Ben Bruns KU Game Recap on Iowa Everywhere

[theshadow]

Shaggy hit 100% of his extra points - one of only three ISU kickers in history to do that. He was also asked to kick some really long ones that lowered his FG percentage

1 career attempt from 50+.

Freshman: 8-10, longest attempt 37
Sophomore: 12-16, longest attempt 45 (3-6 from 41-45)
Junior: 8-11, 3 attempts from 41+ (45 miss, 48 make, 52 make w/ a 15-20 mph tailwind)
Senior: 10-18, longest make 42, longest attempt 49, 0-5 from 44-49

 

[cyclones500]

You are spot on at game 5 with the overall at 3-2 when you switch Iowa with KU.

However with conference in full swing how do you see it play out for them going 5-2 to get to your 5-4?

A fair question! And a challenge. I wouldn't put $ on being able to get 5-of-7, but if it could happen, here's what I see as most "convenient" route:

Kansas State
West Virginia
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
at Texas or at TCU

 

[madguy30]

Quick question. For those that are the most upset, what were your expectations, honest expectations before the year started for wins. We were tagged as a 6.5 O/U in Vegas IIRC. Most of the people at the beginning was talking 5-7 wins. What were people expecting at the beginning?

I said 7.

I didn't anticipate things being a mess in week 5.

However, ISU has a history of revamping some things after weird weeks and coming out strong so maybe this is the week we see some real progress.

 

[StPaulCyclone]

I only think it was our brand of football though because we had no depth. We had to control the ball on offense to keep our defense rested, and off the field. But it seems to me our 2 deep is as strong as anyone else’s now. So I dont think this is as true as in the past. And with media timeouts, does anyone even break a sweat anymore?

I hear what your saying, but based on recruiting ranks; our 2 deeps are maybe *as* strong as maybe 4-5 teams in the league.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Quick question. For those that are the most upset, what were your expectations, honest expectations before the year started for wins. We were tagged as a 6.5 O/U in Vegas IIRC. Most of the people at the beginning was talking 5-7 wins. What were people expecting at the beginning?

I was at 6-6 but I also expected to include KU in the win column. Them being an over-hyped media darling doesn’t change that.

 

[StPaulCyclone]

The idea is to be a Big 10 brand of football in the Big 12 conference. Control the line of scrimmage and be able to run the ball and defend the run. You hear the term complimentary football from MC and the staff. The compliment to this defense is an offense which controls the LOS doesn’t turn it over. If they throw the ball 55 times a game that will not compliment the defense.

The ball control isn’t about getting tired, although that can be a byproduct, moreover it is about forcing the opposing offense into uncomfortable situation. Being down 7 and knowing that there are only going to be 6-7 drives in this game. It causing offensive coordinators to panic. In order to execute against Heacock you typically will need 9+ play drives and most college teams can’t or won’t be that patient.

Bill Snyder approves this message.

 

[Westside clone]

I shouldn’t have ideas. I’m not a coach.

If you are honestly comparing prohm and Campbell, then you are even more delusional than I thought. Look—-I’ll defend our guys well past the appropriate time. It’s a fault of mine (although I like to think of it as being overly kind and realizing that I don’t know anything). So when Campbell has two straight bad seasons with no sign of improvement or hope, you can accuse me of that. But now? I’m simply hoping idiots like you don’t help to run off the best football coach we’ve ever had.

Also I’m not sure why you don’t think losing our RB during the game isn’t a big deal.

Again, it is about being prepared. Something Campbell has not shown to be overly big on. Especially concerning offensive game plan and special teams.

 

[Klubber]

I am a number-based guy so I would be happy to dig into those numbers as well. And I’m not a coaching apologist, I think my history on Prohm (well before you) indicates I don’t apologize for coaches that don’t form an identity and turn a program into a dumpster.


From 2019-2021 We averaged the following in conference games:

2019–434 yards and 32 points a game
2020-455 yards and 35 points a game
2021-454 yards and 35 points a game.

That is 9 games in 2019, 10 in 2020 and 9 in 2021.

