By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Feedback from fans after the Iowa football team loses a game, especially a big game, is so predictable at this stage of Kirk Ferentz’s coaching career.

At some point, the Iowa media will be criticized for not insisting that Kirk Ferentz should be forced to retire if he isn’t willing to leave on his own.

It happened again after Iowa’s 27-24 loss to Missouri in the Music City Bowl this past Monday in Nashville, Tennessee, at least on my end.

One of the responses I received following the loss accused the media of being scared to take a stand against Kirk Ferentz, and of being weak and easily manipulated.

A regular caller to the Hawk Fanatic radio show on Friday also explained why he feels that Iowa should move on from Kirk Ferentz. The caller didn’t take any shots at the media, and he was respectful while pleading his case.

He just wants a coaching change, and he certainly has the right to feel that way.

I can’t speak for my media colleagues, so this is just where I stand on this subject:

To demand, or even to suggest that Kirk Ferentz should be forced to resign or retire or however you want to say it is just silly.

He should be forced to improve the performance of his quarterbacks, and to recruit better receivers. But he shouldn’t be forced to step down because that would be unfair and unreasonable.

As frustrated as fans are with the offense, and with Iowa’s inability to beat ranked opponents – Iowa has lost nine straight games against ranked opponents – fans still should be fair-minded and reasonable when evaluating Kirk Ferentz.

Fans certainly have a right to want a coaching change.

But that doesn’t mean it should happen because the numbers still add up for Kirk Ferentz; numbers such as 18 wins over the past two seasons, winning just recently two of the last three Big Ten West Division titles and the number of fans filling Kinnick Stadium on a regular basis.

If Iowa fans truly are fed up with Kirk Ferentz, they have a strange way of showing it by consistently filling the stadium on game day, and by traveling in large numbers to bowl games.

This isn’t to suggest that Kirk Ferentz is untouchable, because if that were true, his son would still be Iowa’s offensive coordinator.

From a security standpoint every head coach has a breaking point, and if Iowa were to have back-to-back losing seasons, Kirk Ferentz would certainly be on the hot seat, if not in a worse position.

Even one losing season would change the narrative, but it wouldn’t be enough to get rid of Kirk Ferentz after everything he has meant to Hawkeye football.

Iowa hasn’t had a losing since 2012 and has only had two losing seasons since 2001.

That’s a lot of winning and a lot of equity, leverage and good will for Kirk Ferentz.

He vowed to fix the Iowa culture in the wake of the racial unrest in the summer of 2020 when multiple former Iowa black players accused the program of racism, and there are multiple signs of that having occurred.

Graduate linebacker Nick Jackson, who is black, only spent two years in the Iowa program after having played four seasons for Virginia, but that was long enough for Jackson to fall in love with Hawkeye football.

He and fellow linebacker Jay Higgins also became best friends and they both rave about the culture that currently exists within the program and speak highly of their head coach.

“He has impacted my life in so many ways,” Jackson said of Kirk Ferentz late in the 2024 season. “Just the way he treats people and the way he leads young men. You want to make him proud.”

You could tell as Jackson said those words that he truly meant them, and that’s just more reason why Kirk Ferentz, even at the age of 69, still has the right to decide when he should retire or step down.

Ferentz has given no hint that he is considering retiring. The subject was brought up at one of his press conferences in the regular season and Ferentz basically said that he plans to keep coaching because he enjoys it, especially the daily interaction with players, coaches and support staff.

Other schools almost certainly will use his age against Kirk Ferentz in recruiting because that is just the nature of the beast.

But so far, despite Kirk Ferentz’s age, Iowa has held its own in this age of NIL and the transfer portal.

To some, though, that’s isn’t enough.

They’re convinced that Iowa will never be elite again under Kirk Ferentz and they want new blood.

And fair enough to want it.

But to demand it under the current circumstances isn’t being fair or reasonable.