I’m sitting here looking across the room and I see my autographed Kirk Ferentz football, it says “Go Hawks” and all I can think is, time to “Go Kirk”. Kirk Ferentz has a legacy at Iowa that is well earned but his willful blindness to the problems with his program could undermine that legacy. You would think a man who admitted to his blind spot when it came to the racial issues with his former strength coach would recognize the problems on the field with his offense, but he just can’t admit to another blind spot. Kirk Ferentz has never been one to overreact to a problem, I’m fine with not overreacting, but I’m not fine with not reacting to this abysmal offense. He is wasting an epically great defense and a fantastic special teams group that deserve better.
The issues on offense are numerous and Kirk refuses to even try to address any of them, it’s literally easier to list the things that are good on offense. There are three, TE Sam LaPorta, TE Luke Lachey, and RB Kaleb Johnson, that’s it, that’s where the list of good things ends. The offensive line is young, it is talented, and it has been terrible. Kirk mentioned in his post game press conference after the Illinois loss that he though they made progress last week against Michigan. They did, but most of that “progress” was when they were running the stretch zone to Kaleb Johnson and then they didn’t do that at all against Illinois. I do believe there is talent on the line and their youth and inexperience is the biggest issue but that is on the coaches too. The group is young because the coaches failed over multiple classes to recruit, retain, and develop any offensive linemen that would be upper classmen now. For a coaching staff that prides itself on its offensive line coaching and development, they failed. They also failed to do what every other school in the country seems to do when they miss at a position, use the transfer portal. I’ll get to that in a moment. This is all in addition to the coaching staff’s inability to do anything schematically to help out an offensive line that they admit is young and struggling. I’ll get to the scheme issues too. Iowa’s offense has always been based on the strength of their offensive line, and they just aren’t very good right now.
The bad offensive line play doesn’t absolve QB Spencer Petras of his horrific play. His numbers for the Michigan game looked like a marked improvement but anyone who watched that game knows he padded his stats late against Michigan’s backups who were simply trying to get the game over with. I’m sure Petras is a great guy, I’m sure his teammates love him, and I’m sure he will be a productive man for the rest of his life, but he’s a bad QB. The rest of this team (well the defense, special teams, TEs and Kaleb Johnson, anyway) deserve better from their QB. Perhaps Ferentz and Ferentz (that would be Kirk and Brian) are correct that Petras is better than the other QBs, that’s a scary thought. It’s absolutely frightening to think that the coaches haven’t developed Alex Padilla or Joe Labas to the point that they are any better that what we are witnessing from Petras. It may be true that Petras understands what to do in any give situation better than Padilla or Labas (I would hope that’s true since he’s been in the offense five years and starting for the last three). However, he simply can’t execute what needs to be done, he holds the ball too long too often, and when he has time, he still misses open receivers. Again, there are coaching issues schematically too. Why would any coach, with Spencer Petras as their QB, call a rollout to the left side of the formation and expect Petras to complete a pass going that way when everyone knows he can’t make that pass? Only a play caller who’s in over his head would make that call, and then make that call again a week later.
The WR group is in rough shape, some of that is due to injury, some of that is due to players transferring out, and some of that is because the offense is terrible. They haven’t had Keagan Johnson (with the exception of one game this year) but he wouldn’t cure all that ails this passing game (Jerry Rice couldn’t save this passing game). Brody Brecht was hurt early and hasn’t found his place in this offense, Nico Ragaini was banged up to start the year, Diante Vines is still out with a wrist injury, and the rest of the group isn’t worth mentioning. WRs Charlie Jones, Tyrone Tracy, Calvin Lockett, Quavon Matthews, and Desmond Hutson all transferred from Iowa since the beginning of last year and while only Jones has proven to be a major player in a major conference elsewhere, this left Iowa with absolutely no depth to develop when injuries struck. When other schools have this kind of issue at a position they look to the transfer portal to find guys looking for an opportunity (literally the reason Purdue got two guys from Iowa). The problem is that the coaches rarely look that way and WRs don’t see Iowa’s offense as an opportunity, they’re correct in that assessment. The twenty-year-old offense simply doesn’t attract skill position players and it literally chased off Charlie Jones who left to find a place that would use his talents (beyond being a punt returner).
This leads me to the program wide issues that are becoming quite apparent. Kirk Ferentz not only doesn’t like change, he goes out of his way to avoid it. The problem is that college football has undergone radical changes on the field over the last two decades, and even more radical changes off the field over the last couple of years. The transfer portal and NIL (name, image, and likeness) have changed the way you have to approach players. Conference realignment and expansion are changing the way you have to approach your program. The transfer portal has taken away from Iowa this year but the coaches didn’t use it to get anyone of significance unless you count a backup TE from a Division III school who hasn’t contributed. Clearly, Iowa could have used a QB, some offensive linemen who might be ready to play right away, and a receiver or two or three. The truth is the Hawkeyes could have used an infusion of talent everywhere on offense (okay, they really didn’t need a TE, go figure). Even at RB, the team had Gavin Williams and Leshon Williams but if you haven’t noticed, true freshman Kaleb Johnson is the most talented back they have. Williams and Williams are solid RBs but if a truly special RB wanted to transfer to Iowa last spring, would you have turned them down?
