maly, too: An ESPN.com Take On the Hawkeyes

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

An ESPN.com Take On the Hawkeyes

By JOSH MEYER

ESPN.com

Kirk Ferentz looked like a politician Tuesday as he leaned forward, wearing a red tie, and fielded questions about his Iowa Hawkeyes. He alternated between taking sips of coffee and water, while topics ranged from Jake Rudock's interceptions to the lack of a pass rush.

Despite everything that was discussed, Tuesday's news conference basically revolved around one simple theme: Is losing a 30-27 game to MAC school Northern Illinois part of the new normal for Iowa?
The Hawkeyes' longtime coach has more questions than answers right now. Surely he'd like to think this is just part of some unlucky trend -- one that's seen him lose five times by a field goal or less in the last 12 games -- but the point is it's a losing trend. And Ferentz hasn't yet found a way to reverse it.
Iowa fell to Central Michigan last season 32-31, and lost to the Huskies on Saturday. Ferentz last lost to a MAC team in 2007. Before that? In 2000, his second year as head coach.
Maybe Ferentz's best days are behind him; maybe not. That's not something that was answered by just the Northern Illinois game, a matchup that pitted the best player in the MAC -- dual-threat QB Jordan Lynch -- against a defense that averaged about a sack a game in 2012.
But Ferentz knows what his team has to do to find a favorable solution. The Hawkeyes must pick up the pieces and limit turnovers and big plays.
"The next step," he said, "is you need to learn how to win."
This is just the first bell in a 12-round bout, but the Hawkeyes are reeling right now. This loss isn't nearly on the same scale as other upsets over the weekend. It's still painful, but Iowa isn't South Florida. There are still reasons for fans clad in black and yellow to cheer.
For one, this offense might not be near the best in the Big Ten -- but it's no longer anemic. It rushed for 202 yards Saturday, a full 99 yards more than last season's average. Mark Weisman reached the century mark rushing and averaged 5 yards a carry.
Rudock tossed an interception that led to the Huskies' game-winning field goal, but he threw for 256 yards -- 69 yards more than the Iowa norm in 2012. So what, then, is holding this offense back? Why did it manage to score only two touchdowns?
No doubt Ferentz will be breaking down the film and looking for answers. But offensive coordinator Greg Davis needs to take some of the blame here. He curiously abstained from using his running backs on third-and-short during the second half and, on a key third-and-9 play late in the game, he called Kevonte Martin-Manley's number ... on a bubble screen. The play went for 1 yard.
The pass-rush seems nonexistent and the secondary is still adjusting without Micah Hyde. But after the first game, this doesn't appear to be a bad team -- at least not worse than last year. It's a losing team right now, but there is a difference.
Ferentz will continue to field these questions until winning once again becomes a trend. Iowa should get an easy victory in Week 2 from Missouri State. But the hopes for a successful season seem pinned on Week 3, at Iowa State.
Iowa didn't pass its first test, but it showed potential. If it fails another, if improvement doesn't translate into victories, the questions might stop -- but Ferentz won't like the answers.

JOLTIN' JOE GOT IT STARTED

When Ron Maly was a kid in Cedar Rapids, he wanted to enter an essay contest, and he did. He wrote about Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees being his favorite baseball player. For finishing second in the contest, Ron won a Louisville Slugger baseball bat autographed by DiMaggio. Ron later wanted to be the first person in his family to attend college, and he was. He earned a degree in political science from the University of Iowa, and did what all political science majors do. He became a sportswriter. He had, after all, covered high school football, basketball and baseball games for the Cedar Rapids Gazette while he worked parttime during his university days. Ron wanted to sit in the press box and write about an Iowa-Minnesota football game, and he did. It happened while he was the sports editor at the Albert Lea [Minn.] Tribune, and the game was at Memorial Stadium in Minneapolis. Ron wanted to cover a World Series, and he did. Also when he was working for the Albert Lea newspaper. Ron wanted to cover Rose Bowls, Sugar Bowls, Orange Bowls, Cotton Bowls, Holiday Bowls, a Freedom Bowl, a Sun Bowl, a Super Bowl and NCAA basketball tournaments, and he did those things after he moved to Des Moines. Ron was a four-time sportswriter of the Year in the state of Iowa [the years were 1977, 1978, 1994 and 1996]. In 2006, he was named a charter member of the University of Iowa's media Wall of Fame in the Kinnick Stadium press box. A photo of the plaque that's displayed in the press box is displayed above this story. Following Ron's retirement from the newspaper business, a publisher asked him if he wanted to write a book about the rich football tradition at the University of Iowa, and he did. The hardback version of "Tales from the Iowa Sidelines" was a best-seller, and so was the revised, softback version. Now he's been asked by his publisher to update the book for a second time. He's in the process of doing that at the present time. Ron considers being asked to update a best-selling book for the second time to be the supreme compliment, considering the Hawkeyes won just four games in the 2012 season. When Ron isn't working on books, he's busy traveling and spending time with his family. Indeed, he attends the athletic, theatrical and musical [both vocal and instrumental] events in which his six grandchildren participate. He also writes about anything that interests him for his many websites. Every chance he gets, Ron proudly wears his America Needs Farmers T-shirt.

