A look back at Kirk Ferentz’s reboot from five years ago
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Nearly five years have passed since Kirk Ferentz gave the Iowa football program what he described at the time as a much-needed reboot.
Ferentz updated that reboot on Monday, even if that wasn’t his intention.
Ferentz started his press conference, which was his first chance to talk publicly about the Dec. 27th Holiday Bowl matchup against the University of Southern California, by sort of giving a state of the union address on where the Iowa football program currently stands.
“That gives us 46 wins over the last five years right now, which puts us in good standing historically with this program,” Ferentz said. That’s equal to the best over any five-year period there is and I’ve been told eleventh best in the county. So our guys can be proud of that.
“And then beyond that, I think they’ve done a great job in the classroom with 38 Academic All-Big Ten players this year. We’ve had 16 total academic All-Americans and 358 academic All-Big Ten players now since we’ve been here. So just very, very proud of that, and ultimately, that’s what it’s all about.”
Ferentz, obviously, had done his research, or somebody had done it for him, because he came armed and ready to promote his program, and deservedly so.
His reboot, which occurred just days after a disappointing 2014 season had ended, has mostly been a success
Because remember, Iowa had combined to finish just 34-30 overall during the five-year stretch from 2010-14, and some fans were starting to suffer from what they called Ferentz fatigue.
Ferentz’s job never was on the line during that five-year stretch, but his legacy was on the line, and his job eventually would have been on the line if Iowa had continued to sputter along as barely a .500 program.
But Ferentz performed the reboot, which included making a quarterback change as C.J. Beathard was named the new starter over two-year starter Jake Rudock, and switching practice from late afternoon to early morning.
Iowa would go on to finish 12-2 in 2015 and play in the Rose Bowl, and is 46-19 overall since the reboot. The current team is 9-3 heading into the Holiday Bowl in San Diego.
A victory over USC would make the current team just the ninth in program history to have won at least 10 games.
Nobody would mistake Iowa for Wisconsin, but the Iowa program is clearly more stable and sturdy than it was five years ago.
I asked Ferentz on Monday why the reboot has paid dividends, and for him to revisit its roots.
“I think really it probably began after the 12 season,” Ferentz said. “That was certainly a disappointing year, basically, just disappointing. So that really amped up or heightened our sense of awareness in just doing little things a little bit better. And that’s really what it usually gets down to.
“And then we slid back, we had a couple of losses in 14 that were really hard to live with, and that’s to me, how you evaluate a season. If you had a handful of those where, really, that’s what we did? And we had more than one in that season. So we did change things with the morning practice, and all that. But I think you keep learning in life, and hopefully, you’re doing a better job every day. And as you move to the next day, hopefully, you learned something from what you did that day and then just try and do a little bit better job.”
Based on wins and losses, it’s fair and accurate to say that Ferentz is having more success now at the age of 64 than he had during the latter stages of his 50s.
Ferentz appears to be getting better with age, but there still is room for improvement.
Wisconsin is clearly the king of the Big Ten West Division and shows no signs of loosening its grip.
Ferentz’s reboot turned Iowa from being slightly above average to a program that has averaged slightly more than nine wins per season over the past five seasons.
“In our community, it’s all about everybody being on the same page," Ferentz said. “I think that’s what makes football a little bit unique and different. I’ve got a lot of coaches involved and certainly a lot of player and support staff members.
“So everyone has got to be kind of carrying the same message and doing it on a daily basis. And I think we’ve done a little better job of that. But there’s always a challenge. That’s one of the great thing about sports, always things to learn and contemplate and think about.”
Ferentz then talked about how the practice schedule for the Holiday Bowl has presented a challenge due to the game being played just two days after Christmas.
It will be the earliest bowl game in which Iowa has played from a date standpoint.
“This whole schedule has caused us to really give a lot of thought just to make sure we’re not screwing this thing up, and we’ll know more in about two weeks,” Ferentz said. “But that’s part of the fun of it. It’s really stimulating to try and put the puzzles together sometimes.”
Kirk Ferentz is many things as a head coach, including a survivor.
A head coach doesn't last for 21 seasons at one place without knowing how to cope and to adjust, and that is part of surviving in a profession that often chews up and spits out its head coaches.
The Iowa program was at a crossroads five years ago, and it seems obvious now that Kirk Ferentz chose the right path on which to travel.