Iowa fans troll Bob Stoops and Fran McCaffrey to unsuspectingly ask Brian Ferentz to leave
September 13th, 2022 at 12:50 PM ^
EPIC!!!
September 13th, 2022 at 8:00 AM ^
Brian Ferentz is terrible at his job. His dad should put him out of his misery if he won't leave on his own accord. This isn't like hiring your son to help you out at the hardware store.
September 13th, 2022 at 8:13 AM ^
Does Kirk even see how bad his kid is at football? Or is he chalking it all up to not having the players they need? Kirk is man enough to not blame the players, but is he coach enough to realize where the actual fault lies? Seriously, he's never had a 'good' offense, and Brian's version is doing everything Kirk could ever want an offense to do - all the plays are there. It's missing players to run it, because reasons. The question is does Kirk equate those reasons to Brian?
The only other question is how safe Kirk feels in his own job. If he's secure, Brian stays...
September 13th, 2022 at 8:20 AM ^
Kirk has been a football coach for decades.... he knows his son isn't good, he can't not know that.
He's also 67 years old and could realistically retire at any time and no one would bat an eye....
Having to fire your son, which would be all over national sports media, would totally suck. If Kirk were 57 years old and planing to coach another 10 or 15 years, it would probably have happened already... At this point, he doesn't have to fire him because Iowa isn't going to fire Kirk.
Maybe he brings on a young, upcoming offensive coach and makes him co-offensive coordinator or something similar. Maybe he just rides it out, Iowa will always compete for the Big 10 West, even when they're this bad.
September 13th, 2022 at 8:42 AM ^
PA - I agree with most of what you said. However, if Iowa’s O doesn’t learn to start putting up points now - right away, I don’t see them winning many B1G games. The only three games I think they should be favored in now - would be Nevada, Northwestern, and Nebraska.
Do you see them competing effectively with… Rutgers, Michigan, Illinois, the Bucks, Purdue, Wisconsin, or Minnesota? At this moment, I don’t.
September 13th, 2022 at 9:33 AM ^
If Kirk is not seeing it or ignoring it out of love for his son, shouldn't Brian be the bigger man and do it himself? For the great legacy of his dad. I don't know. I feel like I would do it if it is my dad. I would not want to be the person bringing down my dad.
September 13th, 2022 at 8:45 AM ^
My question with Kirk Ferentz for years has always been why he chooses to run such an antiquated offense. Even before his son showed up, Iowa still ran offense like it was 1973. How many more games could his program have won if the offense modernized even just a little bit?
Iowa isn't ever going to recruit like gangbusters, but they still recruit fairly well. I think they usually get a four star or two into every class and occasionally land an instate five star, particularly on the OL/DL. They certainly recruit well enough to contend in the West and win the division every couple of years. With the way they play defense, if they modernized even a little bit they'd be in Indy at least every other year, and probably would've beaten MSU and gone to the CFP in 2015.
Why do you actively choose to hinder yourself with this style of offense? Is it just an abject refusal to get outside of your comfort zone? Refusal to deal with a year or two of transition costs? Has Ferentz just kind of settled in with a "whatever, I know they're not firing me anyway" mentality? Why would you not want to give yourself every possible advantage to win in the weakest, most winnable division in the whole P5? Looking around the college football landscape, NO ONE is winning football games of consequence with this kind of offense anymore.
I truly wonder if Ferentz has just gotten complacent at this point, and doesn't care to take on the extra work of installing a brand new philosophy because no one is pushing him to, and also has an "I'm getting too old for this s**t" mentality.
It just seems to me that if Ferentz really wanted to do right by Iowa, he would at least try to embrace a more modern approach to offense. Iowa is a good enough program to where it could attract a good, up-and-coming offensive mind, and doing that would increase his program's ceiling considerably.
September 13th, 2022 at 9:20 AM ^
I'd say Kirk's been complacent for at least the last decade. Remember who was Iowa's OC prior to his kid? I do, it was Greg Davis, and he was reviled for his troglodyte game plans and (in particular) for his horrible play calling. One might even go so far as to observe that the common thread in Iowa's ineffective offense is Kirk himself.
September 13th, 2022 at 9:48 AM ^
I don't think that Kirk Ferentz's Iowa program can attract a decent offensive mind in today's coaching ranks - unless the guy is so young and unproven that the G5 wouldn't touch him. The entire world knows what Ferentz wants to do on offense, and that isn't going to change with a new OC.
September 13th, 2022 at 10:36 AM ^
It could change if Ferentz allowed it to change.
