Trying to make sense of odd timing of Kirk Ferentz’s one-game suspension
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – First, let’s start with the real important stuff.
I am thrilled to announce that I won’t have to stop watching Indiana Fever games or episodes of the Andy Griffith Show and the Rockford Files for two weeks since Kirk Ferentz said Thursday that quarterback Cade McNamara was working with the No. 1 offense and would start if Iowa played a game tomorrow.
There was speculation that McNamara might lose the starting position to Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan after McNamara performed horribly in the Kids Day practice on Aug. 10, but I just couldn’t see Kirk Ferentz making that decision under the circumstances.
In fact, I was so confident in McNamara hanging on to the starting position that I said I would stop watching the Indiana Fever games and episodes of the Andy Griffith Show and the Rockford Files for two weeks if McNamara didn’t start the season opener.
Assuming McNamara doesn’t suffer a physical setback before the Aug. 31 season opener against Illinois State, my television viewing experience won’t be adversely affected.
And speaking of McNamara, he was part of the reason why Kirk Ferentz and Iowa Athletic Director Beth Goetz held a press conference on Thursday, although, McNamara’s name was never mentioned by either Ferentz or Goetz.
The Athletic reported late Wednesday night that Kirk Ferentz and receiver coach Jon Budmayr both would be suspended for the season opener for a recruiting violation involving McNamara.
Kirk Ferentz confirmed the suspension in Thursday’s press conference, but without ever mentioning McNamara’s name.
“Earlier this year, we became aware of a potential NCAA recruiting violation in our program and the issue involved the communication with a player and his family prior to the player entering the portal,” Kirk Ferentz said. “We spent the past several months cooperating with the NCAA and reviewed that matter. And based on those discussions the communication has been termed to be a potential level two NCAA violation.
“So therefore, I’ve made the decision in conjunction with our athletic director to recommend a self-imposed one-game suspension, and also including the loss of one week of off-campus recruiting. I will not be coaching in the season opening game next week against Illinois State, along with receiver coach Jon Budmayr.”
Kirk Ferentz said he informed his players and coaches about the suspensions Thursday morning, and just hours after the news had gone public.
“The bottom line is it was impermissible contact,” Kirk Ferentz said. “That’s what the investigation is about and the facts are the facts. And so there’s a line and I crossed that line. I made a bad error in judgement.”
Kirk Ferentz said since the process still was ongoing that there was very little he could give in terms of details.
“The bottom line is this; I tell our players we abide by the rules, and in this specific case, I did not do that,” Kirk Ferentz said. “I made a mistake during the recruiting process, and I want to apologize to our players, coaching staff, university leadership and our incredible fans.”
Kirk Ferentz said in his 26 years as the Iowa head coach that this is the first time he has faced a potential level-two recruiting violation, and that it wouldn’t happen again.
He plans on coaching the team in the days leading up to the season opener, but as of midnight next Friday, he will be removed from all team activities for 24 hours.
Iowa Assistant Head Coach Seth Wallace as expected will serve as the acting head coach in the season opener.
Basically, what this comes down to is that Iowa committed a violation by having contact with McNamara prior to McNamara entering the transfer portal in 2022.
In others words, Iowa tampered with McNamara.
“While we’re certainly disappointed to be in this position, I really appreciate the way that coach has handled this process,” Goetz said. “As we all know the integrity in which he has shown and operated this program over the past 26 years is well understood. And I have personally gotten to see his character as we’ve worked together over the past year or so.
“In this situation, as he noted, he used poor judgement. I require and ask all our coaches to make sure they’re operating in a way that we’re doing things the right way. We all make mistakes and a part of that is that we handle it in a way that is going to be appropriate for how we represent the University of Iowa. Good leaders take ownership.”
Goetz said Iowa was notified by the NCAA about the possible recruiting violation, but she gave little information beyond that. She also declined to comment when asked how and when the NCAA became aware of the potential violation.
The part of this that doesn’t make sense is the timing, considering McNamara said on a podcast almost 20 months ago that he knew where he was going before entering the transfer portal.
McNamara entered the transfer portal in late November 2022 as a graduate student after having played the previous three seasons for Michigan.
It just seems odd with McNamara having spoken publicly about his recruitment that UI athletic officials and the NCAA apparently didn’t become aware of the potential violation until just several months ago.
“I’m not sure there is anything I can share in terms of the timing of it,” Goetz said. “But what I will say, this is a normal course of how we operate. We have, I think, a really robust compliance program, and if we would have been aware, we would have self-reported that to the NCAA.”
Okay. Fair enough.
But it still seems peculiar that what McNamara said on the podcast didn’t raise any concerns with UI officials or with the NCAA until just several months ago since it was public knowledge for well over a year.
They either didn’t know about the comments or they waited for over a year before taking action.
Either way, it just leaves you scratching your head.
My initial thought was that Michigan reported the violation to the NCAA while former head coach Jim Harbaugh was being investigated by the NCAA, but there is no proof of that.
The NCAA is known for taking its time with investigations of this matter. However, the amount of time from when McNamara spoke on the podcast to when the investigation reportedly started just doesn’t make sense.
Some are wondering why the NCAA has chosen to focus on Iowa while it is believed that so many other schools have committed the same kinds of recruiting violations, but without suffering any consequences.
This marks the second time in less than a year that Iowa has committed a potential recruiting violation.
Iowa self-reported to the NCAA after learning that football staff member Tyler Barnes had reached out to offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor via a text message when Proctor was a student at Alabama.
Proctor, a former five-star recruit, and a graduate of Southeast Polk High School, transferred from Alabama to Iowa in January, but he has since transferred back to Alabama where he started every game last season at left tackle as a true freshman.