Ready or not, all signs point to Brian Ferentz being Iowa’s next offensive coordinator
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – This column is not an endorsement for Brian Ferentz to be Iowa’s next offensive coordinator, but rather an explanation for why it likely will happen.
How could I possibly know who should be Iowa’s next offensive coordinator just from covering the team? There always are so many facts and circumstances in a coaching search that cause the picture to blur and make it hard to truly know who the best candidate might be.
Brian Ferentz is certainly a worthy candidate to be Iowa’s next offensive coordinator based on his experience and with him being in the right place at the time. Brian would deserve consideration for the job even if he wasn’t Kirk Ferentz’s oldest son.
Brian Ferentz just completed his fifth season as Iowa’s offensive line coach and his second season as the running game coordinator for his college alma mater. He will turn 34 years old in March, which is almost the same age his father, Kirk Ferentz, was when he left his job as the Iowa offensive line coach in 1989 to be the head coach a Maine.
This season produced the first two 1,000-yard rushers for Iowa in the same season. The Iowa offensive line also pulled off what could be considered an upset by edging Alabama and Ohio State for the Joe Moore Award, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate offensive line.
Brian Ferentz is hot right now.
As bad as the Outback Bowl proved to be, Iowa still had success running the ball as Akrum Wadley rushed for 115 yards in the 30-3 loss to Florida this past Monday. The Iowa offensive line showed a pulse against the Gators.
So anybody in Brian Ferentz’s position as offensive line coach for five years and running game coordinator for two years would deserve consideration to replace the retiring Greg Davis as offensive coordinator.
You could argue that Kirk Ferentz should hire somebody with previous experience as a coordinator, but that’s where things might get tricky because of Brian Ferentz’s presence on the staff.
Brian isn’t the new kid on the block anymore. He’s married, a father and approaching middle age.
His presence on the staff is a dynamic that almost every other college football program doesn’t have with a father and son coaching together.
It is a delicate situation to say the least, a setup that might cause some candidates to be reluctant to pursue the offensive coordinator job at Iowa.
That isn’t meant as criticism towards Brian Ferentz or his father. It’s just the reality of the situation.
Kirk Ferentz has hooked his coaching saddle to his son, but how Kirk rides off into the sunset has yet to be determined.
There are some who feel that Brian Ferentz is being groomed to be Iowa’s next head coach. I don’t necessarily agree with that because his father isn’t that calculated, nor has Kirk Ferentz sustained enough high-level success to enforce that succession without facing some resistance.
Brian is being groomed for something, though.
He has added responsibility and gained more power since joining his father’s staff before the 2012 season.
Should Brian become his father's offensive coordinator, their legacies would forever be linked. Brian almost certainly would be his father's successor if Iowa had success with Brian as the offensive coordinator. But if the program struggled with Brian running the offense, he and his father eventually would be relieved of their duties.
It’s hard to think of many candidates whose presence as offensive coordinator would erase the awkwardness of having Brian Ferentz on the staff and working under him.
Former Iowa offensive coordinator Ken O’Keefe and former Iowa offensive line coach Joe Philbin both have been mentioned as possibilities, the thinking being they could work with Brian for several years before handing him the keys to the offense.
O’Keefe and Philbin both know Brian Ferentz and Kirk Ferentz on a personal level, so if anybody could make a delicate situation work, it would be them.
But does Philbin want to return to college after coaching for so long in the NFL? Everything I’ve heard or read says no.
And would it be wise to bring O’Keefe back to a situation where fans are ready to pounce on anything that goes wrong with offense?
Fans hardly shed tears when O’Keefe resigned after the 2011 season to accept a job with the Miami Dolphins. O'Keefe's act had grown old in Iowa City. So wouldn’t it be risky bringing him back just five years later?
Maybe there is somebody out there with more qualifications than Brian Ferentz who would be willing to deal with the unusual setup that exists at Iowa.
Greg Davis had loads of experience and enough credentials to demand Brian Ferentz’s respect. Davis is also more than 30 years older than Brian, which demands more respect.
And yet even with no apparent chemistry issues, the Iowa offense often sputtered under Davis, especially the passing attack.
I have to think that Brian Ferentz believes strongly that he is ready to be Iowa’s next offensive coordinator, and that it would have to take somebody truly special for Brian to embace a different candidate.
Maybe Brian could convince his father to reshuffle the staff and create a new position as quarterback coach. You could argue that Iowa’s last three starting quarterbacks – C.J. Beathard, Jake Rudock and James Vandenberg – all regressed under Davis.
Brian Ferentz doesn’t appear to have spent much time coaching quarterbacks, so to have his own quarterback coach would lift some of that burden.
The time just seems right for Brian Ferentz to be his father’s offensive coordinator. If anybody could convince Kirk Ferentz to try new wrinkles, you’d think it would be his son.
Brian Ferentz might not be the most qualified person for the job, but that’s the risk you take with having your son on the staff.
There is a reason Brian Ferentz reports to Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta instead of to his father. That’s Iowa’s way of safeguarding against nepotism.
My guess is that Brian Ferentz will be promoted to offensive coordinator, partly because he deserves it, but also because his presence on the staff will make it hard to hire anybody else more qualfied.