Iowa Media Day notebook
By John Bohnenkamp
IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz never has liked certain West Coast trips,
Bowl games? Fine.
Regular-season games? Not so much.
It’s something he’ll have to get used to in coming seasons, when UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington join the Big Ten beginning next season.
It is a sign of the times in college sports, Ferentz said.
“But we’ll adjust,” he said. “We’ll figure out how to make it work.”
Ferentz pointed out how the Hawkeyes play five road games per season, and travel is travel, whether it’s by bus to Illinois or by airplane to Rutgers.
What concerns him, he said, is how other sports in the conference will handle the travel.
“Most of them are pretty easy trips. Our guys don’t miss much class time,” Ferentz said. “(An) 11:00 game on the West Coast is not ideal because the turnarounds are tough anywhere.
“But the sports in my mind — you think about the Olympic sports last year (when the Big Ten added UCLA and USC), especially if you’re one of those two West Coast school teams where a home game is Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, the pressure it’s going to put on those student-athletes — and they still say student-athlete — but just all those strains, flying commercial, the whole nine yards, that was my thought a year ago.”
Ferentz said it was football, and the media rights that come with it, that is driving college conference expansion and realignment
“I mean, it is what it is right now,” Ferentz said. “I think that’s pretty obvious. It’s been obvious, but it really became obvious probably last July, I think.
“Let’s just call it what is — it’s entertainment. And I’m glad to be a part of it, don’t get me wrong. I’m really enjoying that.”
Asked about calling the sport “entertainment,” Ferentz said, “ I’m a senior citizen; I can say what the hell I think now, so what the hell. I mean, the world has changed so much.
“It really probably started with Nebraska. They joined our league, and then the next thing you know we’ve got two East Coast teams. The Big Ten kind of changed a little bit, and then we blew it up two years ago or a year ago.”
In the end, Ferentz said, the expanded travel is just something coaches will have to deal with in the coming seasons.
“It’s just there’s a lot of momentum going that direction right now, so tying it in with my career, like you deal with whatever comes your way,” Ferentz said. “I wasn’t necessarily in favor of the transfer portal and some of those things, but it’s reality, so you deal with it and try to make it work in your favor and try to make it work better than somebody else can.”
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QB2: Cade McNamara is clearly Iowa’s starting quarterback, but there is clarity at the backup spot just because of injuries.
Ferentz said Deacon Hill is No. 2 on the depth chart. Joe Labas, expected to battle with Hill for that spot, has been out with a soft tissue injury.
“So hopefully we’ll get him back on the field right now, but it’s clearly one, two, and then after that, hang on. That’s kind of where it’s at,” Ferentz said. “The good news is Deacon (Hill) is getting a lot of good work. The bad news is Joe hasn’t been able to compete. So hopefully we’ll get him back on the field here soon.”
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FAMILIAR FACES MISSING: Ferentz opened his press conference by acknowledging the deaths of media members Don Lund and Steve Batterson, who passed away during the offseason.
Batterson, who worked at the Quad-City Times for 38 years, died on June 27. Lund wrote for the Solon Economist
“Both those guys were very thoughtful, very professional in what they did, and I just want to take a moment and recognize them and honor them for the great work that they did, and missing our interactions moving forward here certainly.,” Ferentz said.