MaizeBlueA2

January 14th, 2022 at 6:15 PM ^

This is actually relevant news since he's the longest tentured HC in the country, in our conference, we are in contract negotiations with our head coach (who just beat him), and nepotism has him retaining his son...who runs a mid-90s offense, which is, on paper, awesome for us since we'll have a young defense and our game @Iowa (likely at night) will be the first big time test of the 2022 season.

Robbie Moore

January 14th, 2022 at 4:53 PM ^

In this era of free agent coaches and annual re-recruiting of rosters it is comforting to know that something in CFB is immune to change. I, for one, will sleep better tonight.

TrueBlue2003

January 14th, 2022 at 7:20 PM ^

Iowa is a really unique situation, kind of like Wisconsin.

When someone proposed Paul Cryst as a potential replacement for Harbaugh, I was like 1) no way and 2) it is weird that these highly successful Wisconsin coaches don't get pursued by bigger programs.

Wisconsin and Iowa are places where the way you have success is so unique to those places that I feel like it's nearly impossible to replicate elsewhere.  You have to recruit well locally and develop the abundance of linemen and LBs over the course of 5 years and build your offenses and defenses around good line play.  You don't have to be a good recruiter and they usually aren't so other programs aren't that interested.

mfan_in_ohio

January 14th, 2022 at 11:06 PM ^

1. No way they beat PSU without Clifford getting hurt

2. Avoided M, OSU, and MSU in crossover games. 

3. in their final 7 regular season games (PSU plus the entire B1G west), they went 5-2 while being outscored by 7 points. 

4. No Adrian Martinez for Nebraska, but still barely won.  after entering the 4th quarter trailing 21-9, they were the beneficiaries of the following Nebraska possessions: Blocked punt for TD, fumble, safety, punt, interception. 

There’s a good case to be made that Iowa was about the 7th-best team in the B1G.

Cam

January 14th, 2022 at 4:56 PM ^

I don’t understand why Ferentz doesn’t get more credit for what he’s done. Sure he’s completely out of sync with modern football, but he’s averaged 9 wins a season for the last 7 years at IOWA. People forget how terrible Iowa has been for most of their existence. I guess he just keeps a low profile, but it would be really interesting to see what Fetentz could do with real talent.

jcorqian

January 14th, 2022 at 5:04 PM ^

Was Iowa that terrible for most of its existence?  I actually don't know, I just remember that they've won a national championship at some point and also had a pretty good coach I think in Hayden Fry?

There's some tough, hard-nosed Midwest farm boys in the area (I grew up there with them) that you can make a team full of 4th and 5th year seniors from and be competitive, especially in past decades when Bama-level pay-for-play wasn't yet the standard.  So I haven't thought of them as a particularly structurally disadvantaged program or anything, certainly not on the level of say Iowa State.

Gulogulo37

January 14th, 2022 at 8:19 PM ^

I feel like historically besides Minnesota and Nebraska (though different conference obviously), Iowa actually has the best history. I could be wrong on that, but when people talk about old Michigan teams they talk about Iowa and Fry a lot, not so much Illinois or Northwestern or Purdue. Even Wisconsin was absolutely terrible until the 90s.

Swayze Howell Sheen

January 15th, 2022 at 12:34 PM ^

Hayden Fry would beg to differ

Conference records:
- Fry: 96-61-5 (59%)
- Ferentz: 110–79 (58%)

And, Fry built Iowa from nothing.

And, Fry's coaching tree (which includes Ferentz) may be one of the best out there:  Bill Snyder, Barry Alvarez, Kirk Ferentz, Bob Stoops, Mike Stoops, Chuck Long, Bret Bielema, Jim Leavitt, among others.

erald01

January 14th, 2022 at 5:04 PM ^

Ehhh Iowa is not going to do any better. They been pretty competitive the past decades and put kids in the NFL. I dont see this as a bad move. Is it sexy? No  Does it make sense? Yes

L'Carpetron Do…

January 14th, 2022 at 5:09 PM ^

That's an absurd new contract. Nobody knows how to play his athletic dept quite like Ferentz does.  They gave him a 40% increase in his annual salary for having the worst offense in Division 1. Not to mention, he's 67 years old and absolutely no one else is threatening to poach him. He's got Barta firmly in his pocket. But Iowa says there's not enough money for a swimming and diving team!

L'Carpetron Do…

January 14th, 2022 at 5:31 PM ^

But don't you think that's a little fucked though? The department announces it will cut six sports and less than two years later, they give the head football coach a $2m/year raise?  Barta is also famously chummy with Ferentz and his own misconduct and poor management of the department has already cost the university millions. 

And actually there has been a fair amount of outrage out here when they announced the cuts to swimming and diving and there's been an effort to save the program. It's not uncommon to see "Save Iowa Swimming and Diving" signs in Iowa City.