If you're a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Kansas City Chiefs like I am, your head is flat on one side from beating it on the wall every week and you're running towards downtown Des Moines, hoping for a fortuitous DART bus accident to put you out of your misery, but being the level-headed (pun intended) Hawk and Chief fan that I am I may have a solution to appease both fan bases.
Kirk Ferentz really is a good coach, despite the 2012 Iowa season. More often than not, he is able to get the Hawkeyes to overachieve, but this season, the injuries, defections, and lack of overall talent is proving too much to overcome. Fans seem more restless than usual and their patience has grown thin. The calls to "fire Ferentz" are louder and more frequent this season than any other. Perhaps it IS time for him to move on. But to where?
Perhaps he would be a nice fit in Kansas City. His style of play could make pretty much any team competitive, occasionally even the competition, which has been a large part of the criticism of the Ferentz-led Hawkeyes. With the disparity of talent in college football, it drives most of fans crazy when Iowa beats a top-10 team by a touchdown and then squirts by an FCS team by a field goal or even a blocked field goal,.........or lose to them. "Why not just crush the 'cream puffs' and play the good teams tough?" It has been the definition of "playing down to your competition". Either way, it has "worked" for the most part and over the years has resulted in wins by the Hawkeyes that were not expected but also some losses and close-calls that should not have been.
If you were to transplant this to the NFL, where there is much more parody and evenness of talent, add a stout defense, you could win a lot of games. Winning games 7-6, 17-14, 24-21, or even 77-76 is perfectly acceptable in the NFL. It's all about winning. When the Hawkeyes eek out a win against a much inferior opponent, it feels like a loss to fans. When the Chiefs eek out a win over anybody, even the no-good-stinkin'-lousy Raiders, it's a good day.
The Chiefs are loaded with talent, but it does not seem that anyone on the coaching staff knows how to make it work. Bad quarterback play, questionable to ridiculous play calling, plus a severe lack of discipline are all throwing gasoline on the dumpster fire that is the 2012 Kansas City Chiefs. Kirk Ferentz's specialty is offensive line, which has been a weakness for the Chiefs for several years now. His Iowa teams generally are well-disciplined, regardless of the opponent. They historically don't turn the ball over very often and they don't get penalized a lot. They're usually pretty solid in playing fundamental football and, more times than not, they win. I am not on the "fire Ferentz" bandwagon yet, but if he had to go, I would like to see what he could do for the Chiefs. I know a lot of fans are also calling for Pioli to be fired in KC, but maybe with the right coaching staff he could be salvaged. The Chiefs defense has actually been pretty solid much of this season, but they need the offense to score points or at least hold on to the ball longer than a three and out.......or less.
Also, right now the Chiefs have more turnovers than touchdowns for the season and, at 1-7, are completely out of any chances to make the playoffs. Why not give Stanzi a shot? What could he possibly do that every other quarterback on the roster hasn't already done........except maybe win a game. Tony Moeaki is already there. Sign Marvin McNutt from the Philadelphia Eagles' practice squad, (pay Bowe), start Stanzi.
It's practically a foregone conclusion that this Chiefs coaching staff will be history soon. The Chiefs have become the laughing stock of all sports in this side of the Klingon Home World. Might as well bring in a younger coach with some proven success and make two fan bases happy.....for a little while at least.
Perhaps this whole blog can be summed up with a few hashtags for Twitter. Just as long as we don't #Suck4Vandenberg
#FireFerentz #FireRomeo #HireFerentz #StanziTime #PayBowe
