowa football team. Fry took a program that had been the laughingstock of the Big Ten and made it a conference champion and Rose Bowl representative in just three seasons. He took a community that was numb about losing and gave it something to feel good about. And he took a conference that for so long had been dominated by Michigan and Ohio State and broke the stranglehold. The Rose Bowl season of 1981 ranks as one of the greatest achievements in school history. It was the start of a glorious 20-year run under Fry that was highlighted by three Big Ten titles, 14 bowl games and his Texas charm. "The first thing I think of is it's a great tribute to all my assistant coaches and guys like Bump Elliott, as well as my players, because everybody had to work together as a family and as a team to achieve it," said Fry, who retired from coaching after the 1998 season. "You can't do it by yourself. "It'll be my name and it'll be my honor, but behind the scenes are all the other great people." Ahead of his time Kansas State coach Bill Snyder was among those who worked behind the scenes during Iowa's rise to national prominence under Fry. Snyder was member of Fry's original staff at Iowa, serving as offensive coordinator. Together, they helped change the face of Big Ten football by installing a wide-open passing attack at a time when most of the teams preferred to run. He made opponents adjust to his team's style of play. And because of that, he made the improbable seem probable. "We just live in a society where virtually anything can happen," said Snyder, who left Iowa after the 1988 season and has since built the Kansas State program into a national power. "I don't think that precludes the game of football." But it still took someone unique to make it happen at Iowa, especially over a long period of time. The four coaches that preceded Fry at Iowa failed to do it and ultimately lost their jobs. "The whole story on Hayden is he was able to come in here and sustain a successful program for 20 years when most of the coaches during the 20th century at Iowa had failed," said George Wine, who worked as the Iowa sports information director from 1968 to 1993. Bad news Hawkeyes Iowa football hadn't been successful since the late 1950s under coach Forest Evashevski. However, that was during an era when most players went both ways because of rules that limited substitutions. "(Fry's predecessor) Bob Commings had me convinced that the only way Iowa would ever again compete for a championship in the Big Ten is if the NCAA changed its rule and went back to limited substitutions," Wine said. "He just thought we didn't have the recruiting base in Iowa to compete with Michigan and Ohio State and so on." Commings had an 18-37 record coaching from 1974 to 1978. Jerry Burns (16-27-2), Ray Nagel (15-32-2) and Frank Lauterbur (4-28-1) had not had any luck duplicating Evashevski's success before him. Iowa athletic director Bump Elliott was determined to prove Commings wrong. He also needed a strong hire to help save his job. So when Commings was fired after the 1978 season, Elliott immediately began pursuing Fry, who had just led North Texas State to a 9-2 record. There was pressure on Elliott to find the right person because his previous two hires for football, Commings in 1974 and Lauterbur in 1971, were failures. "I think Hayden was it," Wine said. "Sometimes, they only give you two chances. Bump had three." Getting a commitment Fry was adamant about what he needed to be successful at Iowa. His first demand was a commitment from then University of Iowa President Williard "Sandy" Boyd. Before he officially would accept the job, Fry had to be convinced that Boyd was serious about supporting the football program. He put Boyd on the spot during a pre-hiring meeting with school officials. "I asked President Boyd right in front of all them, I said, 'President Boyd, do you really want a football program of excellence just like you do academically for the University of Iowa?'" Fry said. "Well, obviously, he had to say yes. He made a commitment to help us." Upon arriving at Iowa, Fry inherited a group of disillusioned, but hungry players, who had been beaten down, both physically and mentally. "I never set a timetable, and I think that helped us win that quickly because you never want to underestimate a group of young men as hungry as what I inherited," said Fry, who overcame a battle with prostate cancer that was diagnosed near the end of his coaching career. But while the players were hungry to win, they also were undisciplined and sloppy about their behavior and appearance. Fry quickly changed that. As a former Marine, Fry valued discipline, and he knew how to enforce it. He preached to his players that part of being successful on the field is being successful off it. "It all goes together to become a winner," Fry said. "A lot of those kids wanted to win, but they were lackadaisical about their schoolwork, about the way they took care of themselves and about the way they talked. "We eliminated the profanity. We eliminated them being late for practice or meetings, even if I had to get an assistant coach to go over to the dorm in the morning to get them out of bed and walk them to class." Immediate impact Fry's meticulous approach paid immediate dividends as Iowa finished 5-6 overall and 4-4 in the Big Ten in his first season in 1979. The Hawkeyes had finished only 2-9 the previous season. After slipping to 4-7 in 1980, Fry and his cohorts shocked the college football world in 1981 by making it to the Rose Bowl for the first time 23 years. "That very first championship had to be one of the most memorable times in my life," said Elliott, who retired as UI athletic director in 1991. Playing for Fry was one of the most memorable and rewarding times in Marv Cook's life. Cook grew up in West Branch and came to Iowa with little fanfare. He left in 1988 as a consensus all-America tight end. "I think the main reason for his success was the person he is," Cook said of Fry. "He had a knack. Every time I sat in a team meeting with 120 or 130 guys, I thought he was talking right to me. "He had a great way to communicate and a great way to motivate each player." Fry's success at Iowa reached a peak in 1985, when the team, which featured all-America quarterback Chuck Long, was ranked No. 1 in the country for five weeks during the season. Iowa went on to win the second of three Big Ten titles under Fry that season, while Long finished runner-up for the 1985 Heisman Trophy. Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz was the offensive line coach on Fry's staff from 1981 to 1989. Ferentz said there are "a ton of reasons" why Fry was successful. "First and foremost, he just has a great gift with people," Ferentz said. "I think he sizes things up pretty well and knows where to focus, what buttons to hit. "The other thing, I think he's a great football coach." The fact that Fry stayed at Iowa for 20 seasons is a major part of his legacy. So are the 13 winning seasons, the countless jokes and silly catch phrases and the money he helped to raise for UI. Fund-raising significantly increased after Iowa started having success under Fry in the early 1980s. "He stimulated the giving to the university because he was able to contact a lot of people about the success of the football team," said Iowa City resident Earl Yoder, who is a member of the UI Foundation Board and one of Fry's closest friends. "He has a tremendous amount of respect among his peers."

You make some great points but Dickey is the one who is responsible for obtaining what he has.

After seeing the results of the firts 4 games, how many will we put in the win column this season.

I am not the one calling it imagination. So talk to EulessEagle about that one. Just because you balance the running to passing ratio does not mean you are being imaginative. I'd just like to see more than the quick out, wr inside screen, and go pattern.

1) You are dead on. 2) The problem is that DD should sit a player for and personal foul whther it be for one play or ten plays. The coach has to set the tone with a player that things like that will not be tolerated. If a player thinks that the coach won't bench him just because the team is thin then there is nothing to deter that kind of stupid mistake. At the end of the first half, we hold Troy and set ourselves up to get a punt with a minute and a half left. Cotton mixes it up with a player after the whistle and Troy gets a first down and runs the clock out. STUPID. Cotton gets a pat on the butt and remains in the game. Covington gets a personal foul and sustains a Troy dive. STUPID. Paton the butt and an atttaboy.

EE you are beyond dead wrong. If you consider 1 wr option play imagination then you need some serious help with your sense of reality. I guess you consider running AND passing to be "mixing up the plays".

We have beaten up on the SunBelt for 4 years. SO WHAT. The Sun Belt is terrible, and that is being kind.

Well, off to the game. TEXAS!!!!

The Dalllas Morning News is reporting that Jon Daniels will replace John Hart as Rangers general manager.