Saban ran a somewhat similar offense to Ferentz (with much more talented players, granted) early in his tenure at Alabama, but Saban looked around after a few years and realized the direction the game was heading, especially on offense. He realized if he didn't adapt, he'd have a program that was still very good, but would get overtaken by the Clemsons and OSUs of the world. So he committed to changing his offensive philosophy and its paid off considerably.
If Ferentz was committed to bringing someone in who could modernize what Iowa does on offense, and he agreed to get out of the way and let them do it the way they wanted to do it (like Orgeron did for Joe Brady and Franklin with with Joe Moorhead), they could attract a good OC. Maybe not an elite one, but a pretty good one, possibly very good one, that would make them much harder to beat.
But Ferentz, for whatever reason, refuses to adapt and make changes that could elevate his program's status considerably. And at this stage, his commitment to this offense hurts Iowa far more than it helps. If he refuses to change it because he just doesn't want to take on that kind of project this late in his career, then that is all the justification that Iowa needs to ask him to resign. At that point, he is only doing what's best for himself and not for the program.
September 13th, 2022 at 10:48 AM ^
And what we're seeing now is it has gotten to the player level. What good QB is going to come to play in that system? No one with a decent P5 offer. They lost a couple of their good receivers via the transfer portal to a rival. They don't have much good skill position talent and that won't change until coaching changes. They're circling the drain.
September 13th, 2022 at 11:26 AM ^
If you're an OL player, I could understand the allure of going to Iowa. They do seem to produce first round talent there on a fairly regular basis. Tristan Wirfs came out of there two years ago and he's already an All-Pro. If you're a TE, I could probably understand that too. They've had a few good ones come through there in recent years.
But any other skill player with options? Right now, I'd probably rather go to a MAC school. If I'm a receiver, I'll be lucky to get targeted 4-5 times a game. If I'm a QB, my job is simply to hand the ball off or occasionally check down to a TE.
Like you said, as it stands right now, if I'm a skill player recruit and I have options, Iowa is darn near the bottom of my list right now.
September 13th, 2022 at 8:56 AM ^
Imagine if this was Jaybaugh, he would've been run out of town on a rail! :-D
September 13th, 2022 at 8:55 AM ^
Fran is so underpaid that he has to pimp himself out to say "Happy Birthday" for $50??
September 13th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
Well this is also a nice thing for him to do for people (usually). It’s a bit of fan service
September 13th, 2022 at 9:22 AM ^
A lot of negativity. Personally, I like what Brian is doing. Was he also the OC last year? His play calling and selection in the B1G CCG was exactly what I was looking for.
Michigan plays Iowa in four weeks - and, I hope he calls a similar game. My only hope is that Michigan could face them not only in October, but also in the B1G CCG - again.
Kirk, don’t change a thing… Brian.. keep up the good work…
September 13th, 2022 at 9:32 AM ^
Does anybody think this is Brian's offense? Like as in Kirk wants to run the Air Raid, but Brian, as the OC overruled him and is running whatever the hell they are doing now?
It's similar for playcalling. I don't know who calls the plays, but a guy like Kirk has a heavy hand in it.
Actually, it would be awesome if Iowa poached RR as it's co-OC and had Brian mainly coach a random position group.
September 13th, 2022 at 10:13 AM ^
It's obviously what Kirk wants. He's an old school guy and isn't going to run something flashy or unorthodox. Brian may be a bit of a scapegoat, in that he's being told more or less what kind of offense to run. However, it's clear he's not qualified to be running a P5 offense, so in that regard it's some serious nepotism.
Either way, it's hilarious to watch. Some real sicko level stuff.
September 13th, 2022 at 10:37 AM ^
It is not so much just the play calling. Their QB is still erratic. TEs are not developed this year. They don't use their WRs that well but that could be the QB issue. RBs have not stepped up. Kirk may have a say in what plays to run but expecting the coach to develop all these players on the offensive side of the ball is too much. You need a OC who can manage that side of the ball and use the coordinators well. Oh, their OL is not good either. And I think they lost two of their best players from offensive side last year. Others have not developed.
Kirk shares some blame but really he needs a good coordinator who can manage that side. Brian doesn't seem to be it.
September 13th, 2022 at 10:21 AM ^
Man, this is next level trolling! Love it. This may be the best schadenfreude I've seen.
September 13th, 2022 at 11:15 AM ^
For $25/minute, I will provide this same service. I will even hold the original trombone I used while with the MMB. I'm sure this would make a great gift for the birthday/anniversary of your significant other. Or for any wedding / bar mitzvah. I can also be hired as a hire-a-drunk for said events, if that is something you need. Just contact me here on the blog.
September 13th, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^
With all the time he has available, Scott Frost is going to really cash in doing these cameos.