James Howlett

History

Member for
2 years 48 weeks

Karma

Current value
2

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
4 weeks 3 days ago Iowa's David Kenney.

He's now rated a four star by scout.com(already was by rivals.com).
22 weeks 18 hours ago I've often wondered what the players thought of the Gittleson ..

to Barwis transition.

I was never a fan of Gittleson and welcomed the change. I'm wondering if some of the Carr-RR camps conflict was over the perception that Barwis was much higher thought of by many fans/media than Gittleson.

Wonder if the players expressed a preference in S&C coaches and their respective styles.
23 weeks 27 min ago As variations of "the spread" proliferate...

the pro-style becomes increasingly contrarian. I suspect that in the next few years, with the B12 and SEC assistants getting more head coaching jobs,  we'll see more spread than we've seen and less pro-style.

That probably helps UM.
24 weeks 5 days ago He's only a laughing stock to people who prefer X-Box to footbal

The man's a very good coach who struggles with one of the worst places to recruit from in automatic BCS conference land.

Surely anyone who watched the Iowa-UM should understand that the man can coach.

He's too conservative but one of the best coaches in the country at player development/teaching.
24 weeks 5 days ago A couple of points on Iowa.

As a UM and Iowa fan...a few thoughts on Iowa.

Scout.com's team rankings had Iowa at #22 for the 2011 recruiting class. So, we're not Iowa's recruiting in the top 25 as ancient history here, and Iowa has never produced highly thought of(top 15) recruiting classes with the exception of the injury riddled 2005 class. The best talent on the Iowa team is in the freshman(2011) and 2010 classes. The 2008 recruiting class was pretty awful and finished last in the Big Ten according to scout.com. Not surprisingly, Iowa has felt the pinch from that class and a nearly as bad class(2009) but rebounded well. So, if you were wondering why Iowa's usually very good-excellent defense wasn't so much this year...it's the 2008-2009 classes that did it in.

The young players are the best athletes on the team but as typical of Iowa(and most other BCS non-traditionally great programs), though they aren't of the ready-made, works great out of the box kind of prep superstars that elite programs often have...they need some time to develop. But, one of the players that should contribute next year is four star redshirt freshmen to be, DT Darian Cooper. He spent this year muscling up and should be ready to start, or at worse, play a lot in relief. Cooper had offers that included offers from UM and MSU, and chose Iowa last year. Another is sophomore to be, safety Nico Law. Law played on special teams this season and played well.

Iowa has a great history of great player development(http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2011/4/30/2143688/the-best-and-worst-...). That's especially true on the defensive side of the ball. Some of the lowly or middling regarded recruits that Iowa has turned into highly regarded draft picks(just on defense)a very incomplete list; LB Pat Angerer(Currently #1 in the NFL in tackles),LB Chad Greenway(#3 in the NFL in tackles), S Bob Sanders(former NFL defensive MVP), DE Aaron Kampman, DE Adrian Clayborn, DT Courtney Ballard, DT Kark Klug, DT Mitch King, DE Matt Roth, CB Charles Godfrey,  and S/CB Amari Spievey.  So, while the 2011 defense had a dearth of talent that was unusually low. Don't expect that a lack of prep "stars" necessarily equates a lack of a talented Iowa defense in the future. They've really NEVER  had a defense full of highly regarded recruits and future Iowa defenses will likely have more talented players than this year's variety or that the starred board above might suggest in 2012.

A couple of cases in point are sophomore LB's three star James Morris, Christian Kirksey and two star player junior cornerback, Micah Hyde.. Three star Morris was honorable mention all conference this year as was was the former two star, Hyde. Former two star, Kirksey, played better than either and weighs in at 215 pounds. He's likely to get bigger and stronger in the off-season(as will the undersized Mike LB Morris who weighs 227). Former two-star recruit CB Shaun Prater was first-team All-Big Ten this year.  So, the elite recruitment at Iowa may never happen but the elite development of Iowa players continues..and with four star true(2012 verbal with offers from UM and MSU) Jaleel Johnson joining Darien Cooper and the rest of the 2011 class. Don't expect that the Iowa defense in future years will be poorly talented(although next year's DL will likely be very young).
25 weeks 1 day ago On Iowa.

They lose because they couldn't pass. They ran pretty effectively.
28 weeks 3 days ago McNutt.

He came to Iowa as a drop-back style QB with better than average athleticism. So, following Erik Campbell around probably would not result in some "hidden gem" WR recruits.

Iowa develops players well. They don't look through a crystal ball with a copy of Phil Steele's mag on their laps.
36 weeks 3 days ago On the coaches needing to let Denard be Denard.

Amen, and ummm, Amen.
37 weeks 3 days ago The efficacy of harsh criticism is greatly overrated.

Pete Carroll had a steadfast role against demeaning criticism by his coaching staff in practices and games. He wanted his teams to bust ass in practices but, have fun,and it helped in recruiting too. His teams were tough, and obviously, very good. Purely anecdotal but, between my junior and senior year in high school we had a head coaching change. We went from a more cerebral, but tough coach to a coach who was right out of "meathead coach casting 101". Very foul mouthed and harshly critical. The team went from 8-1 to 1-8 although the talent wasn't appreciably worse.The coach was gone in two years. I wouldn't argue that it was solely because the coach was a jerk it contributed to it. Players didn't enjoy playing as much as they had. Participation continually dropped. Really, I believe you can be highly successful as a coach either way, but especially today, I think the notion that harsh criticism, let alone national humiliation, is necessary or preferable in making better players. Tougher players, has never been more wrong.

 

 
37 weeks 3 days ago Brian Kelly is a women's hygiene product.

And we had at least one guy leave because of harsh criticism in practices...imagine having a national TV audience witness your de-maning.
Theme provided by Roopletheme; sidebars adapted from Chris Murphy.