Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Brian Ferentz is officially out as Hawkeye offensive coordinator

Starting point is 00:00:00 it's official. Brian Ferentz is out as the offensive coordinator at Iowa. We break it down today. Locked on. You are locked on Hawkeyes, your daily podcast on the Iowa Hawkeyes. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in.

Starting point is 00:00:30 I'm Trent Condon, and this is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. We're available wherever you get podcasts. You can also find us on YouTube. While you're there, make sure you hit that subscribe button. Helps us get in front of more Hawkeye fans. Today's episode is brought to you by PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com slash LockedOnCollege and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE

Starting point is 00:00:55 for a first deposit match up to $100. Daily fantasy sports made easy with PrizePix. Well, let's get into it. And the rumors and rumblings have been out there over the last, oh, 48 hours or so as we come to you late here on Monday afternoon. So what normally happens over the course of a normal football week after the game on Saturday, instant reaction podcast, then Sunday night into Monday morning, I record then the Monday podcast, if you will. It happened on Sunday night and perusing some social media and my favorite Hawkeye message board, Halo,

Starting point is 00:01:32 come across a little nugget from the infamous Doug Bader and saying that Brian Ferentz is out. All right. Well, that changes things and certainly would change the complexion. So I said, all right, we'll do it Monday morning. Monday morning comes, the rumors and rumblings become higher and higher. So we waited and waited and waited, and we're still getting here on the Monday. So a little bit different than normal, and apologies if you're ready and get ready for that Monday show each and every morning on your drive in or your drive home.

Starting point is 00:01:59 We'll be a little bit different this week, but because of the bye week and coupled with these rumors and the rumblings that have been out there, we just, we had to wait. And it became official on Monday afternoon, about 2.30, press release came from the University of Iowa from Beth Goetz, stating what many of us have been hoping for for a very long time, Brian Ferentz is out as the offensive coordinator for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Here is from the statement, and I think it's very interesting. The statement comes from Beth Goetz. It does not come from the football offices. There is nothing from Kirk Ferentz. This is a loan from the interim athletic director. Quote, anyone who loves Iowa football recognizes both the success and challenges

Starting point is 00:02:48 that have brought attention to our program this season. Our struggles on offense coupled with the offensive coordinator's contract make this a unique situation. After conversations with head coach Kirk Ferentz, coach Brian Ferentz, and President Wilson, I informed Brian that our intention is for him to be with us through the bowl game, but this is his last season with the program. Making this known today is the best interest of the program and its loyal fans. It provides clarity during this pivotal time in the schedule. Quote, unquote. There it is from Beth Goetz. And thank goodness for the first time in 18 years,

Starting point is 00:03:25 the University of Iowa has an adult running the athletic department. No more kowtowing to the head coaches. No more demanding answers and then not getting anything in response. They have an adult leading the charge now in Beth Goetz. And after this statement, after this ability to rid yourself of the cancer that has been Brian Ferencz trying to run an offense, getting rid of it in the fashion that she did, take off the interim tag, make her right now the permanent athletic director. When she got the interim role, I was very much a proponent of this needing to be a national

Starting point is 00:04:01 search. The University of Iowa, the athletic department, a top 15 revenue generating athletic department in the country, one of the best jobs in the country in the continued gulf that we're seeing grow between the Big Ten, the SEC, and everybody else. This is one of only 34 of those jobs now in the future of college athletics, University of Iowa.

Starting point is 00:04:23 And I didn't want them just to take the easy way out. This isn't taking the easy way out. This is hiring the best person. This is hiring the person that no doubt about it had the gumption to go out and do the right thing. No more nepotism, no more garbage, no more hiding behind family. Get the job done.

