By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – I don’t know what it feels like to be the father of a son, but it had to feel pretty good for Kirk Ferentz on Saturday.

Iowa’s veteran head football coach had to feel proud, and maybe even vindicated in some ways, after watching his son, lame duck offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, devise and then deliver an impressive game plan that produced a season-high 402 yards in Saturday’s 22-0 victory over Rutgers at Kinnick Stadium.

It was a splendid display of balance with 223 passing yards and 197 rushing yards, and a rare glimpse of just how impressive the Iowa football team can be when all three phases do their part.

Iowa has relied on defense and special teams to carry the load, and that’s been enough more times than not since the start of last season when the Iowa offense began its stunning decline.

Iowa is 8-2 overall and already has won at least a share of the Big Ten West Division with a 5-2 mark. A win over Illinois this coming Saturday at Kinnick Stadium or against Nebraska in the regular-season finale on Nov. 24^th in Lincoln, Nebraska would give Iowa the division title outright for the second time in the last three years.

Iowa also has a 16-7 record since the start of last season.

And one of the two losses this season was highly controversial as Cooper DeJean was called for an invalid fair catch signal that erased a punt return for a touchdown in the closing minutes against Minnesota. The Gophers would hang on to win 12-10 at Kinnick Stadium.

These accomplishments would be impressive under any circumstances, but for Iowa to have achieved what it has since the start of last season is incredible when you consider just how much the offense has struggled.

The victory over Rutgers this past Saturday marked the first time in 32 games that Iowa has had at least 400 yards offense, and the first time this season that Iowa has surpassed 200 passing yards in a game.

If the offense had performed like this more often, Brian Ferentz wouldn’t be on the verge of losing a job that he has had since 2017.

If the offense had carried its weight instead of having to be carried so often by the defense and special teams, Brian Ferentz probably would’ve been the leading candidate to replace his father as the Iowa head coach.

It was widely assumed that a succession plan in which Brian Ferentz would replace his father as head coach was Kirk Ferentz’s ultimate goal and master plan when added his son to the staff in 2012.

Brian Ferentz was born in Iowa City, graduated from Iowa City High and played football for his father at the University of Iowa.

But it just wasn’t meant to be as Iowa Interim Athletic Director Beth Goetz pulled a stunner when she announced that Brian Ferentz would be relieved of his duties after the 2023 season.

It wasn’t the fact that Goetz fired Brian Ferentz that was stunning because the offense has mostly been horrible since the start of last season, but that she did it in season as Iowa doesn’t usually operate that way.

Even Todd Lickliter made it through his third season as men’s basketball coach before it was announced just days after the 2009-10 season that he would be fired.

Kirk Ferentz was obviously hurt and upset by the decision to fire his son.

He probably even felt a sense of betrayal.

That it happened with four games left in the regular season made an awkward situation even worse.

Kirk Ferentz is used to having free reign as the Iowa head coach because Gary Barta, the previous Iowa Athletic Director, gave it to him.

Kirk Ferentz had the freedom to hire who he pleased, even family members.

He was the king of his castle for over two decades, but then an interim athletic director did the unthinkable by firing his son in season.

Kirk Ferentz, both head coach and father, became emotional after the Rutgers game as he was interviewed on the field.

He had so much to be proud about as his team played perhaps its best all-around game of the season and did so under brutal circumstances.

Maybe the team, and particularly the offense, is rallying behind Brian Ferentz and on a mission to send him out on a high note.

Maybe Kirk Ferentz is on a personal mission as both head coach and father to show that Goetz acted prematurely by firing his son, and that he and his son both deserved to be treated better.

Say what you want about Goetz, and about her controversial decision, but part of being a leader is making tough decisions and then dealing with the fallout.

Her decision to fire Brian Ferentz is a case in which Goetz put the team before one person, even if it meant damaging her relationship with Kirk Ferentz.

And that takes courage.

It seems most likely that Goetz would’ve waited until after the season to announce the decision to fire Brian Ferentz, but then word leaked and she was forced to act.

You also have to wonder if Goetz gave Kirk Ferentz the chance to fire his son, but he just couldn’t do it, so she did.

Unless someone directly involved in the decision process decides to share publicly how it all happened, we’ll probably never know the details.

All we know right now is that Brian Ferentz’s days as the Iowa offensive coordinator are numbered and that Iowa controls its own destiny in the West Division.

Iowa is 2-0 since it was announced that Brian Ferentz would be fired after the season, and that’s a credit to Kirk Ferentz for staying the course and for staying focused on the task at hand.

It should make for an interesting conclusion to Kirk Ferentz’s 25th season as the Iowa head coach.

His contract runs through the 2029 season, but it’s a lot harder now in the wake of Brian Ferentz being fired to believe that Kirk Ferentz would coach that long.

There is an old saying that you never should hire someone that you can’t fire, and that seems to fit in this case.

Iowa fans have been clamoring for Brian Ferentz to be fired while Kirk Ferentz has been accused to nepotism and of giving his son preferential treatment.

Goetz didn’t make an unpopular decision, though some have asked why she did it in season.

And fair enough.

Kirk Ferentz, the father, has every right to be upset about how his son’s situation was handled.

But as a head coach, he should understand why the decision was made.

Brian Ferentz has been given more than a fair chance to prove that he can meet the challenge of being his father’s offensive coordinator and quarterback coach, but Brian has failed to meet that challenge.

And while injuries to three key players on offense, including quarterback Cade McNamara, have certainly been a factor this season as Kirk Ferentz pointed out after Brian Ferentz was fired.

The problems on offense go way beyond that, however, and they have festered for nearly two full seasons.

Kirk Ferentz admitted to having a blind spot with regard to former Iowa strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle, who was fired shortly after multiple former players accused the Iowa football program of racial discrimination and bullying in June 2020.

Chris Doyle was the second most powerful and influential person in the program behind Kirk Ferentz, and they were also very close friends.

The ability to see things objectively gets more difficult when you surround yourself with friends, and even more so with people that you love.

Kirk Ferentz took a big risk when he hooked his legacy to his son, and it has since backfired and put Kirk in a situation in which it has to be difficult for him to separate the father from the coach.

Kirk Ferentz has a bunch of former Iowa players that probably consider him almost like a second father, and deservedly so because he has changed a lot of lives for the better.

The good with Kirk Ferentz far outweighs the bad, but that still shouldn’t give him the freedom to do as he pleases in the case of Brian Ferentz because everyone has to be accountable at some point, especially at this level of football.

The decision by Gary Barta to put performance incentives in Brian Ferentz’s revised contract just months before Barta decided to retire was perhaps the beginning of the end to Brian Ferentz’s time as offensive coordinator.

You can sympathize with Kirk Ferentz the father as he deals with a very delicate and awkward situation in the public eye.

But it’s hard to feel sorry for Kirk Ferentz the head coach, or for Brian Ferentz the offensive coordinator because they both were given plenty of time, space and money to make this arrangement work, but they just couldn’t do it.