In those years had over 400 yards of offense in the following games:

2019: 7/9
2020: 8/10
2021: 7/9

In those years we scored 29 points or more in the following games:
2019: 5/9
2020: 7/10
2021: 7/9

Only in a single conference game from 2019-2021 did we fail to score 21 points. (Kansas State in 2019)


We are gaining over 400 yards in 79% of our conference games. We are scoring over 29 points in 68% of our games. We fail to hit 21 points in 3.5% of our games. I understand your frustration in scoring points in the red zone but given the number of plays we have on offense these are damn good offenses.

Good work looking all that up.

I'm not for getting out the pitchforks for Manning.

I think we tend to be too conservative and predictable in the red zone and goal line on O.

The other school of thought here though is that execution can be much more important than the actual play call. If you completely out execute your opponent, you should be able to impose your will. Assuming we're talking about a decent team to begin with.

Personally, I'd like to see more full house backfields for our goal line sets. That way you have blockers with a head of steam who can also pick up defenders getting by the O-line before they blow up the RB. There're a lot of teams who have goal line issues though, not just us.

K-State's a huge test for this team. How are they going to respond to all the negativity/disappointment? I'm hopeful we'll get it together and come out blazing.

 

[acoustimac]

1 career attempt from 50+.

Freshman: 8-10, longest attempt 37
Sophomore: 12-16, longest attempt 45 (3-6 from 41-45)
Junior: 8-11, 3 attempts from 41+ (45 miss, 48 make, 52 make w/ a 15-20 mph tailwind)
Senior: 10-18, longest make 42, longest attempt 49, 0-5 from 44-49

Yep...anything beyond 35-40 is a long field goal for most kickers. Once you get beyond 35 yards the field goal success rate drops dramatically. Beyond 40 the made percentage drops to 60% and lower. Here's a nice analysis of the 2018 season looking at every kick by a power five kicker - https://watchstadium.com/collegekic...ls-by-distance-situation-and-more-06-11-2019/

 

[JP4CY]

You gave more analysis dove deeper into the problems we had than Ben, who's paid to do this, did at all.

What do you think he's making (if he's getting a salary yet) for doing this? Chris has repeatedly talked on the podcasts about needing to find a way to monetize this.
It's not like Bruns doesn't have a big boy job. Dude was VP at Weitz.

 

[AuH2O]

I am a number-based guy so I would be happy to dig into those numbers as well. And I’m not a coaching apologist, I think my history on Prohm (well before you) indicates I don’t apologize for coaches that don’t form an identity and turn a program into a dumpster.


From 2019-2021 We averaged the following in conference games:

2019–434 yards and 32 points a game
2020-455 yards and 35 points a game
2021-454 yards and 35 points a game.

That is 9 games in 2019, 10 in 2020 and 9 in 2021.

In those years had over 400 yards of offense in the following games:

2019: 7/9
2020: 8/10
2021: 7/9

In those years we scored 29 points or more in the following games:
2019: 5/9
2020: 7/10
2021: 7/9

Only in a single conference game from 2019-2021 did we fail to score 21 points. (Kansas State in 2019)


We are gaining over 400 yards in 79% of our conference games. We are scoring over 29 points in 68% of our games. We fail to hit 21 points in 3.5% of our games. I understand your frustration in scoring points in the red zone but given the number of plays we have on offense these are damn good offenses.

I will take take CoKanes word for it on scoring 21.8 ppg against teams that finish with 8 or more wins since 2019.

Using the same metric, vs 8 win or more FBS teams it looks like the two years under Messingham ISU averaged 21.4 ppg by my quick count.

Now, I don’t know if 8 wins is the right number, and there are a lot of factors. But I think we can all agree that is at least a somewhat meaningful metric, and ISU is not doing much better than what most can agree was a pretty bad offensive couple of years.

And as you show there is certainly some good success as well.

 

[SDClone]

Quick question. For those that are the most upset, what were your expectations, honest expectations before the year started for wins. We were tagged as a 6.5 O/U in Vegas IIRC. Most of the people at the beginning was talking 5-7 wins. What were people expecting at the beginning?

Having an “experienced” Oline looking confused and not knowing how to block is what is concerning.