Starting point is 00:04:40 Brian Ferentz had not done the job well in three years. And because of that, he needed to be gone. He should have been gone after 2021, even more after 2022. And we're not even going to allow this to fester. That is a leader. That is a professional. That is somebody that you want leading your athletic department. Beth Goetz, kudos to you. This whole conversation starts with the interim athletic director. She did it right. She was the adult. Something that Gary Barta could not do. We talked about all the missteps that he had as an athletic director

Starting point is 00:05:11 and all the times that he didn't do his job correctly. But most importantly, he also never had the ability to stand up for what is right. And as his way out, his parting gift was his asinine contract and what they put in there with the 25 points per game. It was a joke then. It's still a joke today. And Beth gets became the adult. And she once again, walked in there and did the right thing. It doesn't matter if they get to 25 points per game. That's not what this conversation is about. What it's about is having somebody competent running your offense and they didn't have it. And if it was anybody other than Brian Ferentz, they wouldn't have been given 2023, but here we are. So she stepped up, she did the right thing and be happy and grateful and hopeful that she

Starting point is 00:05:56 becomes the full-time athletic director. Because to do that with an interim tag hanging in the balance, with a job like this hanging in the balance, to go there and go do the right thing is not an easy thing. There are a lot of people in a lot of walks of life that would not have done that, and she did. Kudos to Beth Getz. Tip of the ball cap. That was amazing to do this. So how do we get to this point? How do we sit here, and how does this play out? Why do we have to have a press release? Well, very simply, this has been out there. This is something that over the weekend apparently came to a head and there were growing frustrations inside the football offices as the

Starting point is 00:06:36 offense became worse and worse and worse throughout the years. Now, you go back, they had some nice moments early in Bryant's tenure. Now, it wasn't fruitful all the time. There were terrible inconsistencies, and that was a big problem. Probably the biggest one is you go back to the historic win, 55-24 against Ohio State, and after scoring 54 against the Buckeyes the following week, you put 66 yards of total offense up against Wisconsin. That was the inconsistency, and the inconsistency was frustrating, yes. However, they didn't even have the high water marks here over the last three years.

Starting point is 00:07:11 It just cratered more and more and more. And it was almost like he was gun-shy. He couldn't see his way out of it. And there's times where you hear this and you hear that, you know, writer's block and things like that. Maybe a play-calling block. I don't know what it was, but it went from bad to even worse over these last couple of seasons.

Starting point is 00:07:27 Blame the players, blame the attrition, blame the offensive line. Look, they came to this year, they were selling us again that this offensive line was going to be better. Did you see it? Certainly not. Not at the level that anybody hoped for.

Starting point is 00:07:39 That's where we are right now. Now we look to the future. What does this mean for Kirk Ferentz? Kirk Ferentz apparently is not upset. It's very upset, I should say. He's not happy about the way that this played out, which shouldn't come as a surprise. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the head man. What's next? What Iowa needs to do? Who are some names to look at? Oh, we got a lot here as we roll through. This is the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of Lockdown Hawkeyes is brought to you by Athletic

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Starting point is 00:10:25 eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to U.S. customers. Trent Conant back with you again on the Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. Thanks for making Lockdown Hawkeyes your first listen every single day. So here we go. And now we look towards the future. We know that Brian Ferentz will continue on as the offensive coordinator. We will get more information tomorrow after the press conference. Players scheduled to meet at 11 o'clock as they normally do on game week on Tuesdays.

Starting point is 00:10:55 And then at 145 is when we will hear from Kirk Ferencz. Will we hear from Brian? Doubtful, but a possibility. They've also been having those coaches press conferences over Zoom on Wednesdays. Could that be a possibility? Very well could be the case. As I mentioned earlier, though, Kirk was not pleased about this. Kirk is not somebody that fires people in season.

Starting point is 00:11:17 We have never seen that happen during his 25 years as the head coach at the University of Iowa. It's not something that he believes in. He believes in, we'll play out the whole schedule and then we will evaluate from there. That's not the way things are done in today's environment, as we've seen across the country, where coaches have been fired in season in multiple places, all over the place. That's not the case here. He will continue on this role. And the one thing I think that needs to be said is you look at the way that that press release that we talked about earlier from Beth Goetz was laid out. You did not see the term resignation. And I think that's an important

Starting point is 00:11:56 caveat because this was, for all intents and purposes, a firing. And though, yes, his contract will not be renewed, that's what this is. This is a firing. This is not a resignation. And though, yes, his contract will not be renewed, that's what this is. This is a firing. This is not a resignation. And it goes to show you that Brian Ferentz was going to continue to double down. And likely with it, Kirk Ferentz was probably going to continue to double down. I mean, that's what we're learning more and more about this situation, is Kirk couldn't see the forest through the trees. And if some of the speculation that is out there that Kirk's upset about this is true, it leads you to wonder how long is he for the role

