Fresno State should benefit from hiring Brian Ferentz to coach tight ends
By Pat Harty
IOWA CITY, Iowa – Brian Ferentz has been hired by Fresno State to coach tight ends.
The news broke last week that Fresno State was on the verge of hiring Brian Ferentz as a top offensive assistant.
And then on Wednesday, Fresno State football announced on its X account that Brian Ferentz will coach tight ends.
Here’s a prediction: Fresno State football will benefit from this hire.
Despite what has happened to Brian Ferentz’s coaching reputation due to his struggles as Iowa’s offensive coordinator, Brian Ferentz knows how to coach football, and he especially knows how to coach tight ends.
He coached tight ends under his father at Iowa from from 2018 to 2022 and for the New England Patriots in 2011.
In both cases, the tight ends flourished under his watch.
Brian Ferentz’s coaching career began to unravel when his father, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, promoted him to offensive coordinator in 2017.
Brian Ferentz just wasn’t ready for that responsibility, and he was in over his head even more when his father made him the quarterback coach in 2022.
It was a recipe for disaster, and a disaster it would become as Brian Ferentz was fired with four games left in the 2023 season.
He was allowed to coach through the 2023 season.
He resurfaced at Maryland where he served as a senior offensive assistant this past season under Mike Locksley.
The Terrapins lost to Iowa 29-13 in November at home and finished 4-8 overall.
And while Maryland’s 2024 season was far from being successful, it did give Brian Ferentz the chance to start rebuilding his coaching career.
His next step will now take Brian Ferentz to the other side of the country as part of Matt Entz’s new coaching staff at Fresno State.
In December, Entz left USC where he had served as an assistant coach to be the head coach for Fresno State.
Entz has been building his staff ever since, and he obviously believes that Brian Ferentz will make his staff better or he wouldn’t have hired him.
It could be argued that Fresno State is fortunate to have a position coach with Brian Ferentz’s experience because he is more than qualified for this job.
Brian Ferentz might some day learn that getting out from under his father’s watch and influence was the best thing for his coaching career.
His downfall at Iowa had to have humbled him, but maybe it also lit a fire.
Brian Ferentz had it pretty easy as he climbed the coaching ladder, but now he’s experiencing what so many other coaches experience along the way: failure followed by a chance for redemption.