the cyclone offensive line woes

[woodie]

for the past few years ,we have had some goliaths on our offensive line-brandt,zehr, the two 320 and 330 lb 6-7 boys that played tackles-none these goliaths could hold a block for bret meyers-meyers had to run for his life trying to make a pass-no holes were opened up for hicks- was hicks even a running back. were these goliaths strong or physically weak-or were they poorly coached. back in the dirty thirty days we had farmboys that were 200 lbs and they could block. does one generation create a generation of weaklings in our iowa farm boy population or is it we had to work our asses
off behind a baler loading 140 lb bales of hay onto a hay rack for our weight training programs in the 50's i had to work on a baler brhid the cyclone great JIM DORAN and jim did not stop.doran was one of the strongest athletes i have ever been around. he could pick up two 120 lb bales of hay and hold them with his arms extended for minutes or more than an hour.

we should be able to recruit all of the big farm kids to iowa state for study in agriculture and possibly for football. why don't we have some of these
300 lb giants in the starting lineup for the cyclones or "was marty fine's
and blarney cotton's coaching techniques not good enough to coach to develop a superior offensive line for the cyclones??????????"

 

[wartknight]

If one more person calls him Brett Meyers I'm going to scream. You'd think people would familiarize themselves enough with our team to know the last name of our starting QB for the LAST 3 YEARS!!
Its MEYER! NO "S"
MEYER
MEYER
MEYER
Forget the intent of the original post. You lost me right away.

 

[HILLCYD]

The misspellings, run-on sentences, and complete lack of punctuation aside, there is more to blocking and playing the offensive line that being strong and tough. There really is!

A list of a few things that affect how successful an offensive line is:

1. Technique
2. Offensive scheme
3. Play calling
4. Attitude

 

[HandSanitizer]

I think screen passes, quick slants, wide open offense can hide a bad O-Line better than what we have been trying to do the last few years. Meyer had no chance.

 

[woodie]

cys_av8r-

you also need to include talent on your fine list,too!!!!!!

 

[ISUFan22]

Forget the intent of the original post. You lost me right away.

Agreed.

The offensive line last year, much like this post, was a train wreck.

Some of that was personnel and a good share of it was poor scheme.

Square peg is to round hole as ISU's '06 linemen is to ISU's '06 blocking scheme.

 

[raftercy]

I grew up on a dairy farm, and have done my share of baling hay.....both for my dad and hiring out to the other neighbor farmers. But none of the bales ever weighed close to 140 lbs. 50-60 lbs. caught most of them, and if they were heavier than that, the hay wasn't dry and wouldn't keep.

 

[pulse]

we should be able to recruit all of the big farm kids to iowa state for study in agriculture and possibly for football. why don't we have some of these
300 lb giants in the starting lineup for the cyclones or "was marty fine's
and blarney cotton's coaching techniques not good enough to coach to develop a superior offensive line for the cyclones??????????"

You answered your own question, Blarney and Not-So-Fine.....

Before them we had quite a few great linemen, thanks be to Steve Loney, and gasp Jim Walden!! I think that Iowa has a natural base for great linemen, given the strength and hard work ethic you eluded to. Beef its what's for dinner.

 

[CyinCo]

I grew up on a dairy farm, and have done my share of baling hay.....both for my dad and hiring out to the other neighbor farmers. But none of the bales ever weighed close to 140 lbs. 50-60 lbs. caught most of them, and if they were heavier than that, the hay wasn't dry and wouldn't keep.

In my day, we didn't have shoes and we had to walk through thorny fields to and from school....

I'm in agreement, I baled plenty of hay as well growing up. I think anywhere from 30-60 lbs was normal, depending on how the baler was setup and the dryness of the hay. The only bales that got to be in the 100+ lb range were the bales that were wire bound and intended for semi trailer flatbeds.

I highly doubt the "iowa farmboys" have gotten softer over the years. More so, I suspect that D1 football has a higher bar and recruiting is that much more competitive.

 

[ketelmeister]

Our fearless Moderator is right on this one. The woes of the offensive line had a lot to do with our offensive scheme. I spent a lot of time with parents of our starters, and they were livid about how their guys got hung out to dry. Open holes were not hit (until the last game..finally) and long pass routes that required blocks to be held all day. Some of that might be excuse making, but I believe most of what they said.

