By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – As he prepares for his 26^th season as the Iowa football coach, and as the college football landscape continues to change around him, Kirk Ferentz should feel an even bigger sense of urgency to win big right now.

In Kirk Ferentz’s case, winning big means winning a Big Ten title for the first time in two decades or making the college playoff for the first time, or both.

That is really all that remains for Iowa’s soon-to-be 69-year-old head coach.

Kirk Ferentz has made double-digit win seasons seem also routine with three since 2019.

Iowa also won two of the final three Big Ten West Division titles, has only had two losing seasons since 2001 and Ferentz ranks third all-time in wins (196) among Big Ten coaches.

So, the bar is set at a respectable level under Kirk Ferentz. But the longer a head coach stays in one place, lifting the bar to another level becomes more difficult, even more so with conference expansion.

The four teams the Big Ten has added from the now defunct Pacific-12 Conference – USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington – all excel in multiple sports, including football.

Should Iowa go on to win nine or 10 games this coming season, that would certainly deserve some praise.

But would it be enough to make the new 12-team playoff format?

The 12-team College Playoff will include the five highest ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids.

Ten wins might be enough, but nine would almost certainly fall short, and would be considered, fair or not, a disappointing season to some because nine wins isn’t what it used to be.

The Iowa football team needs to take advantage of the favorable circumstances surrounding the 2024 season.

Those circumstances include Michigan, Oregon and USC not being on the schedule, as well as Iowa State, Washington, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Nebraska all being home games.

Washington made it all the way to the national championship game last season, but it has since lost some key players and its head coach as Kalen DeBoer resigned shortly after the 2023 season to become the head coach for Alabama.

Iowa should also feature another rock-solid defense that includes three graduate students starting in the secondary – Sebastian Castro, Jermari Harris and Quinn Schulte – and one graduate student starting at linebacker in Nick Jackson.

To have four sixth-year graduate students and four fifth-year seniors in your starting lineup on defense, which is the case for Iowa, is not only a sign of the times, but also a reminder to Kirk Ferentz that the time to win big is right now.

Of course, the much-maligned offense will have a lot to say about Iowa’s success this season.

New offensive coordinator Tim Lester faces a monumental task in trying to rebuild an offense that performed horribly in each of the past two seasons.

However, at least Lester will have a veteran quarterback to build around in Cade McNamara, who is also a graduate student, along with a veteran offensive line and a healthy Luke Lachey at tight end.

On the other hand, heading into the 2025 season, Iowa will likely be breaking in a new starting quarterback and will be faced with rebuilding both its offensive line and most of its defense.

Iowa didn’t have to put much emphasis on the transfer portal this offseason on defense because the players that could have left for richer NIL deals all chose to stay.

The one exception was All-America cornerback Cooper DeJean, who declared for the 2024 NFL draft as a junior.

DeJean was selected by the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round.

The transfer portal will likely play a much bigger role for Iowa on defense next offseason due to so many 2024 starters having to be replaced.

Iowa’s ability to raise NIL money through its Swarm Collective has certainly improved, but still leaves much to be desired from a membership standpoint.

The Swarm Collective could face a huge challenge next offseason in attracting players.

And while Iowa does a good job of developing players, especially on defense, it would be asking a lot from Phil Parker to replace multiple starters without help from the transfer portal.

Even with all the problems on offense, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to believe that Iowa, with a little luck and good fortune, could rank among the top 12 teams nationally this season.

The 2019 Iowa team finished the regular season 9-3 and was ranked 16th in the college playoff rankings.

It also had a veteran squad on both offense and defense, much like the current Iowa team.

What it didn’t have was a 12-team playoff to use as incentive.

Kirk Ferentz would say that he approaches every season with a sense of urgency to win right now, and fair enough.

But each season has its own set of circumstances.

And right now for Iowa, the 2024 season looks way more appealing than the 2025 season.

2024 Iowa football schedule

date, opponent

Aug. 31 – vs. Illinois State

Sept. 7 – vs. Iowa State

Sept. 14 – vs. Troy

Sept. 21 – at Minnesota

Sept. 28 – Open

Oct. 5 – at Ohio State

Oct. 12 – vs. Washington

Oct. 19 – at Michigan State

Oct. 26 – vs. Northwestern

Nov. 2 –  vs. Wisconsin

Nov. 9 – at UCLA

Nov. 16 – Open

Nov. 23 – at Maryland

Nov. 29 – vs. Nebraska

2025 schedule

Sept. 6 – at Iowa State

Nov. 15 – vs. UMASS

TBA, vs. Indiana

TBA, vs. Michigan State

TBA, vs. Minnesota

TBA, vs. Oregon

TBA, vs. Penn State

TBA, at Nebraska

TBA, at Rutgers

TBA, at USC

TBA, at Wisconsin

TBA, vs. Florida Atlantic