Numbers show that Kirk Ferentz, at 64, is getting better with age
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kirk Ferentz still has to figure out how to defeat Wisconsin again, how to get his sputtering running game producing more consistently again, and it also has been 15 years since Iowa last won a Big Ten title in football.
That one sentence pretty much sums up the three biggest criticisms of Kirk Ferentz in the wake of his 21st season as the Iowa head coach.
And while all three are reasons for concern, even those suffering from Ferentz Fatigue would have to admit that the program is pretty stable right now, on and off the field.
If those are the three worst things that you can say about the 64-year old Ferentz at this stage, that would seem to indicate that he is performing his duties as head coach at a respectable level.
Iowa capped the 2019 season by crushing USC 49-24 in the Holiday Bowl last Friday in San Diego to finish 10-3 overall. It marked the ninth time in program history, and the sixth time under Ferentz, that Iowa has won at leat 10 games in a season.
Iowa has a 47-19 overall record since the start of 2015 season. That averages out to slightly more than nine wins per season over a five-year stretch, and if you know anything about Hawkeye football, to average nine wins per season over a five-year stretch is quite impressive, and rare.
Ferentz was reeling off a bunch of team and individual milestones during his press conference after the Holiday Bowl when he capped it with this little nugget.
“Then 47 wins over the last five years sets a school record,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz doesn’t normally focus much on numbers, but 47 wins represents the team, and to have accumulated that many wins over five years is a worthy accomplishment, and Ferentz is proud of it, as he should be.
Hayden Fry had his best five-year stretch as the Iowa coach from 1983-87 when the Hawkeyes compiled a 46-15-1 overall record.
Iowa also won a Big Ten title in 1985, its second of three under Fry, and won at least 10 games for the first time in program history in 1985 and did it again in 1987.
Those are considered the glory days under Fry, and rightfully so, because they truly were special and groundbreaking.
The circumstances were different back then with Fry having just recently rebuilt a program that had been mired in nearly two decades of losing during the 1960s and 1970s.
Fry, who passed away last month at the age of 90, did what many thought was impossible by leading Iowa to the Rose Bowl in just his third season as head coach in 1981.
By the middle of the 1980s, Iowa had grown into a Big Ten contender under Fry, and into a team that was expected to win most of its games.
Ferentz had a similar five-year stretch from 2001-05 when Iowa combined to finish 45-17 overall and won two Big Ten titles in 2002 and 2004.
But the fact that Ferentz is winning at a similar pace now compared to 15 years ago is even more impressive because he has withstood the test of time, while many head coaches in their mid-60s become vulnerable and ultimately fail that test.
Fry, on the other hand, only finished 32-25-1 during his final five seasons as head coach from 1994-98.
Fry was battling prostate cancer when he retired shortly after the 1998 season, and it’s hard to know how much that affected his coaching and recruiting and everything else that goes into being a head coach.
But with Ferentz, you could argue that he is actually getting better with age.
Iowa’s record was just 33-30 overall during the five-year stretch from 2010 to 2014.
Ferentz responded to the mediocrity by performing what he called a reboot shortly after the 2014 season had ended.
He switched practice from late afternoon to the morning, made some other changes and the results mostly have been encouraging.
Iowa has come up short in some big games, but also has combined for 19 wins over the past two seasons.
Iowa had two players – defensive back Josh Jackson and center James Daniels – leave early for the 2018 NFL Draft, and then four Iowa players with eligibility remaining declared for the 2019 NFL Draft, and all four were selected within the first four rounds, including tight ends T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant, both of whom were taken in the first round.
At least two more players with eligibility remaining – junior offensive lineman Tristan Wirfs and junior defensive end A.J. Epenesa – are expected to declare for the 2020 NFL Draft, and it could be three with junior defensive back Geno Stone also seriously considering it.
That could add up to nine players leaving early for the NFL draft during a three-year stretch in which Iowa has combined to win 27 games, including three bowl games, along with three wins in a row against Iowa State, Minnesota, and Nebraska.
Read that sentence to yourself again because it speaks volumes about the current state of the program.
It’s not Wisconsin by any means, but it’s a long way from being Illinois, Purdue, Nebraska, Northwestern, and Indiana, or even Michigan State, which has combined to finish just 27-24 overall since winning its last Big Ten title over Iowa in 2015.
The Spartans, under veteran head coach Mark Dantonio, have had back-to-back 7-6 seasons, and also finished 3-9 in 2016.
Michigan State is in a similar spot to where Iowa stood following the 2014 season.
Something isn’t working in East Lansing, and it’s up to Dantonio to fix it.
Michigan State also has been plagued by a lack of citizenship by some of its players away from the field.
That is a nicer way of saying that Michigan State has had some bad apples spoil the batch.
Too many players have run foul of the law, and that makes you appreciate the current situation at Iowa even more.
This isn’t to suggest that Kirk Ferentz has a bunch of choir boys playing for him. But it’s hard to think of the last time Iowa had a player get in trouble.
Tristan Wirfs was charged with drunken driving in July 2018, but that would appear to be an isolated incident, a momentary lapse of judgment by who appears to be a quality young man.
Wirfs made a serious mistake, but he also took responsibility for it and appears to have learned his lesson.
Former Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley is more likely to land on Neptune than on any police blotter, and as a starter over the past 39 consecutive games, Stanley's high character represents a big part of the Iowa culture.
These are good times for Iowa football right now.
I'll go as far as to say that the 2019 Iowa football team, when playing well, probably could defeat any college team in the country except for Louisiana State, Clemson and Ohio State, although, Iowa fans would fight me on the Buckeyes and point to the stunning 55-24 beat-down in 2017 as proof that anything could happen.
The threat from Ames is certainly legitimate, but Iowa handled that threat by defeating the Cyclones for the fifth year in a row, and by finishing 10-3 overall, while Iowa State limped to the finish line at a disappointing, 7-6.
The next step for Kirk Ferentz has to be winning a third Big Ten title. That would match him with Fry and would also solve the Wisconsin riddle, at least for one season.
Ferentz spent nine seasons as Fry's offensive line coach at Iowa from 1981-89, and though Ferentz never served in the military, his program is built around being highly disciplined and organized, much like it was under Fry, who was a former Marine.
The traditional Swarm in which the Iowa players enter the field in a tight formation was established by Fry and has continued under Ferentz.
Iowa wasn't just the better team against USC. It was also more organized, more fundamentally sound and more motivated.
And that points to coaching.
The 2020 Iowa football team will have plenty of firepower, especially on offense, and will be coming off a five-year stretch in which Iowa set a school record for wins.
Kirk Ferentz has shown no signs of slowing down, nor has the Iowa program.