After 5 years the Greg Davis era has finally come to a close with Davis announcing his retirement yesterday afternoon. I had to fight the urge to stop and buy a few bottles of champagne and spray them all over my apartment yesterday after work. I wanted to celebrate like the Cubs after winning the World Series. Do you think we could have a celebration rally at Carver Hawkeye Arena like we just won the National Championship? Sorry, you’re right, we would have to hold it at Kinnick to accommodate the number of people who would likely attend. Of course there were mixed feeling immediately after hearing the news, total elation that Davis was finally out and complete terror that Kirk Ferentz would be hiring another offensive coordinator. The obvious move is for Kirk to promote offensive line coach and run game coordinator Brian Ferentz to the position. He didn’t make his son the run game coordinator two years ago for no reason. It was a calculated move to give Brian a chance to have a say in the direction of the offense. Two years ago that move helped make the Iowa offense good enough to take the Hawkeyes to the Rose Bowl, the offense regressed badly this last year but it wasn’t the running game that was at fault. I’ve written plenty about the sorry state of Iowa’s passing game and the inability of the coaching staff to develop WRs which is why I’m very hopeful that the retirement of Greg Davis means WR coach Bobby Kennedy is looking for a quick exit too. Kennedy was a Davis guy and hopefully Iowa looks to make a change there too. Let’s take a look at a few scenarios, one that will never happen and a few that could.
Two years ago when the Hawkeyes were coming off the embarrassing bowl loss to Tennessee and Kirk Ferentz held the press conference to announce CJ Beathard would be the starting QB going forward I was hoping he would make an offensive coordinator change. He didn’t do it then, instead he made Brian Ferentz the run game coordinator and kept Greg Davis. I wanted him to go out and hire a young, innovative offensive mind and I suggested then East Carolina offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley, Ferentz didn’t do that and Bob Stoops scooped up Riley instead. I would love it if Kirk did something similar but that just isn’t his style and there is no way he hires some young hotshot who would come in and block Brian’s path to the offensive coordinator position. There are a few experienced guys he might look at that would make some sense so let’s look at them.
Joe Philbin
Philbin was Ferentz’s original offensive line coach back in 1999 and was here for a few years before leaving to become an assistant with the Green Bay Packers. He rose up the ranks with the Packers to eventually become Mike McCarthy’s offensive coordinator and finally became the Miami Dolphins head coach. His Miami tenure was pretty brutal and was marred by the Jonathan Martin bullying incident. This past season he worked as the assistant head coach and offensive line coach for the Indianapolis Colts and did a pretty good job of making the best of a not so great group of linemen. The biggest issue with Philbin returning is that it has always been believed that the reason he left college coaching was that he hated recruiting and something tells me that after nearly 15 years the way recruiting is now would not be a selling point to him. I also think it’s a pipe dream to think a guy that was an NFL head coach two years ago would like the idea of becoming the offensive coordinator for a college program. And don’t throw Greg Schiano serving as defensive coordinator at Ohio St. after his stint as the Tampa Bay head coach at me, that’s serving as Urban Meyer’s assistant while hoping to land a college head coaching job. I don’t think Philbin wants to eventually get a college head coaching job I think he wants another shot in the NFL. All that said I would be extremely happy to see Philbin return. He has plenty of experience and has worked for a few different coaches. He also has a relationship with Ferentz where I think he could make some changes that wouldn’t bother Kirk’s sensibilities and Kirk would trust him enough to allow it.
A couple of guys that don’t have ties to Kirk Ferentz
Tom Clements (Green Bay Packers assistant coach)
Clements name came up the last time Iowa was hiring an offensive coordinator but I’m not sure how far he got into the process. Clements has been working in Green Bay for over a decade and Aaron Rodgers sings his praises. He actually called plays for a short while a couple of years ago but the team’s offense struggled and head coach Mike McCarthy took the play calling duties back from him so that’s not a ringing endorsement for his experience. I’m not sure how innovative he would be and Clements is 63 years old so he wouldn’t be a long-term solution.
