Former Hawkeye Akrum Wadley eviscerates Iowa program
Wow.
He had some strong words against Iowa under Kirk Ferentz's stewardship.
Money quote (in bold):
He says "playing for Iowa was a living nightmare."
"My time at Iowa has done things to me that I am not going to discuss because knowing how these people treated me and other black athletes," Wadley writes. "I am done giving them power over me. But if I could do it all over again. I wish I never played for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I would not encourage any future athletes or parents to send your kid to go play for the Iowa Hawkeyes under that current coaching staff."
Ouch.
I encourage your all to read the ESPN article.
I wish that he hated Iowa so much that he would've sat out that night game in 2016.
Sigh.
Or maybe the defense could have made a stop when there was no threat of a pass and won a game being favored by 20+ points.
Or the offense scores more than 13 points, or Speight doesn't break his collarbone late in the 4th, or Khalid Hill fumbling a kickoff leading to an Iowa FG, or the team doesn't run for 2.8 YPC on 35 attempts with one play ending in a safety. Its hard to blame the defense for losing any part of that game.
Yeah, totally ridiculous to expect a defense to win a road game against a solid opponent when the offense only scores 13 points.
You also forgot about repeatedly running read option plays with Peppers into scrape exchanges without any counters. Banging their heads against a wall over and over again. That game was called so poorly it boggles the mind.
The Iowa punter won that game FWIW.
I’m convinced Speight injuring his collarbone derailed that season. Would’ve come back and beat Iowa, definitely would’ve beat OSU and would have gotten a spot in the B1G championship against Wisconsin. I think they beat them and make an appearance in the playoffs. Speight had played really well that season up to that point.
You actually left out the single most important factor (aside from the final FG going through) -
The punt god!
The defense allowed 14 points. Blaming them for that one is like blaming the goalie for a 1-0 loss in hockey
The defense gave up a 52 yard TD drive, a 36 yard FG drive, and a 21 yard FG drive. Call me crazy...they didn't lose the game.
At least that was a good game. I still have nightmares from the teabagging OSU took from Iowa in 2017.
Wadley went 118 yards in that game.
Now I need a drink.
Read the room
Touche. Tough crowd round' these parts.
That OSU-Iowa game was one of the more unexpected results to a football game I can remember. The 3rd string kicker for Iowa popping an 80 yard FG as time expired, would have been more plausible than 55-24 Iowa.
I wish he hated Iowa so much he went to osu & was eviscerating THEM now instead!
This Iowa situation is becoming really interesting. Some inappropriate things clearly seemed to have happened, I'm just curious how far it went, and how it compares to other major programs around the country. Kirk Ferentz has run one of the most stable and consistent programs in the country for a couple decades now, and it seems like that'd be hard to do at a place like Iowa if your football building was a cesspool of racial intolerance, but I guess we'll see soon enough.
^This right here. We have all seen examples around the NCAA of coaching malpractice towards athletes which does not necessarily equate to on-field success (Maryland, Texas Tech under Leach, Schiano) but Iowa has been one of the more consistent programs of the last 20 years. It is pretty confusing that Iowa would endure two decades of a very strong program, while the coaches are treating their best players like garbage.
It sounds like a lot of guys went to Iowa without knowing that it would be bad, and how could they? Unless former players are actively telling them how it is, it's not going to happen.
And just like sex abuse survivors standing up, it's incredibly difficult and stigmatizing to speak out about racial injustices, especially in sports where the downside and backlash is going to be far worse. So they put their heads down and try to forget about it.
It's good to see they're now being empowered to speak out.
I know a kid on Iowa’s team and Wadley was lazy and always late for meetings. He was talented cancer. He had an axe to grind which he earned. He also lobbied for his brother to get a ride there.
The strength coach was a bully and got what he deserved. He was ruthless regardless of race. The vast majority of the kids see Ferentz as a stand up guy. Very Lloyd Carr.
Can you ask Nate Stanley to whittle something cool for us?
