By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – A recent article by On3sports ranks the 18 Big Ten head football coaches based on who is under the most pressure to win with one being the most and 18 the least.

Kirk Ferentz is ranked seventh on the list and falls under the category of having medium pressure.

That seems a bit high.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day is ranked first and that certainly makes sense due to his struggles against Michigan and because the margin for error is razor thin for the Ohio State head coach.

USC head coach Lincoln Riley is ranked second followed in order by Penn State head coach James Franklin, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck, first-year Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, second-year Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell and then Kirk Ferentz.

Rankings one through six make sense for the most part, though Fleck at No. 4 seems a bit high.

Minnesota is coming off a disappointing 6-7 season, but Fleck also led the Gophers to a 9-4 record in both 2021 and 2022, and to an 11-2 record in 2019.

As for Kirk Ferentz’s ranking at No. 7, that would seem to suggest that he is under some legitimate pressure from within, or from fans, to accomplish something special this season.

In this case, something special would be winning a Big Ten title for the first time in 20 years, or making the college playoff for the first time, or both.

Because Kirk Ferentz has pretty much accomplished everything else as the Big Ten’s third all-time winningest head football coach.

Iowa has had three 10-win seasons since 2019, and then also won two of the final three Big Ten West Division titles, while Nebraska hasn’t had a winning season since 2016 when it finished 9-4 under Mike Riley.

And yet second-year Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule is ranked one spot below Ferentz in the On3 article.

Perhaps the best thing Rhule has going for him right now is that he’s only been the Nebraska head coach for one season, finishing 5-7 in his debut.

Rhule obviously needs more time to either sink or swim in Lincoln, whereas Kirk Ferentz is preparing for his 26^th season as the head Hawk.

But to suggest that Rhule has a longer leash than Kirk Ferentz, albeit just slightly, speaks volumes about how far Nebraska has fallen from a prestige standpoint, or it might show that some on the outside believe that Kirk Ferentz is under more pressure in the wake of his son being fired as the Iowa offensive coordinator with four games left in the 2023 season.

The fact that Brian Ferentz was fired by then interim athletic director Beth Goetz shows that there is a limit to Kirk Ferentz’s power and influence.

Goetz has since been promoted to full-time athletic director, and it’s reasonable to think that she will handle Kirk Ferentz differently than how her predecessor, Gary Barta, handled him.

But that doesn’t mean that Kirk Ferentz is under growing pressure to have a special season.

Iowa could finish with nine wins this season and fail to make the playoff and Kirk Ferentz would be just fine, especially if those nine wins included Iowa State, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

Barta was perceived as having coddled Kirk Ferentz, and Barta was blamed for giving Kirk Ferentz too much power and leverage during contract negotiations.

Barta also never really took a stand with Brian Ferentz, other than adding some silly performance incentives to Brian Ferentz’s contract that didn’t do anything except turn Iowa into a laughingstock.

Goetz, on the other hand, took a strong stand as just the interim athletic director.

Of, course, she had the support of Iowa President Barbara Wilson, but Goetz still showed tremendous courage and some nerve by standing up to Kirk Ferentz.

So, is Kirk Ferentz feeling more pressure to win under Beth Goetz than Gary Barta?

Probably.

But is Kirk Ferentz looking over his shoulder and feeling the heat of the UI administration?

Absolutely not.

Nor should he be.

This isn’t to suggest that Kirk Ferentz is untouchable, but he seems in a better position to handle a losing season than Rhule or Illinois head coach Bret Bielema, who is ranked ninth in the On3 article.

Ferentz Fatigue has certainly set in with some Hawkeye fans and that’s understandable given how long Kirk Ferentz has been the head coach, and with how horribly his offense has performed in each of the past two seasons.

The hope is that new offensive coordinator Tim Lester will help to cure what ails the offense, and that it will happen ASAP.

But to say that 11 of the Big Ten’s 18 head football coaches are under less pressure to win than Kirk Ferentz seems questionable.

If Iowa were to have back-to-back losing seasons in 2024 and 2025, Kirk Ferentz would likely be coaching for his job in 2026.

But so would most of the league’s coaches, even the ones just getting started.

Kirk Ferentz’s contract runs through the 2029 season. He would be in his mid-70s by the end of it.

And while it’s hard to believe that Kirk Ferentz will coach for another six seasons, it’s even harder to believe that he is under growing pressure to have one of those special breakthrough seasons this fall or else the heat is coming.

Iowa should have one of the best defenses in the country this season, and if the offense were just average, this could be a special season, though that’s a big if with the offense.