All-in-all, just a horrible article written by someone who has clearly never seen Iowa play (and I’m not sure he’s ever watched Tech, either). My proof, this paragraph:

The object for Norm Parker is to instill patience and persistence into his vaunted defense. The triple-option will garner yardage—no doubt about it. According to experts blitzing is a bad idea. When you blitz, a good option quarterback has you just where he wants you. Forcing the ball out, whether it is a pitch, a lateral, a pass or a run, allows for the defense to do damage.

One thing that anyone with even passing familiarity with a Norm Parker D is that Iowa almost NEVER blitzes. Iowa’s D is predicated on getting pressure with just the 4 down lineman and places a great amount of responsibility on the LBs to remain patient and flow to the ball. Parker’s operating philosophy is “bend, don’t break”. This can be maddening to a fan as we watch teams move the ball, but in the end, we don’t give up big plays or, more importantly, points. This is just crappy analysis, one that this site should be ashamed to link to — while I disagree with a lot of the conclusions drawn by BirdGT, I cannot dispute that he applies rigorous statistical analysis and looks at the “facts”, not impressions.

As for the overarching “theme” of the article, if I were a snarky asshole (hey look, I am!), I would mention that given Tech’s complete lack of major bowl experience since the Taft Administration, perhaps y’all would be better served heeding those lessons. The more dispassionate side of me, the one that wishes to foster edifying dialogue would mention that this IS an important lesson, again one that GT would be wise to follow. Iowa’s 2002 was a surprise for everyone, coaches included, in how well it went. The Orange Bowl was an unbelievable capstone for the season and Ferentz subsequently admitted that their bowl prep was a little lax, that he saw it is a vacation/reward for an amazing season and loosened the reins a bit in the lead-up to the game. The result was a very sloppy game for a Ferentz team, a lot of penalties (false starts were a real problem in that one for us) and a seeming lack of preparedness to counter USC. After that loss, Ferentz changed his bowl prep philosophy and has basically instituted a lock-down for the team in all subsequent bowl games (and it shows in our bowl record this decade), one that has served our team well. I don’t know what Johnson’s bowl prep philosophy is; I do know that y’all would be well advised to learn from our mistakes. It is easy for a team that has never been to/no recent history in a major bowl to step back and revel in all the sideshow aspects of the game, and let preparation slide a bit. I know Iowa won’t be guilty of this, we learned our lesson. The real question is whether Tech will also have this knowledge without having to learn the hardway.

the premiere of The Flying Nun-
the finale of Gilligan’s Island-
Gomer Pyle USMC was in the top 10 of TV shows-
The Doors debut album-
the Summer of Love-
JFK was buried at Arlington National Cemetery-
the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band-
Super Bowl I-
Jimi Hendrix’s debut album-
the Rolling Stones went on Ed Sulliven-
the debut album of Pink Floyd-
interracial marriage was still illegal in Georgia-
one yr after GT gave a black player a scholarship for the first time-
segregationist Lester Maddox was sworn in as Governor of Georgia-