The ‘Drive to 325’ has crashed: How bad has the

• Jeremy Willis, ESPN.comOct 13, 2023, 09:00 AM ET If the Iowa Hawkeyes ‘offense were an NBA player, a team would get them for a bargain.Iowa is averaging 21.8 points this season, approximately the exact same average as Golden State Warriors star Klay Thompson. According to Spotrac, Thompson will make over $43 million in 2023. The Hawkeyes are getting offending coordinator Brian Ferentz for$850,000. However, that average is well below the typical stated in Ferentz’s much-talked-about contract.Editor’s Picks 2 Related To have his contract extended beyond June 30, 2024, Ferentz, the kid of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, requires his offense to average 25 points over 13 games this season, and the team must win 7 games.And the” Drive to 325″was born.Nearing the midpoint of the season, the drive has actually suffered some flat tires, scraped a guardrail or two, and thumped over lots of speed bumps.

  However, Iowa is 5-1. Its only loss pertained to the No. 6 Penn State Nittany Lions, and the Hawkeyes do not need to play Michigan or Ohio State in the 2nd half of the season. None of their remaining opponents is ranked in the AP Top 25. But the offense has yet to do much of anything.Here’s a look at some numbers:25 The scoring average is the chief terms in Brian Ferentz’s contract, and 25 is an extremely modest goal. Yet, the Hawkeyes have actually scored 25

  or more two times this season(41 versus Western

  Michigan, 26 versus Michigan State )and are currently over 3 points off the goal.Their existing scoring average likewise fades to some of the very best offenses in the nation. Six of the top 10 highest-scoring teams(USC, Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, LSU, Florida State )are balancing double what Iowa ratings usually. The Trojans’offense, which has the highest points-per-game average in college football at 51.8, has scored 21 or more points in a single quarter four times this season. Oregon, which is averaging 51.6 points, has actually done it 5 times. So has Washington.Iowa’s present average is ranked No. 105 out of 133 FBS teams. In some way, they are ahead of 10 other Power 5 groups.118 Mentioning being ranked in the 100s for all the wrong reasons, Iowa ranks 118th or lower, out of 133 FBS teams, in the following eight classifications: Red zone goal rate: 118 Points per drive: 119 Three-and-out rate: 127 Yards-per-play: 128 Yards-per-game: 130 Yards-per-game: 132 Yards-per-drive: 132 Success

  rate average: 132( 128th in hurrying, 131st in passing)The production metrics and scoring averages put a numeric face on what has actually taken place in Iowa games. The Hawkeyes have actually scored just 12 goals on

• offense. Quarterback Cade McNamara leads the team with 4. 2 running backs, the Kentucky Wildcats’Ray Davis and Boise State Broncos’Ashton Jeanty

• , have actually each scored 12 touchdowns

• by themselves this season.

• If it weren’t for Indiana, which has actually scored just 11 touchdowns, Iowa would have the

least touchdowns amongst Power 5 teams.Top stories of the week from Get special access to countless premium posts a year from leading authors. – Barnwell ranks the NFL’s worst teams “- Who could go into NBArank in 2024?”- 10 college basketball hires to understand “More ESPN+content” Iowa’s leading scorer is kicker Drew Stevens with 43 points. That might be a sign of a few of the problems that have actually pestered the Hawkeyes.

While other teams get aggressive

on their opponents’side of the field, Iowa elects to kick.
According to ESPN Stats and Info, Iowa has 11 field goal tries this season when the line
of skirmish is the challenger’s 30-yard line or closer. That is connected for

ninth-most in FBS this season. Stevens has made 9 of those kicks.And even if a drive crosses midfield, the Hawkeyes aren’t going for points. They’ve punted 4 times when the line of skirmish was the 50-yard line or into opponent area.76 The Hawkeyes rank dead last in backyards per game, averaging 249.2. The Hawkeyes have actually had 232 plays from skirmish gain 4 or less lawns, which is tied with Ball State for the 45th-most this season. 3 other Huge 10 groups have more than Iowa: Maryland (235), Purdue (236)and Northwestern(243). If offensive anemia were a masterpiece, Iowa’s Sept. 23rd game versus Penn State would be” Resident Kane.”It had layers and depth and lots of symbols

of

offensive issues. Iowa had just 76 total yards in the game. McNamara finished 6 of 16 passes for 42 lawns, and Iowa running backs averaged 1.2 yards per carry. For excellent measure, the team fumbled 6 times and lost four of them. To be reasonable to Iowa, Penn State presently leads college football in total defense and is

permitting just 9.6 points per game. The Penn State game is Iowa’s masterpiece of offending ineptitude. ESPN However a minimum of a receiver captured a pass in that game. The same can’t be stated for last week’s game against the Purdue Boilermakers. In a game that Iowa won, 20-14, backup quarterback Deacon Hill went 6-of-21 with all of his conclusions going to either tight end Erick All or running back Kaleb Johnson, who likewise added 134 backyards rushing.The Purdue game in fact raised much of Iowa’s production numbers. Iowa is now averaging 4.49 lawns per play, last in the Big 10 and 128th in FBS overall, ahead of only Akron (4.46), East Carolina(4.43 ), Nevada (4.43), Kent State (4.32 )and Sam Houston(3.93). This is an enhancement over last season when Iowa was balancing 4.24 yards per play. By comparison, this season, USC is second in FBS(8.49 backyards per play), tracking only Washington(8.81), and both are practically doubling Iowa’s per-play typical.325 Kicker Drew Stevens, who has scored 43 points this season, is Iowa’s leading scorer. Jeffrey Becker/USA TODAY Sports Through 6 games this season, Iowa has actually scored 131 points, leaving Brian Ferentz’s offense 194 points shy of the overall of 325, the number required to average 25 points per game. The 2019 LSU Tigers, the highest-scoring group in college football history, required just seven games to score 325 points that season.Iowa has 6 games staying in the routine season and likely a bowl game. Without McNamara, who was lost for the season with a torn ACL, the Hawkeyes would require to score 27.7 points per game in the 2nd half of the season to raise their scoring typical back to the level stated in Ferentz’s contact. For a good indication for Iowa, that’s really

close to Iowa star basketball player Caitlin Clark’s scoring average.But would it matter? The Hawkeyes are second in the Big 10 West standings behind the Wisconsin Badgers, whom they play this weekend. Just two of Iowa’s staying opponents(Wisconsin, Rutgers)are better, statistically, than Iowa on offense. So the Hawkeyes, despite their offensive calamities, could return to the Huge Ten title game for the second time in three seasons.Of course, they ‘d then likely have either a rematch with Penn State or deal with the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines or the No. 3 Ohio State. And all three of those teams are outscoring Iowa by 2 goals or more per game.