By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – For the first time since Nov. 25, 1978, someone other than Hayden Fry and Kirk Ferentz will serve as head coach for the Iowa football team on game day.

Coe College graduate Seth Wallace is about to have that distinction as he will be Iowa’s active head coach during Saturday’s season opener against Illinois State at Kinnick Stadium.

Wallace was given this temporary promotion in response to Kirk Ferentz having been suspended for one game for committing a recruiting violation  involving Iowa quarterback Cade McNamara.

The violation occurred late in 2022, or about 20 months ago, so the timing of Kirk Ferentz’s suspension seems odd.

Because why did it take this long for the NCAA and UI athletic officials to get involved when McNamara said on a podcast more than a year ago that he knew where he was going before he entered the portal?

It seems more likely that something happened recently to have triggered the investigation.

Whatever the case, Kirk Ferentz won’t be on the sideline, or anywhere near Kinnick Stadium on Saturday.

And though it’ll be tough on Kirk Ferentz to be away from the team that he has coached for a quarter century, there is at least one advantage to it as Ferentz pointed out Tuesday in his weekly press conference.

“I can think of one good thing about this, at least I can blame, if something happens Saturday, I can say I don’t know why they did that,” Kirk Ferentz said. “Something stupid. So there’s a positive in this whole deal.”

Kirk Ferentz, of course, was joking, but there is some truth in what he said.

The 45-year-old Wallace for 24 hours will serve as the head Hawk, and the buck will stop with him in Saturday’s game.

Bob Commings was the last Iowa head coach not named Hayden Fry or Kirk Ferentz to lead the Hawkeyes on game day.

The game proved to be a disaster as Michigan State pummeled Iowa 42-7 on Nov. 25, 1978 in East Lansing, Mich.

Iowa finished the 1978 season with a 2-9 record and shortly thereafter Commings was finished as the head coach.

Commings was fired by then athletic director Bump Elliott and replaced by Fry, who would go on to rebuild the program, winning three Big Ten titles in his 20 years as head coach.

Kirk Ferentz is now in his 26th season as the Iowa head coach, making him by far the longest-tenured head coach in the country.

So, what we’re about to witness on Saturday with Wallace filling in for Kirk Ferentz will be a rare occurrence.

But it will also be business as usual.

It seems highly unlikely that Wallace would give new offensive coordinator Tim Lester the green light to do whatever he wants from a play calling standpoint just because Kirk Ferentz won’t be on the sideline.

Kirk Ferentz has spent the entire week leading the preparation for Illinois State.

When his suspension starts at midnight on Friday, the game plan will have long been devised and finalized.

It’ll be interesting to see how much of Lester’s offense will be used on Saturday with the annual showdown against Iowa State up next a week later at Kinnick Stadium.

You would like to think that Iowa could defeat an FCS opponent that is picked to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference without having to dive deep into the offensive playbook.

That isn’t meant as disrespect to Illinois State, but if 25th-ranked Iowa truly is a potential playoff team, this is the kind of game it should win convincingly, even without Kirk Ferentz  on the sideline.

As for Seth Wallace, he grew up as the son of a head football coach, was a standout receiver for Coe and joined the Iowa staff in 2006 as a graduate assistant.

He spent five seasons coaching for Valdosta State in Georgia from 2009 to 2013 before rejoining the Iowa staff in 2014.

Wallace served as Iowa’s recruiting coordinator in 2014 and 2015, has coached linebackers since 2016 and was promoted to Assistant Head Coach this past January.

Wallace addressed his promotion at Iowa’s annual media day event on Aug. 9.

“I’m very appreciative and very thankful for the opportunity,” he said.

Asked if he was surprised that Kirk Ferentz promoted him to Assistant Head Coach, Wallace said:

“Was I surprised by it? Yeah. It’s certainly not something you go looking for, and it’s certainly not something you go ask for because those are two things you don’t do. It did catch me off guard.”

Wallace has sort of been fascinated by the role of a head coach after having watched his father, Greg Wallace, have that role for Grinnell College from 1988 through 2008.

“I’ve always paid a lot of attention to that position, growing up I paid a lot of attention to it,” Seth Wallace said. “I’ve got so much respect for coach Ferentz that I try not to take my eyes off of him. When I’m not doing my own job, I try to pay attention.”

For 24 hours from midnight Friday to midnight on Saturday, Seth Wallace will do a lot more than pay attention to his head coach.

He will be the active head coach for a program that has only had two head coaches since 1979.

Prediction: Iowa 29, Illinois State 7