 

[cyclonelifer]

I think the strength was there and besides everything else listed above - they were extremely sloooooowwww.

The d-lines may not have been stronger - but with our speed - we made them look like sprinters.

 

[cstrunk]

I grew up on a dairy farm, and have done my share of baling hay.....both for my dad and hiring out to the other neighbor farmers. But none of the bales ever weighed close to 140 lbs. 50-60 lbs. caught most of them, and if they were heavier than that, the hay wasn't dry and wouldn't keep.

I helped bale a lot of hay for a couple of my neighbors while in high school. Most were 40-70 pounds. The heaviest ones were alfalfa bales that we baled on humid days where it was borderline wet. I don't want to see the bale that weighs 120-140 pounds... not to mention it would probably start a fire in a barn later on! And then mentioning holding two such bales stretched out at arms length for an hour.... :rolleyes5cz:

Farm talk aside, I'm just guessing that our offensive line wasn't coached well.

 

[besserheimerphat]

As was already stated, our former lines were not suited for zone run blocking or 7 step drop passes. They guys were big and I'm sure were plenty strong and tough, but they seemed more suited to the straight ahead, 3 - 5 yards in a cloud type of rushing game than the counter, read, delayed draw type of stuff that we always seemed to run. And yes, there is more to playing offensive line that being able to bale hay, no matter how exaggerated the bale size.

 

[dsouth]

I am thinking a play that sticks out in coach Chizik's mind from the Texas game last year was the leg whip brant had against one of the Longhons Stud D lineman. Was really a big deal at the time, and was cause brant was getting whipped every play.

 

[Cydar]

You answered your own question, Blarney and Not-So-Fine.....

Marty Fine. It still hurts me to hear that name...

 

[cybsball20]

Look at the Scout day numbers those big boys put up... They may have been big but certainly weren't strong... Brady Quinn makes them look like pansies... Just furthers my point that we wont miss Getty.

 

[KJCY]

The misspellings, run-on sentences, and complete lack of punctuation aside, there is more to blocking and playing the offensive line that being strong and tough. There really is!

A list of a few things that affect how successful an offensive line is:

1. Technique
2. Offensive scheme
3. Play calling
4. Attitude

A #5 would by their work ethic and take away the mizzu game you could say they didn't have attitude. I think attitude could be #1, look at the wresling team their I'm not getting beat attitude. That is what the oline needs to think you can't come though us, we're the isu oline.

 

[Al_4_State]

I think the problem here is not that Iowa farm boys aren't as tough as they used to be. I'll put it this way, I grew up on a farm, picking rock during the summer, loading hog barns with hay/straw bales all year long. I'm 6'1" 195lbs, would you want me on our offensive line? hell no. My point here is that most "iowa farm boys" are not 300 lb monsters. And secondly, as alluded to in another post, the bar has been raised. You need more than toughness to be a good offensive lineman, although that certainly helps, but you need talent, coaching, and (what I think we lacked the most last year) a nasty attitude.

 

[isugcs]

I think the problem here is not that Iowa farm boys aren't as tough as they used to be. I'll put it this way, I grew up on a farm, picking rock during the summer, loading hog barns with hay/straw bales all year long. I'm 6'1" 195lbs, would you want me on our offensive line? hell no. My point here is that most "iowa farm boys" are not 300 lb monsters. And secondly, as alluded to in another post, the bar has been raised. You need more than toughness to be a good offensive lineman, although that certainly helps, but you need talent, coaching, and (what I think we lacked the most last year) a nasty attitude.

The good linemen are always a**holes. Must be a correlation.

 

[PolkCityClone]

I grew up on a dairy farm, and have done my share of baling hay.....both for my dad and hiring out to the other neighbor farmers. But none of the bales ever weighed close to 140 lbs. 50-60 lbs. caught most of them, and if they were heavier than that, the hay wasn't dry and wouldn't keep.

You are talking baling straw at 50 pounds a bale. Hay bales are around 80 - 90. I packed several thousand a year for 8 years.