By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Another Iowa Hawkeye sports calendar year has come and gone.

The 2023-24 campaign will be remembered, of course, for Caitlin Clark’s spectacular final run as a Hawkeye, for Lisa Bluder’s final run as the Iowa women’s basketball coach, and for Jan Jensen being rewarded for her loyalty and dedication.

It will be remembered for the Iowa football team winning 10 games, and the Big Ten West Division for the second time in three years despite having one of the worst offenses in the history of civilization.

It will be remembered for Brian Ferentz being fired as his father’s offensive coordinator with four games left in the 2023 season.

It will be remembered for a gambling investigation that cost multiple student-athletes from both Iowa and Iowa State eligibility, and for the highly questionable way in which the investigation was conducted.

It will be remembered for the Iowa wrestling team finishing a disappointing fifth place at the NCAA Championships, for the Iowa softball team failing to make the 12-team conference tournament in a year in which it hosted the event, and for Larissa Libby resigning as the Iowa gymnastics coach.

The Iowa volleyball team also finished winless (0-20) in conference play, while the Iowa men’s basketball team failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in four years.

So, as Beth Goetz moves forward as the Iowa Athletic Director, she certainly faces some significant challenges on and off the playing field.

She might also sooner than later be faced with the challenge of hiring a new head football coach and a new men’s basketball coach with Kirk Ferentz 68 years old, and with Fran McCaffery having turned 65 in May.

Goetz will be ready for those challenges as every athletic director has short lists of coaching candidates that she or he builds and updates over time.

A more pressing issue would be creating ways for Iowa to be more competitive in raising NIL money.

Iowa’s approach with NIL is admirable, but the money just isn’t being raised at a level that compares with most of the competition.

Iowa spends its NIL money mostly on enticing current-student athletes to stay as Hawkeyes, while it seems many other programs spend their NIL money on enticing student-athletes to come to their school.

That’s a big difference in approach, and it leaves Iowa at a disadvantage.

From a facility standpoint, Goetz and the Hawkeyes face two significant challenges: updating/improving the viewing experience and atmosphere at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and updating the Iowa baseball facilities.

Goetz is at least willing to consider moving the student section closer to courtside at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, unlike her predecessor, Gary Barta.

“On a basketball court, when you’ve got them a little bit closer to the action, it’s more meaningful to the students,” Goetz said. “We are trying to really engage directly with some student groups. We’ve got a couple classes, we’ve asked to actually help us understand what would be most important to you as students coming to a game.”

Clark and her cohorts packed the arena on a regular basis, and when filled with fans, Carver-Hawkeye Arena can be electric despite its shortcomings.

But on the other hand, it took arguably the greatest offensive player in the history of women’s college basketball, and a lot of winning, to create that electricity.

Under more normal circumstances, the atmosphere in Carver-Hawkeye Arena can be stale, especially when the student section is more than half empty.

Failed expectations

The Iowa baseball team didn’t make the NCAA Tournament after having been the only Big Ten team that was ranked in the top 25 nationally in the preseason.

Rick Heller’s squad struggled with allowing way too many free bases, and with injuries to key players.

Iowa still made the Big Ten Tournament, which it has now in every season under Heller, except for the Covid year in 2020.

But even Heller would say the season was a disappointment by his standards.

He was proud of how hard his players competed, and with how they stuck together during adversity, but the results fell short of expectations.

In fairness to Heller, he’s facing an uphill battle as the Iowa baseball coach.

There are certainly benefits from being in the Big Ten, but the lack of supplemental aid, the challenges with raising NIL money, and with the facilities being severely outdated in some ways, the Iowa job right now has some built-in disadvantages.

The Iowa baseball program recently suffered a massive blow from a facility standpoint when a large donation was withdrawn.

Iowa has kept up with the times within the base paths and will soon be adding new turf and lights.

But the seating area for fans, the locker rooms and the press box are all woefully outdated and undersized.

Anybody watching the NCAA baseball tournament could see just how far Iowa has fallen behind in those areas as each of the host sites had significantly more of everything compared to Iowa.

Lester’s offense

As for Hawkeye football, the season opener against Illinois State on Aug. 31 will be here before you know it.

Iowa should be rock-solid again on defense, but star punter Tory Taylor isn’t around anymore to save the sputtering Iowa offense.

Eyes will be focused on Tim Lester as he tries to jump-start an Iowa offense that has sunk to historical lows from a statistical standpoint.

Lester is just the fourth different offensive coordinator to serve under Kirk Ferentz at Iowa.

To say that Lester faces a daunting task would be an understatement.

Early reports about Lester’s offense have been positive, but that should hardly come as a surprise since the Iowa players and coaches are the ones saying it.

Time will tell.