Iowa football: Five things we learned from Hawkeyes media day
By Andrew Wade
New Kirk is here to stay
Apparently, you can teach an old dog new tricks as we saw last year when the evolution of Kirk Ferentz sped up significantly. Gone was the traditional ball-control mantra and risk-averse decision making. In was trick plays, 4th-down attempts, a stray away from traditional defensive alignments and more. And most Iowa football fans loved it.
In speaking with the media, it sounds like Kirk is planning to stick to his new ways when the opportunity presents itself of course. He credited special teams coach Levar Woods for getting him to open his mind up a bit when it came to trick plays, and Kirk said it makes plenty of sense from a game-planning perspective because it keeps opposing teams on their toes.
"You know, if it’s one more way to make somebody have a tougher time preparing for us or keeping them on edge, then yeah, we’ll definitely try to be smart about that."
Defensively, as most are aware by now, the Iowa football team’s transition to a 4-2-5 is in full force, and even on the first depth chart, there was a spot specifically for the “cash” position.
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To be fair, we’re not going to see the Iowa football team start every game in this alignment. There are still a few traditional teams in the Big Ten who like to pound the ball like Wisconsin, but when the Hawks are facing a spread offense, they’ll be ready. With a full offseason of installing this defensive package, I expect the Iowa football team’s defense to be even better in 2019.