 

[isufbcurt]

Preseason prediction I have in my files, dated mid-August. I'm not sure if I posted in any related threads prior to season, and I didn't start a thread of my own.

It was part of a full Big 12 game-by-game projection that already seems way out-of-whack with reality, so i won't bother posting full context.

W SEMO
L at Iowa
W Ohio
L Baylor
W at Kansas
W Kansas State
L at Texas
(BYE)
L Oklahoma
W West Virginia
L at Oklahoma State
W Texas Tech
W at TCU
7-5 (5-4)

So we are on track, you just flipped Iowa and KU.

 

[exCYtable]

Noel seemed to be open a lot but we didn't throw his way for whatever reason

That's because Dekkers stares down X on every single play. He's gonna have to start scanning the field better.

 

[Didley]

I hear what your saying, but based on recruiting ranks; our 2 deeps are maybe *as* strong as maybe 4-5 teams in the league.

That’s fair. Even still i think we should assert ourselves against those teams. Instead, we let them off the hook and play safe and set ourselves up for losing games we shouldn’t.

I dont care if we play that underdog game in games where actually ARE the underdog.

But when we’re the big dog, we need to eat.

 

[Acylum]

Honest question, I’m not huge into like popular movies or stuff like that- I’ve noticed Woody loves to use analogies in his pods. Should I be able to figure out what he means when he says Deion Silas reminds him of Nick Cannon in Drumline? I had no clue what he was referring to. I also struggle to understand when he equates ISU football things to ISU basketball things. But he does that a lot.

 

[StPaulCyclone]

I will take take CoKanes word for it on scoring 21.8 ppg against teams that finish with 8 or more wins since 2019.

Using the same metric, vs 8 win or more FBS teams it looks like the two years under Messingham ISU averaged 21.4 ppg by my quick count.

Now, I don’t know if 8 wins is the right number, and there are a lot of factors. But I think we can all agree that is at least a somewhat meaningful metric, and ISU is not doing much better than what most can agree was a pretty bad offensive couple of years.

And as you show there is certainly some good success as well.

Obviously Manning has been more successful than Messingham. I wonder how number of offense plays per game look like added to this comparison. As you said, many variables.

 

[StPaulCyclone]

Honest question, I’m not huge into like popular movies or stuff like that- I’ve noticed Woody loves to use analogies in his pods. Should I be able to figure out what he means when he says Deion Silas reminds him of Nick Cannon in Drumline? I had no clue what he was referring to. I also struggle to understand when he equates ISU football things to ISU basketball things. But he does that a lot.

No idea on Drumline. Woody played HS basketball and is a big fan of the sport. He also cohosts with Jared who understands basketball much more than football. Perhaps he over does it, but I appreciate the comparisons.

 

[rochclone]

I will take take CoKanes word for it on scoring 21.8 ppg against teams that finish with 8 or more wins since 2019.

Using the same metric, vs 8 win or more FBS teams it looks like the two years under Messingham ISU averaged 21.4 ppg by my quick count.

Now, I don’t know if 8 wins is the right number, and there are a lot of factors. But I think we can all agree that is at least a somewhat meaningful metric, and ISU is not doing much better than what most can agree was a pretty bad offensive couple of years.

And as you show there is certainly some good success as well.

I know he used 8 wins for a reason because it bolsters his argument because it you add 7-5 or even 5-4 conference record the numbers change. In Big 12 conference games from 2019-2021 we played 10 teams that finished with 8 wins or more. We averaged 26.1 points a game. Very different then the 21.8 that CoKane puts forth. But you are taking out Iowa, Clemson and Notre Dame and we don’t get the benefit of Oregon in the Fiesta bowl because they only had 4 wins during Covid Year.

If you add in the same type of 8+ win teams from 2016-2017 when Manning was also OC then we move to 17 games against conference competition that fits the profile but our scoring average goes up to 26.8 points per game.

Here is what to take from it. Instead of scoring 34 points a game on offense when you face a top team in our conference we score 26-27 points. But I would be interested to see if the points other top teams score against similar competition is likewise reduced. I’m guessing it is but the numbers will bare that out.

 

[PSYclone22]