The Hawkeyes' Rich Football Tradition, Revisited

I mentioned a while back that I was in the process of updating my Tales from the Iowa Sidelines book. Updating it for the second time. The original hardback edition of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines [pictured at the right] was published in 2003, during the 10-3 season, when coach Kirk Ferentz and his Iowa football team had a 10-3 record that included a 37-17 victory over 15th-ranked Florida in the Outback Bowl and after the Hawkeyes went 11-2 in 2002. That book was a best-seller, so the publishers came to me again in 2005, a season that finished with a breathtaking 30-25 victory over No. 11 Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl on New Year's Day, 2005. Because buyers had cleaned out the the shelves in the bookstores, the publishers wanted to know if I'd do an updated version of the book. I agreed, The revised, soft-cover edition [pictured at the left] was published in 2005. Warren Holloway, who teamed with quarterback Drew Tate on a miraculous 56-yard touchdown pass to win the Capital One Bowl, was featured on the cover. That book, too, turned into a best-seller, So I had reason to feel very good about my years as a published author. It's not every day that a the original version is a best-seller, and so is the updated version. Then, imagine my surprise when I received an e-mail from a senior editor at the publishing company last fall, wanting wanted to know if I was interested in doing a second updated version of the book. It came at a time when things weren't going well for the Hawkeyes in the 2012 season. They lost their last six games and finished with a 4-8 record. Frankly, the thought of doing a revised edition of the book during a 4-8 season seemed to be a stretch. "Maybe producing a revised edition in a year or two would be a better idea," I told the publishers. "We'd like to do it now," I was told. "Let me think about it," I said. After a few days of thought, I accepted the idea. I talked myself into the idea that this was the supreme compliment--being asked to do a second book update during a 4-8 season showed strong confidence by the publishers in me and in the Hawkeyes' football program. So I got back into the business of interviewing players and coaches again, going to postgame press conferences, weekly press conferences and a scrimmage in West Des Moines. After a press conference in Iowa City, I did a one-on-one interview with coach Kirk Ferentz, and mentioned to him that I was in the process of doing a revised edition of my two best-selling books. I congratulated him on the excellent things he had done for Iowa's football program--all of which contributed to the success of my books. "I think Coach Fry had more to do with it," he told me, bringing up the name of Hayden Fry, his one-time boss at Iowa and a man who brought Iowa's football program back from the dead in the 20th century. That's modest Kirk Ferentz for you. Even though the 2012 season wasn't something Hawkeye coaches, players and fans will recall with any special feeling, Ferentz has a 14-year record of 100-74 at Iowa that includes two 11-victory seasons [2002 smd 2009], two 10-victory seasons [2003 and 2004], plus he's been the Big Ten coach of year in 2002, 2004 and 2009, and national coach of the year in 2002. Indeed, Ferentz has done some wonderful things at Iowa City, and I fully expect his success to continue. I've concluded my writing for the second update of Tales from the Iowa Sidelines, and the senior editor has furnished me with an early look at the book. Not only are the Kirk Ferentz years included in the updated version, but so is the stuff I previously wrote about Howard Jones, Dr. Eddie Anderson, Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick and the 1939 Hawkeye Ironmen, Ronald Reagan, Ozzie Simmons, Ossie Solem, Randy Duncan, Alex Karras and lots of other legends from Iowa's rich football history. I expect the book to be in stores soon. I hope you like it.