Kirk Ferentz has spent over two decades telling us that Iowa isn’t “sexy” and that we are what we are, but why? College football is changing, why can’t Iowa get in on that change. It isn’t going to get easier in the Big Ten. When the divisions go away Iowa’s path to a Big Ten championship becomes infinitely harder. It’s not about competing with Wisconsin or Minnesota or Purdue for a division title and a shot in the Big Ten Championship game, if you want to compete for a Big Ten Championship you have to compete with Ohio St, Michigan, and Penn St. Iowa can do that, it is possible, but the coaching staff has to be willing to be a modern college football program. College football isn’t what it was even two years ago as a sport. There are those who will say “be careful what you wish for”, moving on from a steady coach like Ferentz can go bad quickly, just ask Nebraska. That’s bullshit, that’s a loser’s mentality. If Gary Barta is scared he can’t hire a good coach, he shouldn’t be the guy doing the hiring. There are good men, who are good coaches, who would fit into the Iowa culture and could actually update the offense. Iowa has to decide if it wants to be a 7-5 or 8-4 team at it’s peak or if it wants to compete for the conference title and maybe a playoff spot someday. Hell, there’s going to be 12 playoff spots pretty soon, Iowa’s not getting there with this offense.
So what needs to happen? Brian Ferentz needs to go, that’s the smallest change that has to happen. That probably means Kirk needs to go but there is a way out for him. Stay with me, I know it’s hard to believe. We know Kirk Ferentz isn’t firing his son and we certainly know Gary Barta isn’t firing Brian without Kirk’s blessing even though Barta is technically Brian’s supervisor. That means there’s only one way out for Kirk. Brian Ferentz is a grown man, he’s almost 40, he’s been in the coaching profession for quite a while and in football even longer. Brian has to be the one to step up here. Brian has to rightfully take the bullet for his father’s legacy. In the post Illinois loss press conference when asked about Brian, Kirk said he was a good football coach, and he is, he’s just not an offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach. Brian needs to walk into Gary Barta’s office, hand him his resignation letter and Barta has to accept it no matter what Kirk wants. Then Barta has to get a little tough with Kirk and tell him, hand over the offense to someone else or start planning for retirement. It is the beginning of the end for Kirk one way or another. Brian is still young enough to go to the NFL as an o-line or TE coach and rehab his reputation. Brian isn’t an offensive coordinator, he’s not a play caller, there’s nothing wrong with that. There are a lot of coaches who are really good who aren’t play callers, there are guys who have become head coaches without being a coordinator. Kirk Ferentz is one, Dabo Swinney has won two National Championships at Clemson and he was really only the OC there for part of a year when he was the interim head coach. Brian can rehab his reputation in the NFL and potentially end up a head coach somewhere five years from now (not here). His career can be salvaged, he needs to save his father’s legacy by walking away.
Finally, Kirk needs to save his legacy. If he can handle Brian walking away he has to pivot to a modern way of playing offense. That doesn’t mean Iowa goes to an air raid offense, that isn’t even what teams are doing these days. The outside zone running that Iowa does is actually quite popular in the NFL these days but teams are approaching it differently. The Shanahan family tree of coaches, which is extensive at this point, has looked to modernize that running attack with more mobile QBs who can use it to their advantage. It isn’t impossible for Iowa to be a run first, hard-nosed defense, great special teams team and actually compete. The offense doesn’t have to be discarded, it has to updated.
The fear is that if Iowa doesn’t change the offense, the good players they do have will transfer, that’s a fact of college football these days. Sam LaPorta is heading to the NFL, Luke Lachey won’t be too far behind him. Iowa has to hold onto guys like Kaleb Johnson, Keagan Johnson, Arland Bruce IV, and even guys like Jaziun Patterson and Brody Brecht (he’s not transferring but he might decide to just stick to baseball if we never throw him a pass). Spencer Petras is a senior (and if he wants to use his Covid year, enjoy whatever Division II school will have you), Alex Padilla probably isn’t the QB of the future if he can’t look better than Petras. Joe Labas deserves a shot if he likes the new coordinator. If not, Iowa can look to the transfer portal and there are always QBs looking for opportunities, but they will only look at Iowa if there’s a new offense in place.
I don’t want to see a sad slow ending to Kirk Ferentz’s career at Iowa, he has done too many good things. However, if he’s not willing to make the changes necessary, name a street after him, put a statue outside the football offices if you have to, but wish him good luck because it’s time to move on.
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