Per the article, there seems to be only one incident with Wadley that could be seen as racial in nature, i.e. Brian Ferentz asking the kid if he was going to commit a robbery. Otherwise, yelling at a kid about parking in the wrong spot and getting on him about his weight doesn't seem racial.
There could have been other stuff within the program but this doesn't seem to add much, in spite of the kid's hyperbolic statement.
I don't understand asking a kid to make weight and taking away his ability to do so by cutting off his access to food. That sounds pretty fucking stupid to me. Makes absolutely no sense. Ask a kid to gain weight and then take away his meals. What in the actual fuck...
Not racial at all but just plain stupid.
Those coaches created a scenario that saw 13 of their players hospitalized in 2011.
Sounds like they've been treating some of their players like garbage for a long time now.
Kirk Ferentz is a fucking scumbag.
My guess is that certain players are treated differently depending on any number of conditions, so it's not that crazy that only some players would really feel the wrath. And my guess is that the racism and mistreatment probably took time to manifest as badly as Wadley alleges. Like you noted, Ferentz has been there a long time and I could totally believe that over time he started to feel untouchable and also a bit out of touch, caring less and less what his coaches did and, I don't know, maybe making some bad hires.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Iowa's ceiling seems to be 8-9 wins in a mediocre division with little chance at the playoffs save for some absolute magic. I can totally see the Hawkeyes looking at Nebraska and similar programs and being weary of changing for the sake of it, assuming there's a bright future beyond that, but if you are inclined to want to shake it up this at least gives you some coverage to push for a move.
I do think time will tell. My question is why did this kid stay there if it was that terrible. He’s very talented I think he would have no problem finding another school to play for
I'm really curious to read about white player's feelings on the program at the same time these black players were enrolled. Were they mistreated, too? If so, it isn't racism. It's generalized abuse.
No, it's still racism, and zero percent chance the white guys were abused.
This article mentions Jim Poggi (sound familiar?) who was part of a workout in 2011 that hospitalized several football players. He's white and it sure sounds like he was abused. It doesn't have to be verbal to be abuse.
That was the rhabdo incident. No one was disciplined, let alone fired. At least one of the kids did not recover fully in time to participate in the fall. That article whitewashes just how bad it was.
I believe several of them have said they weren't aware of the racial issues.
It sounds like both racial and general abuse was happening.
Making comments to a black guy about robbing a store for wearing a wool hat is racist and uncalled for.
But a lot of the workout type stuff / weight gain and loss things were probably evenly carried out. There is going to be a fine line at any of these top schools between working guys hard and abusing them.
I mean, it can be both. I'm sure the coaches were assholes to everyone to varying degrees but it wouldn't surprise me if some coaches took extra enjoyment about of tinging their abuses with racial overtones.
It’s certainly possible, but I also think some of the verbal abuse interpreted as racial might simply have meant to be insulting & demeaning generally.
For example, XYZ coach may have decided to demean a kid based on his background & racial stereotypes but applied it very broadly. The black kid might get told he’ll get sent “back to the hood” (or whatever) if he doesn’t shape up & certainly feels demeaned. Meanwhile, the white guy from a small rural town might get called a stupid hick & hear insinuations about being attracted to his own sister or farm animals.
Doesn’t make it right by any means of course. It’s certainly possible the black players were singled out for especially harsh treatment compared to others. But it’s also possible the abusers simply picked the “lowest hanging fruit” about any given kid & blasted into that as the easiest way to hurt them as much as possible. And for some of the players, the easiest target may have been their cultural background or racial identity rather than something else like having big ears, a stutter, a funny sounding last name, etc.
PSA: The past time of questioning whether black people’s claims of racism are really true or if it’s just their taking things the wrong way is fast in decline.
Why is your instinct to question whether he can’t tell the difference between an ass hole and a racist ass hole, and then come up with alternative narratives?
In general, that assessment is neither fair nor true.
