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What keeps Beth Goetz up at night? The thought of Kirk Ferentz not leading the Iowa football program

Franisdaman

Franisdaman

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There has been rumors of Kirk Ferentz potentially wanting one more contract before he calls it a career.

Beth Goetz, today, regarding that potential extension:

"All these crazy things going on in college athletics, and people ask about what keeps you up at night, and you think it might be the next Senate bill or the next version of a jersey patch, but I’ll tell you what, it’s him not leading our program. We’re just really grateful that he’s excited to continue doing what he’s doing and having a lot of fun doing it at a really high level."
 
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B

BunchofAholes

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Franisdaman said:
There has been rumors of Kirk Ferentz potentially wanting one more contract before he calls it a career.

Beth Goetz, today, regarding that potential extension:

"All these crazy things going on in college athletics, and people ask about what keeps you up at night, and you think it might be the next Senate bill or the next version of a jersey patch, but I’ll tell you what, it’s him not leading our program. We’re just really grateful that he’s excited to continue doing what he’s doing and having a lot of fun doing it at a really high level."
Click to expand...
So, that's how you read that?
 
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r_desihawk

r_desihawk

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1. she is smart coz that's something that should keep her up at night
2. glad it's keeping her up at night coz we need her to be feverishly trying to uncover iowa football's version of bmac while kirk takes his time
 
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Roncuba65

Roncuba65

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As long as Kirk is doing a good job, is competent at doing his job and is in good health... he should be able to coach for as long as he wants, with that being said he doesn't need to turn into a JoePa (not Sandusky related) as far just being at practice and standing on the sidelines barely knowing where he is at. If he has a 4-8 season then maybe it might time to start thinking about a new future... and NO I do not think he should be able to pick his successor.
 
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Gonzo_Bloor

Gonzo_Bloor

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nu2u said:
No coach “deserves” to go out on their own terms. Ferentz could walk into Goetz’ office tomorrow and demand a ten year contract extension and, according to that ridiculous proposition, Goetz would have no authority to deny his terms.
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Yeah I wouldn't take it that far so "on his own terms" wasn't the best way to put it. I meant to say BG shouldn't and won't fire him before his contract is up in 2030 but at that point whether he gets a new contract or not is 100% her call and I'd have zero problem with her saying no.
 
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U

uihawk82

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Franisdaman said:
There has been rumors of Kirk Ferentz potentially wanting one more contract before he calls it a career.

Beth Goetz, today, regarding that potential extension:

"All these crazy things going on in college athletics, and people ask about what keeps you up at night, and you think it might be the next Senate bill or the next version of a jersey patch, but I’ll tell you what, it’s him not leading our program. We’re just really grateful that he’s excited to continue doing what he’s doing and having a lot of fun doing it at a really high level."
Click to expand...
Did a reporter ask her a question about this? If so, what is she supposed to say "no extension, he is done after this year". This isnt much news, all speculation, Beth has her list of top coaching candidates in the drawer in her desk.
 
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nu2u

nu2u

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Gonzo_Bloor said:
Yeah I wouldn't take it that far so "on his own terms" wasn't the best way to put it. I meant to say BG shouldn't and won't fire him before his contract is up in 2030 but at that point whether he gets a new contract or not is 100% her call and I'd have zero problem with her saying no.
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Termination of KF’s contract is highly unlikely absent some unanticipated scandal. The real issue is whether he should be extended beyond the 2029 season. IMO that should be on the table for serious discussion after the completion of this season.
 
Franisdaman

Franisdaman

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KuwaitHawk said:
The only way Beth fires KF is if he goes 1-11 or worse.
Click to expand...

Beth firing Brian was the best gift she could have given Kirk. It allowed Kirk to hire a true OC, who actually knows what he is doing.

I do have to say that KF has evolved with the times when other older coaches have thrown in the towel (Nick Saban, Coach K, Jay Wright, etc). Iowa is still 8-4/9-3 Iowa, even with the money out in the open now.

If Kirk can hang on to Tim Lester, I think things will continue to go well. I kinda hope Lester is the next head coach, too. That will be one really important hire for Beth, of course.
 
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Franisdaman

Franisdaman

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Nov 3, 2012
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uihawk82 said:
Did a reporter ask her a question about this?
Click to expand...

Yes.

uihawk82 said:
If so, what is she supposed to say "no extension, he is done after this year".
Click to expand...


She was asked what kept her up at night.


uihawk82 said:
This isnt much news, all speculation, Beth has her list of top coaching candidates in the drawer in her desk.
Click to expand...

It's not much news? Interesting.

And talk about speculation! I heard her list is in her back pocket!
 
93hawkeye

93hawkeye

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Sep 19, 2004
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Franisdaman said:
Beth firing Brian was the best gift she could have given Kirk. It allowed Kirk to hire a true OC, who actually knows what he is doing.

I do have to say that KF has evolved with the times when other older coaches have thrown in the towel (Nick Saban, Coach K, Jay Wright, etc). Iowa is still 8-4/9-3 Iowa, even with the money out in the open now.

If Kirk can hang on to Tim Lester, I think things will continue to go well. I kinda hope Lester is the next head coach, too. That will be one really important hire for Beth, of course.
Click to expand...
and yet, if my back-of-the-envelope math is correct, KF's win %age was about 69% with Brian as OC. I know it made our eyeballs hurt, though
 
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OnlyTheObscure

OnlyTheObscure

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The war chest of money you can offer will determine the coach you can get and players you can get.