Starting point is 00:12:33 as the head coach? What is he going to do? And what does he think about the future of this? And if it's worth sticking on anymore, he'll have a new athletic director that he will have to not only deal with, but work with. And that's somebody that he could perhaps bully around like he could in the past with Gary Barta. Beth Goetz has shown that she has teeth. Beth Goetz has shown that she

Starting point is 00:12:54 understands the future of college athletics. Beth Goetz has shown that she is willing to go out there and do the difficult thing, something that her predecessor wasn't willing to do. go out there and do the difficult thing, something that her predecessor wasn't willing to do. And is Kirk, nearing 70 years old, does he want to deal with that? We hear often about clashes and back and forth between athletic directors and coaches of all walks. And if that's something that maybe Kirk believes is going to happen, is that something that he even wants to deal with at this point in his career? I think that is something that definitely has to be looked at and what that's going

Starting point is 00:13:25 to be. If Kirk does remain, if he decides, yes, I'm going to make it a go. I don't want this to be my lasting legacy. I want to go out one more time. I want to see the future of the Big Ten. I want to go through and see what it is. Maybe I can put together a team to get into the top 12 in the new college football playoff, make a run again.

Starting point is 00:13:43 He wants to do that. Well, he's going to have to work. But how willing is he to be hands-off offensively? Look, if I was going to get this right, and for argument's sake, Kirk Ferentz stays on. He decides he's not going to retire after this season. He's going to make it a go. He's going to continue in the contract that he has

Starting point is 00:14:00 for another five seasons. He's going to continue down that path. All right. If that's the case, is he going to hand the reins off? Because I hear this a ton, and I argue with people about it often. Well, it's just Kirk's offense. It's not. It's not just Kirk's offense, because what you've seen the last couple of seasons

Starting point is 00:14:18 is nothing close to the offense that Ken O'Keefe ran. It's nothing close to the offense that Greg Davis had. Now, what you do have is a certain structure, basic tenets of Kirk Ferentz's philosophy that is always going to be baked in. And I get that part, but this is not the Kirk Ferentz offense because you've seen three different offensive coordinators do it three completely different ways. So that's not true. It's just not. The tenets remain the same. Ball control, run the football, 50-50, pro-style offense. Yes, those are there. But as we've seen, zone blocking does not work anymore. Certainly outside zone blocking in today's college football

Starting point is 00:14:56 with the change of rules doesn't work. They adapted. It took too long, but they got there. Say they go out and hire, I think the apple of many people's eyes, mine included, Ryan Grubb, kid from Northwest Iowa, played football at Buena Vista. He was a coach up at Northwest Missouri, or at Sioux Falls, up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, been all over the place with Kalen DeBoer, now at Washington. He's been the offensive coordinator with the Huskies, and you've seen what they've been able to do. He's an Iowa guy, an Iowa native, and he's going to do things differently. If I was willing to go out, and it's going to cost money, it's going to cost two and a half, three, maybe four million dollars to get an offensive coordinator of that ilk. Andy Ludwig from Utah, those kind of people.

Starting point is 00:15:39 To go out and hire those kind of offensive coordinators, is Kirk Ferentz, again, willing to step back? Because Kirk, during meetings, he's not working with the defense. He's working with the offense. That's where he is. He's an offensive line guy. That's where he made his living. That's where he grew up throughout the ranks.

Starting point is 00:15:57 And he is an offensive guy. If you go out and hire one of those young guns, Mark, not even a young gun, just somebody that's competent offensively, that's going to command that kind of paycheck, is Kirk, again, at this point in his career, willing to step back, take his tenets out of it, what he believes is the true way to play winning football,

Starting point is 00:16:16 and let them do that. That's what he does to Phil Parker. And look how well that has gone. That's what he does with LeVar Woods in special teams. And look how well that has gone. At this what he does with LeVar Woods in special teams. And look how well that has gone. At this point, Kirk, getting up there in age, can he step back offensively and allow the new offensive coordinator

