According to SB Nation's Iowa Hawkeye blog Black Heart Gold Pants, the man who made horizontal the new black, Greg Davis, may be offending for Kirk Ferentz in 2012. The line of suitors that didn't beat down the door for Norm Chow Greg Davis when he was fired resigned after a humiliating 2010 season was noticeable, but it seems Ferentz is taking his candidacy seriously.
HOLY SHIT.
While we stifle snickers for a moment, consider that Iowa does have some strengths that can compensate for some of Davis' worst deficiencies.
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Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz may be the head coach, but he's also be one of the best OL coaches in college football. OL play is a consistent strength at Iowa, they do a solid job schematically in the run game, they have an established model of evaluation (coach sees boy lifting hay bales over head, signs him, redshirts him, chains him to a weight room and training table for three years, becomes 2nd team All Big 10) and that frees Davis to focus on his true passion: installing a series of 3 yard hitch plays, WR screens, and stop routes
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Iowa Has An Established Culture. At Texas, Davis came to define our culture of complacency. At Iowa, he'll have to conform. Davis is a notoriously lazy recruiter who did little in the way of quality control at Texas for his offensive staff - particularly post 2006, but can Iowa feed Davis a bunch of sure-handed WRs, an accurate QB, and decent OL play? Sure. Why not? Look out, Purdue!
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Expectations. 9-3 at Iowa gets you a prime seat on the float at the Corn Syrup Makes Our Lives Better Parade right next to the obesity interpretative displays. 9-3 at Texas gets you called a motherfucker at the checkout line at Whole Foods
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Flexibility. Not in-game. But he's pretty malleable in terms of his base offense. At Texas, we saw pro-style, pure spread, zone read, power I. We can argue about how we got there and what his inclinations are, but he'll bend to the wind when it reaches gale force
From a critical perspective, the Greg Davis as superb QB coach mythology marches on. He's above average. No more, no less. Applewhite and McCoy were coaching clinic nerds who spent their youth drawing plays on their Saved By The Bell Trapper Keeper and Vince Young finally thrived when Davis relented and installed his high school offense.
He's also the guy that was surprised when John Chiles lost all of his athleticism after gaining 30 pounds and doubling his body fat percentage, participated in the Gilbert anointing, and didn't see much in GJ Kinne.
The other criticisms you're familiar with: a total inability to understand risk-reward in the passing game, schemes that function well against bad competition and coaching, a strange incomprehension that defenses can show wrinkles beyond their previous percentage of blitz plays and alignment....flashbacks happening. Must stop.
Frankly, I expect Greg Davis to interview a lot like he did when he had the chance at the SMU job. (Check the date on that piece)
Remember, Iowa: Horizontalism is its own reward.