Deacon Hill and the Iowa Hawkeyes must find a way to turn things around on offense quick after a brutal loss to Minnesota, falling out of the Top-25
IOWA CITY, Iowa– It usually doesn’t matter if you’re playing peewee, high school, or even flag football. 2 total yards in the second half of a football game doesn’t win football games. And for the Iowa Hawkeyes, they learned that the hard way.
Blame it on a controversial call, blame it on Cade McNamara’s torn ACL, but there’s one glaring fact that has haunted the Hawkeyes ever since offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz took the helm. Iowa has no offense.
For years, and the beginning part of this season, the Hawkeyes figured out ways to win games despite the offense’s horrendous play. That was because Iowa landed former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara who was the starter in Ann Arbor until superstar JJ McCarthy came along to snatch the role. McNamara’s presence hoped to give the Hawkeyes some semblance of offensive output, but it was futile at best.
Now, with injuries to their starting quarterback and both their starting tight ends, it doesn’t help an offense in duress. The Hawkeyes have made their living off of winning ugly, frankly without any regard for moving the ball downfield. As the Black and Gold enters their bye week they rank last nationally in yards per game at 232.4, completion percentage (44.1%), and are third from last in passing yards per game (116.5), offensive yards per play (4.12) and third-down percentage (26.4%).
All of these statistics make the 2022 Iowa season look like an offensive masterclass, but the truth is, Ferentz has had these issues since he took over under his dad, Kirk.
“We’re going to have to find answers moving forward,” Kirk Ferentz said.
The offense has been able to ride off the coattails of defensive standouts such as Cooper DeJean who put on a show, even with a game-winning punt called back. It’s a miracle the Hawkeyes were still in the game versus Minnesota. It’s a miracle that this team is 6-2 eight games in. It’s truly a miracle that Brian Ferentz isn’t packing a U-Haul headed for the hills right now.
In Iowa City, a backup quarterback is one of the most popular members of the team. Since 2017, when Ferentz took over as head play caller, devoted fans have been screaming for his head and a quarterback turnover ever since. Yet, fans seldom got one. This year was supposed to be the year everything changed. McNamara was supposed to be the Hawkeyes’ savior, an offense was supposed to emerge from the trenches, and Iowa was supposed to be in the college football playoff race going into their off week.
Instead, McNamara tore his ACL against Michigan State, the offense is one of the worst in the Power-Five, and Iowa has been all but eliminated from playoff contention with their second loss against an unranked Minnesota. It has all fallen apart, and there’s nowhere left to point other than to the offense.
Backup quarterback Deacon Hill has proven he cannot get the job done. His inconsistency has been anything but clutch, throwing an interception just shortly after Cooper DeJean’s ill-fated faux punt return was called back. With starting field position at mid-field, Deacon Hill failed to even gain a yard, instead throwing the ball straight to Minnesota DB Justin Walley.
“They clearly made Deacon uncomfortable, and that led to some bad things for us,” Kirk Ferentz said. “We have to find a way to protect him a little bit better and get the ball out of his hands a little quicker, and he’s got some ownership in that, too.”
“Those are some of the things I think we saw maybe back in August, and I thought he moved passed it, and there was a little bit of revert on it. We have to get him back on his feet and get him playing a little bit more decisively, and we have to find a way to get the running game going because that’s obviously going to take some pressure off of him.”
Against Iowa’s 31-0 beatdown at Penn State, even when they had Cade McNamara at the helm, head coach Ferentz was reluctant to instill a new gameplan or even accept the fact that Iowa needed a major change, “I’m not a wholesale believer in just changing because you had a bad game, and that was not a good game. I think we made progress in three weeks.”
WHY A QUARTERBACK MATTERS: The Quarterback Market Has Blown Up. How’d It Happen?
Iowa’s Drive to 325 program puts Ferentz in the hot seat immediately, a contractually mandated number that requires Brian Ferentz to win seven games and score 325 points over the course of the season in order for the offensive coordinator to keep his job. For Iowa to reach its 325-point goal, it will need to score 33.8 points per game, including a bowl appearance.
Iowa is painfully off pace sitting nearly 14% behind the average it should be scoring through eight weeks. Iowa has only scored 25+ points once in the last five weeks, a measly 26 against Michigan State.
However with all this, the Hawkeyes might still be bailed out by what is undoubtedly the worst division in Power-Five football. If the team wins out, they are surely to win the Big-Ten West, pitting them in the Big-Ten Championship in Indianapolis. Ferentz’s teams have done absurdly well when pitted against adversity. But this is a new age of college football, the Hawkeyes are battered, bruised, and shown they cannot compete against even Minnesota at home. Whoever they face in the Big Ten Championship, are bound to boatrace the Hawkeyes into oblivion unless some sort of catalyst changes the sail of this ship for the better.
“I just think we didn’t execute. I didn’t execute. So it’s kind of simple as that,” Hill said after the game.
“[The two fumbles] were inexcusable. I have to hold onto the ball whether a guy is hitting me or not. I’ve got to hold onto the ball. That is on me, no one else. I have to eat that one. On the interception, I was just trying to get to the sticks. I had Nico (Ragaini), and I just missed on it. I wish I could have it back, but I can’t.”
Something must churn for the Iowa offense, and fast. Too many things are on the line after nearly five years of offensive malpractice.
