By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kirk Ferentz has made too many wise decisions as the Iowa football coach to keep track, but some really stand out, including the two addressed in this column.

The first was Ferentz’s decision to add Reese Morgan to the staff shortly after the 1999 season, and the second was bringing former Iowa offensive coordinator Ken O’Keefe back to coach the quarterbacks before the start of this season.

Morgan has been a pillar of strength and consistency for the Hawkeyes. Whatever Ferentz needs him to do, Morgan does it and does it well.

He is currently coaching the defensive line after having previously coached the offensive line.

Morgan also leads Iowa’s instate recruiting efforts and acts as sort of a bond between the Iowa staff and the recruits and their families.

As for O’Keefe, he has the distinction of being Iowa’s first and only quarterbacks coach exclusively during the Ferentz era.

And the timing could not have been any better with sophomore Nate Stanley in his first season as Iowa’s starting quarterback.

It probably isn’t a coincidence that Stanley has improved steadily under O'Keefe's watch to where he is now a star in the making for the Hawkeyes. A quarterback doesn’t throw 22 touchdown passes and just four interceptions in nine games, as is the case with Stanley, by accident.

Stanley has achieved those sparkling numbers for lots of reasons, perhaps none bigger than the impact from O’Keefe’s knowledge and approach to coaching.

“Yeah, I think Ken is a master teacher,” Ferentz said on Tuesday. “He's an excellent teacher, and he can teach anything or any position. So yeah, I think a guy with his expertise, his wisdom, his demeanor to coach, he's very demanding, I know that, and I imagine Nate would tell you that and all the quarterbacks would tell you that. But you have to be; for a guy to grow and develop, you've got to be.

“But he's got a really good feel for it. I'm not pretending he's the only guy in the country that would be like that or could do that, but I'm really glad Ken is back here. I think that's been really good for him.”

Ferentz would’ve been hard pressed to find a better candidate to coach his quarterbacks than the 64-year old O’Keefe.

From his familiarity with the Iowa program, and with the Ferentz family, to his knowledge of the game, O’Keefe had attributes that other coaches couldn’t match.

He had served as Iowa’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 1999 to 2011 and had earned the respect and admiration of current offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, who is Kirk Ferentz’s oldest son.

The situation at Iowa is unique with a father and son coaching together, and it took somebody who could handle both ends of that delicate equation without creating any awkwardness or resentment.

O’Keefe was that person.

He was brought in to coach the most important position on the team, and to give Brian Ferentz somebody Brian respects and trusts to lean on.

Kirk Ferentz now has two people doing that job that O’Keefe and previous offensive coordinator Greg Davis did by themselves.

“This is the first time we've had this where it's all Ken's focused on pretty much,” Kirk Ferentz said of coaching the quarterbacks. “He's adding a lot in the room, whether it's the whole staff or offensive staff. But when he gets a position – it's kind of the first time we've ever done that or first time since the first year, I guess.”

The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Stanley has gone from competing for the starting position against Tyler Wiegers in a competition that was too close to call for nine months to now being in position to break Chuck Long’s school record for most touchdown passes in a season, which stands at 27 from the 1985 season.

The fact that Stanley, who is from Menomonie, Wis, is poised to break any of Long’s records after just nine games is stunning because Long is widely regarded as the greatest quarterback in school history, and one of the greatest in Big Ten history.

Long was the first Big Ten quarterback to pass for 10,000 yards in a career and he finished runner-up to Bo Jackson for the 1985 Heisman Trophy in what was the closest vote ever for the award.

It also is stunning when you consider that Iowa has struggled to sustain a rushing attack and scored fewer than 20 points in four Big Ten games, including 10 points against both Michigan State and Northwestern.

Stanley will face another big challenge on Saturday when he returns home to face undefeated Wisconsin, which is ranked second in the Big Ten in total defense.

Or maybe there is a simple explanation in that Stanley was just waiting to be molded, groomed and polished and the decision to hire O’Keefe has allowed that to happen.

“It’s huge,” Stanley said of O’Keefe’s impact. ‘He obviously is super knowledgeable about the position.”

O’Keefe demands a lot from his quarterbacks, but maybe even more from himself.

“He talks about on Thursdays and Fridays that he scares himself with how much film he watches,” Stanley said of O'Keefe. “So just being able to know that he is obviously going to have us totally prepared for the game and knowing that he’ll see things that we don’t from the mental aspect of the game, he’s helped a lot.”

Chuck Long also praised Kirk Ferentz’s decision to reunite with O’Keefe, who spent four seasons as the Miami Dolphins receivers coach after leaving Iowa in 2011.

Long said it’s important for Brian Ferentz to have somebody to lean on as a first-year coordinator. And who better than O’Keefe?

“It’s huge, and I promise you Brian Ferentz is leaning on him,” Long said of O’Keefe. “I would be. Brian is a brand new coordinator. You’ve got a guy who called plays at Iowa for 15 years, you better be leaning on Ken O’Keefe. He knows what he’s doing. He’s been at the NFL level now so he’s added that to his resume.”

O'Keefe also can add Stanley's success to his resume.