Starting point is 00:16:34 to do what they want to do, to hire who they want to hire? That's another piece of this as well. Would you love to see a guy like Liddell Betts stay on? Absolutely. He's done a great job with that running back room. You see they're four deep right now. You're excited about their future. Abdul-Haj has come in. He's working with the Titans. Yes, you want to see those things,

Starting point is 00:16:54 no doubt about it. However, maybe a new offensive coordinator decides they want some different people in there. We will see. Another interesting note. I had to pass this along. I had to pass this along because I just found it absolutely crazy. So before we got the press release from Beth Getz today, we get the email with the game notes for each and every week, and we get it every week. So of course, I open it up right away and scroll down to see, is there any change in the depth chart? Is there an or listed behind the quarterback? And there was nothing, no change in the depth chart. And as I was scrolling through there, I saw they also still had all the coaches listed as they do. It's about, I don't know, 40, 50 pages of these game notes that they send out every single week. And one of them just has

Starting point is 00:17:37 each of the coaches, their headshots, you know, they put them up on TV, whatever it is. And well, I saw Brian was still there. Okay. And the other thing that I noticed is Iowa only has one of their official coaches. Now they have analysts, they have different people at different levels that are up in the booth, but one actual on-field coach, if you will, that counts as the 10 coaches on the field, only one offensive and one defensive coach is even up in the booth. I don't know if that is reality for a lot of coaches out there, but certainly feels like Brian's rare as it pertains to being an offensive coordinator on the field. Normally, I would say certainly over half of coaches are up

Starting point is 00:18:15 in the booth when they make the call. Not all the time. I get that. But that aside, I just found that very odd as I was trying to find some information and nothing came out of that. Well, speaking of that depth chart, Deacon Hill is listed as the starter. There's a game this week. This Iowa football team is still six and two. This football team could still get to Indianapolis. There's still a ton on the table. We'll talk about that as we continue. This is the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. Today's episode of Locked On Hawkeyes is brought to you by PrizePix. I love PrizePix. It has been so much fun with Daily Fantasy Sports,

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Starting point is 00:20:28 Trey Conner back with you one final time on the Locked On Hawkeyes podcast. So with all this, yes, there's a game this week. Oh, yeah, they're still going to play football. Going to do it at Wrigley Field, which is going to be cool. I'll be there. I'll be doing my radio show Friday until 1 o'clock at Merkel's, the Hawkeye bar in Wrigleyville. Then about two o'clock with Sean Daniels and myself,

Starting point is 00:20:49 we'll be getting together here for Lockdown Hawkeyes podcast. So make sure to stop on up. Should be a lot of fun. I've already been told there's going to be a few Hawkeye greats that are going to be making their way to Merkel's over a Friday and Saturday. Maybe some tight ends, but maybe a guy that's currently in the league that is playing for the team playing tonight.

Starting point is 00:21:07 Maybe. We'll see on that front, Dallas Clark. He might be there too. So come on out. We'll be at Merkle. It's going to be a great time there. Barntown Brewing. If you're somebody in the Des Moines area,

Starting point is 00:21:17 across the state, you know about all the great brews that they put together. It's going to be a really fun party. Going to have a good time there. Stop by, say hello, shake some hands. We'll talk some Hawks and have a really good time. Heck, maybe I'll even throw a headset and a microphone on you

Starting point is 00:21:29 if we're having a good time during both that. Do that on Friday and then a pregame on Saturday here on the Lockdown Hawkeyes feed. But yes, there is a game. And I'll tell you, I watch a lot of Northwestern, Maryland. I got the BTN in 60. I'm going to break that down a little bit later for a podcast later in the week too, because Northwestern, we thought this was of all 12 games. This felt

Starting point is 00:21:51 like the most surefire win during the summer. After Fitz was let go, it just looked like after the struggles that they'd had the last couple of years, this was going to be dead team walking. And Coach Braun comes in, kind of a newer coach, comes in from North Dakota State, didn't know about all the extracurriculars that are apparently happening inside the Northwestern program. He gets thrown to Wolves at Big Ten Media Day. You just felt terrible for him, right? He's answered the bell, and he's got this team believing.