What is the point of having various regulations and laws to prevent discrimination and other acts of racial (or other discriminatory) animus if there is no due diligence in verifying that they actually occurred? Without proper investigation and scrutiny, those types of allegations essentially become a modern day witch-hunt: guilty until proven innocent.
This is not to say disregard/deny/ignore the allegations - treat it just as any other act or wrong-doing would be... with similar consideration given to the accused as well as the claimant.
Questioning a witness is not the same as trying to discredit them.
Why can't a player that went to a program that obviously utilizes a bagman brigade turn on his former program and drop some receipts? Why Iowa? They obviously don't cheat!
Maybe guys that got paid are more likely to keep their mouths shut because at least they got money?
I'm just waiting for just one guy who is "ungrateful" and rats out his old school and unmasks the bagmen. I'm really surprised it hasn't happen already.
It has many times lol. No one cares.
Iowa is a great state.
Our state fair is a great state fair
Don't miss it, don't even be late
It's dollars to donuts that our state fair
Is the best state fair in our state
Ferentz will be gone soon. If no concrete evidence (video, emails, etc) of racism is presented, they might give him the option to announce his "retirement", but the program is now permanently marked until another coach is brought in to "turn it around and clean things up". I'd guess this seals his son's fate as coach in waiting as well, no way they'll promote him to HC after this.
so you think they'll give him the ol' 'urban meyer, retire' treatment?
(couldn't resist)
Can't see how they don't... a prominent former player is actively cautioning recruits to avoid the current coaching staff... yikes. Change has to made, whether it's entirely deserved or not.
As for Meyer.. I still don't believe he was forced to retire. I can't imagine a man as prideful and intense as he is taking an administrative role at a university that just ran him off the football field. My hunch has always been he was pissy he even got a suspension, and retired more or less out of spite because of it.
Well, change has been made with the S&C guy gone. Maybe they spin that to recruits that might otherwise be hesitant to sign with them. I would think they'll give Ferentz the time to show whether this is too much of a recruiting problem. I doubt their fans will put any pressure on the AD because of this.
a.) you are a good sport
b.) interesting take on how meyer stepped down, certainly not beyond possibility. my own take is that they worked out a deal at the same time as the suspension that let both sides (meyer, ohio's board of directors) to save some face. i'd say it worked.
Other than the comment he says was made to him about the wool cap, the rest seems rather non racial. It’s no secret that college football players are under a lot of pressure to put on weight, and that goes for all players of all backgrounds for all positions. Were white players also threatened with having their meal card taken away? We don’t know.
I hope this doesn’t become the go-to reason for everything, like when players across the country are given the firm handshake and asked to pursue opportunities elsewhere because they could not see the field.
Completely agree. Imagine that...a D1 football program has really high expectations for its players when it comes to staying in shape, getting to a certain weight, etc.
It seems pretty stupid. Was gulping shakes really going to help him hit whatever arbitrary number on the scale they wanted ? Would it really have made a difference? Would it have made him a better player? Doesn't seem like the healthiest way to do it. Taking away the meal card seemed harsh and bordeline abusive. Also: if you want someone (esp your star RB) to gain weight, maybe don't take away his chief source of food. Seems pretty basic.
Yeah, I don’t understand the threat to take away a food card either. Between what has come out lately and the incident with the conditioning that sent players to the hospital a few years ago, it’s starting to paint a very militaristic picture of the program.
Oh man, this is a total shame. Wadley was a great player. I live in Iowa now and he is one of my all-time favorite Hawkeyes. It's also distressing that Ferentz has presided for decades over a program with these kinds of problems, many of them stemming from the behavior of his own son.
Doyle and Brian Ferentz both sound like asshole losers who had too much power and didn't seem to give a shit about the players, particularly black ones. It's a shame Doyle got a million on his way out the door.
I'm a mild but legit Iowa fan now (second of course to UM) but this seems like a good time for Kirk to retire and for the program to move in a new direction. I know a lot of Hawks fans are not enthused about the fact that Brian is being groomed for the position. Word on the street is that Stoops would at least entertain the idea if the position came open.