By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – You could never get me to say that Kirk Ferentz is a better football coach than Hayden Fry because Hayden is in a class by himself.

Hayden Fry is a living legend and has been for nearly four decades, ever since he did the unimaginable by rebuilding the Iowa football program in the early 1980s when many thought it was impossible.

I’m also biased where Hayden is concerned because he kept my older brother on scholarship at Iowa after a staph infection had ended my brother’s football career after his true freshman season.

Hayden helped to make life better for so many people during his legendary coaching career, but so has the 63-year old Ferentz.

Ferentz is entering his 20th season as the Iowa head coach and he participated in his 20^th media day as the head Hawk on Friday and his 29^th overall as a member of the Iowa staff.

Ferentz will match Fry in coaching longevity this season, which starts on Sept. 1 against Northern Illinois at Kinnick Stadium.

Ferentz will also surpass Fry and become Iowa’s all-time winningest football coach with his next victory.

“As many of you may know, this is my 20th year, and for the record, that's the last time I'll mention that this year,” Ferentz said Friday while addressing the media. 

Ferentz despises the attention being focused on him, but the media won’t let up, nor should they, until he finally breaks the record.

Ferentz might not want you to think so, but what he is about to accomplish is a huge deal. And deep down, Ferentz knows that.

He just isn’t comfortable being the center of attention.

“He’s one of the most humble and modest guys you will ever meet,” said Iowa quarterback coach Ken O’Keefe, who is entering his 15^th season overall as a member of Ferentz’s staff at Iowa. “He’s highly intelligent. He knows what he’s doing and what he wants to do. And that’s the reason why we’ve been able to stay here for as long as we have.”

From a personality standpoint, Ferentz and Fry are about as similar as hot sauce and ice cream.

Ferentz certainly has a sense of humor, but he is more subtle and composed compared to Fry, who could take over a room, or a press conference, with his Texas charm and his unique vocabulary.

Fry didn’t mind being the center of attention, especially if it meant being a distraction for his players.

What Fry and Ferentz both share in common, though, besides a passion for football, is a love for the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Something had to keep them both here for 20 years because they could’ve easily bolted for a better offer.

Fry reportedly turned down a chance to coach at the University of Southern California in the mid-1980s after rebuilding the Iowa program, while Ferentz probably could’ve had both the Michigan and Penn State job at some point if he had really wanted to pursue either one.

Instead of saying one is a better coach than the other, I prefer to rank Fry and Ferentz together as the two best coaches in the history of the Iowa program.

Fry performed a miracle, or so we thought, until Ferentz performed a similar miracle by making Iowa a consistent winner for nearly two decades.

But you also could argue that without Fry resurrecting the program, there would have been no Kirk Ferentz. Fry set the stage for what we're seeing now at Iowa in terms of stability.

Ferentz might feel kind of awkward about breaking any record set by Fry because they both mean so much to each other, sort of a father-son relationship that was built through coaching.

Ferentz will forever be linked to Fry because none of what has occurred over the past 19 seasons would’ve happened without Fry taking a chance on Ferentz in 1981 despite Ferentz being a little-known 25-year-old graduate assistant from Pittsburgh.

Little did Fry know, but his decision to hire Ferentz would go on to change the course of history for the Iowa football program.

Fry averaged between seven and eight wins per season at Iowa, and so has Ferentz.

Fry led Iowa to bowl games on a routine basis, and so has Ferentz.

Fry led Iowa to three Big Ten titles in 20 seasons, while Ferentz has won two conference titles and one Big Ten West Division title in 19 seasons.

Fry had a knack for surrounding himself with talented assistant coaches who aspired to be head coaches. Fry's coaching tree, which includes Barry Alvarez, Bill Snyder Bob Stoops and Ferentz, is one of the best of all time.

Ferentz doesn't have that same coaching tree, but he has surrounded himself with talented and loyal assistants such as defensive coordinator Phil Parker, who is also entering his 20th season at Iowa.

The Iowa program has been in the news recently for the wrong reasons with four players, including three starters, having been suspended for the season opener. It's disappointing and unfortuante whenever players get into trouble, but it goes with the territorty.

Fry also had to suspend and discipline some of his players. You deal with it and move on.

"I think most of the things that happened are things that happen on college campuses across the country, and anybody that's a parent, those are things you worry about, I would imagine, for anybody that's in that 17 to 25 age group," Ferentz said. "Maybe beyond that, I don't know. I don't think there's anything extraordinary going on, nothing alarming in my mind, but there are things that have to be addressed, and we do have clearly stated expectations that we expect everybody to abide by."

The deeper you dig, the more similar Fry and Ferentz seem to be, except in one case.

Fry was 69-years old heading into his final season as the Iowa head coach in 1998, and would learn during the course of that season that he had prostate cancer.

Fry also had a team that was short on talent, depth and victories as Iowa struggled to a 3-8 record in 1998.

Ferentz, on the other hand, has a team with 15 starters returning, including arguably the best tight end in college football in junior Noah Fant, who set a school record for a tight end with 11 touchdown catches last season.

Junior quarterback Nate Stanley also returns after throwing 26 touchdown passes and just six interceptions last season.

And you’d be hard-pressed to find a season when Iowa had more quality depth at defensive end than it has now.

Time and misfortune finally had caught up with Fry by 1998 and he was forced to retire due to health reason. He is now 89 years old and lives in his home state of Texas after having spent much of his retirement living in Mesquite, Nev.

Ferentz shows no signs of slowing down, nor has he made any hints about wanting to retire.

Brian Ferentz, who is Kirk's oldest of five children, is entering his second season as the Iowa offensive coordinator, and it's reasonable to think that Kirk would love for Brian to replace him as head coach some day.

However, a lot more victories would have to occur before that could happen.

Kirk Ferentz feels extremely fortunate to be the head coach at Iowa and is still energized by the challenge that comes with it.

Those who work under Ferentz also feel fortunate and energized just by his influence.

“The stability at the University of Iowa is unique and I think you can probably trace it back to the head football coach,” said Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle, who has been with Ferentz since the beginning at Iowa in 1999. “He’s done things a certain way for a long time. He has impeccable character and integrity and he leads by example.

“He’s coached here in his twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and now his sixties. There is nobody like him in the country that has the unique understanding and the unique fit to the job that he does. And everybody in the building benefits from that.”

When they go to write the book on Iowa football, Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz will both be in the first sentence, along with Nile Kinnick.

Ferentz is in a position to blow past Fry’s record because it’s reasonable to think that Ferentz could coach another three to five seasons.

That still wouldn’t make Ferentz better than his beloved predecessor because there is no better or worse in this case, although, Ferentz’s current team certainly looks better than Fry’s did at the same stage.