I love Paul Rhoads, and I hope he stays at ISU for a very long time. He has made tremendous strides with this program.
However, he made a mistake IMO when he promoted Messingham to OC after the departure of Herman. Herman ended up being a mistake hire as well, but I liked it when it happened because I really thought he would be good, so Rhoads gets a pass on that one.
But... ISU was a HORRIBLE offense every single year under Tom Herman. Not just below average, we were awful offensively. Our offense under Herman was just painful to even watch.
I think a lot of fans were like me when we first heard Tom Herman was leaving.... good riddance! It was time to ditch that awful offensive scheme and bring someone in that knew how to move the football and score points. But instead, we promote Messingham and announce that the offense wouldn't really be changing much at all. And if anything, it would become even more vanilla and simpler under Messingham.... which boggled my mind because I already thought our offense was ridiculously predictable and boring.
So we are getting basically exactly what I figured we'd be getting. Yes, we are 3-1, but the offense only had one good game and that was against Tulsa. The offense nearly cost us the Iowa game, and it did cost us the TT game. It wasn't even good against Western Illinois.
So yes, Steele Jantz isn't really that good of a QB. But, as some have said, he's a square peg that we're trying to fit into a round hole. He can't run the zone read play at all. It's just ugly. And his passes are too inaccurate, so opposing defenses just stack the box. It's what Rutgers did to us in the bowl game, and I'm surprised that every team doesn't do it against us? I'd make Steele throw on every down. Barnett too. He can't throw either.
But this offense we run is pathetic IMO. When you are on the half yard line and you have your QB standing 7 yds behind the line of scrimmage handing it off to a RB who is at a complete standstill, that is a horrible offense. Sorry, it just is. And when your QB fakes the handoff to the RB up the middle, and then follows that same RB right into the hole... that is just plain stupid. You fake the ball up the middle to draw the defense to that RB, so why then follow him right into the pursuit? Steele does this all the time. It drives me insane!
The one play that has somewhat seemed to work for us this year is the WR bubble screen. But then against TT, we never run it. TT brings 8 guys up in the box and sends almost all of them up the gut at us, but we refuse to exploit the edges on them with the quick WR screen to the outside. And we refuse to exploit the area vacated by the blitzing LB's right over the middle with a quick slant to the TE.
I just can't hardly stomach watching this offense anymore. I wanted a new direction when Herman left, but no, I guess we were satisfied with his offense that was consistently one of the worst in the nation year after year.
At this point, I say start Steele this week and if he struggles early, then yank him. Bring in Barnett. And if he can't get anything going, then give Richardson a shot. I'm sick and tired of this "Richardson is just too young" BS. I've seen plenty of young QBs do well in college.
And if none of our QB's can get this awful scheme to work, then you have to replace Mess I'm afraid. The Mess Offense pretty much would perfectly describe this offense. It's a mess alright.
However, he made a mistake IMO when he promoted Messingham to OC after the departure of Herman. Herman ended up being a mistake hire as well, but I liked it when it happened because I really thought he would be good, so Rhoads gets a pass on that one.
But... ISU was a HORRIBLE offense every single year under Tom Herman. Not just below average, we were awful offensively. Our offense under Herman was just painful to even watch.
I think a lot of fans were like me when we first heard Tom Herman was leaving.... good riddance! It was time to ditch that awful offensive scheme and bring someone in that knew how to move the football and score points. But instead, we promote Messingham and announce that the offense wouldn't really be changing much at all. And if anything, it would become even more vanilla and simpler under Messingham.... which boggled my mind because I already thought our offense was ridiculously predictable and boring.
So we are getting basically exactly what I figured we'd be getting. Yes, we are 3-1, but the offense only had one good game and that was against Tulsa. The offense nearly cost us the Iowa game, and it did cost us the TT game. It wasn't even good against Western Illinois.
So yes, Steele Jantz isn't really that good of a QB. But, as some have said, he's a square peg that we're trying to fit into a round hole. He can't run the zone read play at all. It's just ugly. And his passes are too inaccurate, so opposing defenses just stack the box. It's what Rutgers did to us in the bowl game, and I'm surprised that every team doesn't do it against us? I'd make Steele throw on every down. Barnett too. He can't throw either.
But this offense we run is pathetic IMO. When you are on the half yard line and you have your QB standing 7 yds behind the line of scrimmage handing it off to a RB who is at a complete standstill, that is a horrible offense. Sorry, it just is. And when your QB fakes the handoff to the RB up the middle, and then follows that same RB right into the hole... that is just plain stupid. You fake the ball up the middle to draw the defense to that RB, so why then follow him right into the pursuit? Steele does this all the time. It drives me insane!
The one play that has somewhat seemed to work for us this year is the WR bubble screen. But then against TT, we never run it. TT brings 8 guys up in the box and sends almost all of them up the gut at us, but we refuse to exploit the edges on them with the quick WR screen to the outside. And we refuse to exploit the area vacated by the blitzing LB's right over the middle with a quick slant to the TE.
I just can't hardly stomach watching this offense anymore. I wanted a new direction when Herman left, but no, I guess we were satisfied with his offense that was consistently one of the worst in the nation year after year.
At this point, I say start Steele this week and if he struggles early, then yank him. Bring in Barnett. And if he can't get anything going, then give Richardson a shot. I'm sick and tired of this "Richardson is just too young" BS. I've seen plenty of young QBs do well in college.
And if none of our QB's can get this awful scheme to work, then you have to replace Mess I'm afraid. The Mess Offense pretty much would perfectly describe this offense. It's a mess alright.
