The new offensive coordinator for the University of Iowa football team met with the media for the first time today. Greg Davis was the offensive coordinator at Texas before being let go in 2010. Davis says he became interested in the Iowa job after learning from new Dolphin’s coach and friend, Joe Philbin, that Ken O’Keefe was leaving the job to join the Dolphins.
Davis says he has always tried to learn something from all the coaches he has worked with and that’s what he’ll being to Iowa. “What we will do here will be driven by what we have here,” Davis says. He says for example, when he went to Texas, he had runningback Ricki Williams and knew they needed to run the I-formation.
When Williams left they had Major Applewhite and Chris Sims as quarterbacks and changed things up, and when Vince Young came in, Davis says he learned and installed the zone read offense to take advantage of Young’s feet.
Davis say the Hawkeye offense will not be the Texas offense and he is working with the other coaches to put it together.”We’ve been meeting from dark to dark trying to decide what that’s going to be. This spring you’ll see the foundation laid,” Davis says. He says they will build off what they learn in the spring once they identify the strengths of the offense.
Davis says he likes what he has seen of Hawkeye quarterback James Vandenburg, and knows he will have a group of inexperienced running backs to work with. He says they will seek a balanced offensive attack. “Our definition of balance is being able to win the game either way. It’s not that you run 35 and you throw 35, it’s that you can win the game whatever that day dictates, you’ll be able to win the game. So that’s kind of where we’re headed, I am looking forward to spring getting started, getting to know the players better and seeing where we can go from there,” Davis says.
Davis was asked if he will coach from the sidelines or in the pressbox. He said from the pressbox and then added, especially in Iowa.
“It allows me to set above all the emotion. I’ve worked form the boundary before, and you’re just removed. It almost is like a video game in that you’re not hearing all the collisions and that, and you can lay out all your charts and information and that kind of stuff. That’s the reason I like working from up there,” Davis explains.
Davis’ predecessor took a lot of heat at times, and Davis took some himself as the Longhorn’s offensive coordinator. He says he’s used to it. “Well I’ll just tell you a story,” Davis says. “We were starting in August and (Texas) Governor (Rick) Perry came out to practice and walked over and he said ‘I’m so glad you guys are starting,’ and I said really why, and he said ‘takes all the pressure off me.’ You know, that goes with the territory.”
Davis says he played quarterback in college, so he’s been jumped on as a player and a coach, and that’s just part of the job. Davis will be just the fifth different offensive coordinator at Iowa since 1979 when Hayden Fry took over and turned the program around.