Thursday thoughts: Firings, defections, and Monte Morris

Nothing heavy here, just midday stuff.

Iowa offensive football assistant coaches

Bobby Kennedy and Chris White got fired. New offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz will have three new-to-the-staff (assuming none have coached there before) coaches on his unit in 2017.

Typically, this program has been slow to adjust when coaching changes were made. The guess is here is that the changes will be embraced and quickly integrated this time around because Brian Ferentz will be like anyone in authority. They would rather hire their staffers themselves than inherit someone else's.

The Hawkeyes' meat-and-potatoes, power-running, pro-style offense with multiple tight ends and fullbacks isn't going away. But Iowa's 2017 feature back is Akrum Wadley, who might weigh 190 pounds in September if he eats and eats between now and Labor Day. The Hawkeyes don't often have a back with Wadley's skill set. They need to tailor things to fit those skills, and the new OC knows it. It will be interesting who he and his father, the head coach, hire to help that happen.

Oh, they need to be good recruiters, too.

In the meantime, the coaches Iowa does still have on its staff have recruiting to do. Commitments of note got away last fall. Mistakes were made. Hence, the coaching shuffle.

While Wadley stayed

for his senior season, I count 13 players from teams on Iowa's 2017 schedule who have entered this year's NFL draft as juniors. Five played at Ohio State, two apiece at Michigan State, Penn State and Wisconsin, and one each at Northwestern and Wyoming.

It doesn't hurt the Hawkeyes' Big Ten West title-chances a bit that Wisconsin is losing offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk and linebacker T.J. Watt. But what would be a worse loss for the Badgers is if defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox gets the head coaching job at California. Wilcox was Cal's defensive coordinator for three years. He sounds like the favorite to me. His Wisconsin defense was seventh in the nation in 2016.

Throwing out superlatives

is lazy and often stupid when it comes to sports. So I'll do it, anyway.

I'm not sure I've seen a better statistics line from a point guard who was an Iowa collegian than what Monte Morris had Wednesday night at Oklahoma State.

The senior had a career-high 30 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and zero turnovers in Iowa State's 96-86 win. He has 22 assists and one turnover over four Big 12 games, three of them wins.

Iowa State went from 1989 to 2013 without a win in Stillwater. Now it has peeled off four straight triumphs there. Not coincidentally, Morris was with the Cyclones for all four of them.

I'm looking forward to seeing

Purdue's Caleb Swanigan play at Iowa tonight.

The sophomore is college basketball's best big man. He doesn't just have 14 double-doubles (double-digits in points and rebounds), he has four 20-20 games. He has 10 or more rebounds in his last nine games. He hustles like crazy, and never saw a potential rebound he didn't like. He's 6-foot-9, 250 pounds, and he's a good 3-point and free throw shooter. He even averages 2.7 assists.

He is 19 years old, and he is the Big Ten's best player.

Oh wait, I forgot about Iowa's Peter Jok.