Starting point is 00:22:19 And what they did, from what I watched against Maryland, they were highly impressive. This team can move the football. They're moving up and down the field. You know, they're going to be jacked up for the game and a possibility that this Northwestern team, their over under win total coming into the year was two and a half. Oh, they've already succeeded. That is they got four victories already this season and they're talking bowl game. Now to get to a bowl game, they likely, this might be half to one they put in the win column, but are they scared about this Hawkeye team? They shouldn't be. Absolutely not. They're moving the ball up and down the field and can, I would do anything to move it. So another rumor that has

Starting point is 00:22:54 been out there is that Joe Labus has been getting more run during practice. I don't know if that's the case. I don't have that verified by any means. Don't be going to run in that. I'm reporting this. Don't go to X or social media or anything like that. I'm not reporting that. But I did hear from somebody over there that he was getting more reps with the first team. What does that mean? Very well could just be they had a bye week and everybody's going to get some more reps. But that aside, look, we've seen Deacon Hill.

Starting point is 00:23:21 God bless the young man. He's just not a very good quarterback. And I don't think there's anything certainly that can be done in season that's going to change that. His mechanics are wonky. He is loose with the football. He's putting it on the turf. He has the most turnover worthy plays in college football this season for anybody with more than 75 attempts passing this year. He's a walking turnover machine coupled with a guy that isn't very accurate and hasn't been able to make any plays up the field. That is not exactly a recipe for success. I think Iowa needs to make a move. And though the likelihood is that Joe Labus is out the door, look, if you can't get a shot with this offense, you can understand why he would.

Starting point is 00:23:58 If you're going to do that though, if you're going to give Labus the job, here's what you need to do. You need to take it another level. Not only does Joe Labus need to be the starter and get a pretty long leash. I mean, you got to see here if even he can be a backup next season behind Cade McNamara. But secondly, if it doesn't go well, you can't just go back to Deacon Hill. He's not the guy. It's not going to happen for Deacon Hill. It just isn't. He doesn't have the requisite talent to be a Big Ten quarterback. He's got a strong arm. You need more than that. And he does not appear to have

Starting point is 00:24:31 the qualities necessary to be that guy. But then your backup needs to be, you go Joe Labus as a starter, it needs to be Marco Lioness. Same thing. Even if Labus is out the door and even if he plays relatively well, it sounds like he's gone.

Starting point is 00:24:44 Okay, so be it. That's the case. You also need to figure out if Marco Linus at minimum could be a backup himself next season behind Cade McNamara, knowing that Cade McNamara has been an injury risk now for four straight years, knowing that he's been banged up all throughout his career. And if Linus is not a competent backup and you see that in a limited role here the rest of the season, then you go and you say, we a limited role here the rest of the season, then you go and you say, we need to go to the portal and also find a backup. That is the reality of the way this goes. And it sucks because you're still playing for something.

Starting point is 00:25:13 You're still playing for a division championship. You're still playing to get to Indianapolis. And maybe with the shackles off and we'll see all of a sudden Brian Ferentz start to look a little bit better calling games. Those scripted plays that have been very good. Maybe that brain block we were talking about a little bit earlier, where he's got, you know, the writer's block, except as it comes to a play color. Maybe that disappears now without this hanging over his head. Who knows?

Starting point is 00:25:40 But, boy, if they can just get competent, we will see. We'll see with the quarterback situation. According to the depth chart, though, more of the same. We will continue to break this down from all different angles. Again, Friday at Merkel's is the spot to be, as we'll be broadcasting live there from Friday afternoon. About 2 o'clock is when we'll get started with that one and a whole lot more coming up this week. More tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:25:59 It is press conference day. Players at 11 o'clock. 1.45, we'll hear from Kirk Behrens. We will react to that. Business set to stop by. We got a lot going on there. It's a busy time. And basketball, men's basketball, starts tonight with their

Starting point is 00:26:11 first exhibition game. We got you covered on that front. Yeah, we're going to talk some hoops too here on Locked On Hawkeyes. Thanks for making Locked On Hawkeyes your first listen every day. Always fun and what a show it was today. Thanks for joining us as always. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Go Hawks!

Locked On Hawkeyes - Daily Podcast On Iowa Hawkeyes Football & Basketball - Iowa Football: Brian Ferentz is officially out as Hawkeye offensive coordinator

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