Matt Limegrover
I have no earthly idea if Limegrover is in the running but he should be. He was the offensive coordinator at Minnesota under Jerry Kill and was a very good play caller. He was excellent at breaking tendencies and keeping defenses off-balance. He is a run first, pro style offense kind of coach who would match up well with Kirk’s preferred style but he thinks outside of the box when it comes to game planning. He spent this last season as offensive line coach at Penn St. after Tracy Claeys fired him at Minnesota when he replaced Kill. That was the moment I knew Claeys was an idiot and had no idea what he was doing. Limegrover fixed a terrible offensive line at Penn St. this last year and made them pretty good. He might be a bit redundant with Brian Ferentz though as both of them are offensive line coaches by nature. Limegrover’s experience in a similar style offense and as a play caller might make him a perfect choice to be a co-coordinator with Brian since Brian has never called plays.
Now for the obvious choice
Brian Ferentz
The calls of nepotism would be loud should Kirk promote his son to offensive coordinator but that would be unfortunate. Let’s pretend his name is Brian Smith for a minute not Brian Ferentz and look at his resume. He spent time on the New England Patriots staff under offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and coached tight ends. This was during the years the Patriots dominated with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernadez. He then took the offensive line coaching job with the Iowa Hawkeyes. After a couple of years he was promoted to run game coordinator and in his first year in that position the Hawkeyes went 12-0 during the regular season, won the Big Ten West title, almost beat Michigan St. in the conference championship game and made the Rose Bowl for the first time in 25 years. In year two as run game coordinator (and offensive line coach) his offensive line won the Joe Moore award for best offensive line in the country (and he did it having to use multiple combinations) and for the first time in Hawkeye football history Iowa had two running backs go for over 1000 yards in a season. There’s a very good chance that if he put this resume together at another school under another name I would be calling him one of the young hotshot offensive minds we should be looking at. Having the last name Ferentz has its disadvantage when it comes to the public perception but it I think it has a built-in advantage when it comes to actually doing the job. Kirk Ferentz isn’t going to change his philosophy when it comes to his offense, he isn’t going to hire some spread offense guru and turn the keys over to him. Kirk Ferentz isn’t making a call to Chip Kelly and he isn’t taking a chance on a guy like Sonnie Cumbie from TCU. The Air Raid offense isn’t coming to Iowa City as long as Kirk Ferentz is the coach. Brian Ferentz has an advantage in the fact that he can get Kirk to listen when it comes to making the subtle changes that need to happen. Iowa doesn’t need to become a spread passing offense to be successful but running a few plays from the spread formation would be a nice wrinkle in the offense. So would scheming to get some of your playmakers open and that’s about game planning and play calling. Some people don’t believe that Brian Ferentz’s time in New England counts for much because he worked with great players so he shouldn’t get credit for coaching them. Here’s what he should get credit for. In New England the Patriots play to their strengths. The Patriots, whether it was Charlie Weis, Josh McDaniels or Bill O’Brien calling plays, always plays to its strengths. They were once successful running the ball with Corey Dillon, then they were a high-flying passing offense with Randy Moss and Wes Welker, then they were a down the seem passing offense with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, then it was Julian Edelman and this last season it has been the short passing game to RB James White and the pounding of big back LaGarrett Blount. The one thing I truly hope Brian Ferentz picked up while working in New England is to use the talent you have and fit the offense around them. This past season Brian Ferentz coordinated a running attack using the strength of his offensive line and a pair of complementary running backs to make a dominant running game on a team that had absolutely no threat of a passing attack. He balanced a power running back LeShun Daniels, who has had injury issues throughout his career, with a dynamic speed back Akrum Wadley, who shouldn’t be counted on to carry the ball 25 times a game because that might slow him down. It’s time for Kirk to sink or swim with Brian at offensive coordinator. This is either the end of the road for Kirk if it doesn’t work out or it’s the beginning of Brian’s ascent to his head coaching future. I would be all for Kirk bringing in a young offensive mind like David Raih to be the QB coach and potentially help coordinate the passing game, maybe we will run some routes more than seven yards down the field. Hopefully Iowa will find a good WR coach that will actually develop more than one WR, god forbid Matt VandeBerg gets hurt again and we have no one that can get open. I think Nathan Stanley has a lot of promise at QB and he would be excellent if we get him a QB coach that knows what he’s doing, a WR coach that can develop some talent (there is talent there to work with) and an offensive coordinator that will put him in a position to succeed.
Good Luck Coach Ferentz (both of you).
The Hott Read 