In a way it is earlier now than it was 20 years ago. There is a predetermined pecking order now and everybody can see it. The fans know exactly the money issue and no sane fan can expect them to punch above their weight for any meaningful length of time.

I think Matt Campbell would have been an excellent replacement for Kirk. He should haven picked off by big dog years ago. Tremendous amount of success given their sever financial limitations.
 
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T

TrojanHawkeye

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KuwaitHawk said:
The only way Beth fires KF is if he goes 1-11 or worse.
Click to expand...
 
DukeSlater

DukeSlater

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Franisdaman said:
There has been rumors of Kirk Ferentz potentially wanting one more contract before he calls it a career.

Beth Goetz, today, regarding that potential extension:

"All these crazy things going on in college athletics, and people ask about what keeps you up at night, and you think it might be the next Senate bill or the next version of a jersey patch, but I’ll tell you what, it’s him not leading our program. We’re just really grateful that he’s excited to continue doing what he’s doing and having a lot of fun doing it at a really high level."
Click to expand...
Beth knows how the game is played. She also knows that KF, despite what his most ardent backers believe, is not immortal. There was Hawkeye football before KF, and there is likely to be Hawkeye football after him. Some day KF will be gone, and someone else will be the head coach at the University of Iowa. Rather than fear that day, I welcome it. After nearly 30 years, it would be interesting to see what someone else could do with the Hawkeye program. Eventually, it'll be Beth's job to find the football version of Ben McCollom. He's out there. And that possibility is one I find intriguing.

If you look back at KF's tenure objectively, he would have been fired two or three times at any other major college program. Instead, he was given the longest of leashes, and here he is, hanging around into his seventies. Maybe he'll give it up before he hits eighty.
 
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DukeSlater

DukeSlater

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Roncuba65 said:
As long as Kirk is doing a good job, is competent at doing his job and is in good health... he should be able to coach for as long as he wants, with that being said he doesn't need to turn into a JoePa (not Sandusky related) as far just being at practice and standing on the sidelines barely knowing where he is at. If he has a 4-8 season then maybe it might time to start thinking about a new future... and NO I do not think he should be able to pick his successor.
Click to expand...
"As long as he wants" is a tired phrase that shows little sense of reality. KF is not king. He is not immortal. He is far from perfect. He should coach as long as the AD thinks he's the best person for the job, and not a day longer.
 
DukeSlater

DukeSlater

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Franisdaman said:
Beth firing Brian was the best gift she could have given Kirk. It allowed Kirk to hire a true OC, who actually knows what he is doing.

I do have to say that KF has evolved with the times when other older coaches have thrown in the towel (Nick Saban, Coach K, Jay Wright, etc). Iowa is still 8-4/9-3 Iowa, even with the money out in the open now.

If Kirk can hang on to Tim Lester, I think things will continue to go well. I kinda hope Lester is the next head coach, too. That will be one really important hire for Beth, of course.
Click to expand...
Of course KF never should have hired his utterly unqualifed son as OC in the first place. But he did, and then he doubled down by incredibly also giving Brian the job of QB coach. Even Brian publicly admitted he had no clue about how to coach QBs. And then when Brian continued to run the nation's worst offense, KF refused to fire him, forcing Beth to do it. Had Barta still been the AD, BF would still be the OC/QB coach. Nobody should ever forget that.
 
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Kceasthawk@77

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DukeSlater said:
Beth knows how the game is played. She also knows that KF, despite what his most ardent backers believe, is not immortal. There was Hawkeye football before KF, and there is likely to be Hawkeye football after him. Some day KF will be gone, and someone else will be the head coach at the University of Iowa. Rather than fear that day, I welcome it. After nearly 30 years, it would be interesting to see what someone else could do with the Hawkeye program. Eventually, it'll be Beth's job to find the football version of Ben McCollom. He's out there. And that possibility is one I find intriguing.

If you look back at KF's tenure objectively, he would have been fired two or three times at any other major college program. Instead, he was given the longest of leashes, and here he is, hanging around into his seventies. Maybe he'll give it up before he hits eighty.
Click to expand...
And yet LAST season might have been one of his best coaching jobs given how close we were to beating Indiana, (who nobody else stayed with) and Oregon. And your statement that "he'd have been fired two or three times at ANY other major college program" is absolute nonsense, unless you're only talking about the top 8-10 schools. If that's your definition of MAJOR programs , then I guess Iowa and most of the B1G schools are not " MAJOR" programs. I'd bet we could name 40-50 teams including most of the teams in are own conference who would not have fired the guy. For most of the last 60 years its basically been the same 8-10 schools winning the ONLY game that matters to many fans.
 
Roncuba65

Roncuba65

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DukeSlater said:
"As long as he wants" is a tired phrase that shows little sense of reality. KF is not king. He is not immortal. He is far from perfect. He should coach as long as the AD thinks he's the best person for the job, and not a day longer.
Click to expand...
I know this. I think he is capable of doing the job until his contract expires, a losing season would of course change my mind... What I am saying is that Kitk doesn't need to be coaching Iowa just because he wants to.
 
Franisdaman

Franisdaman

Heisman
Nov 3, 2012
16,189
24,772
113
93hawkeye said:
and yet, if my back-of-the-envelope math is correct, KF's win %age was about 69% with Brian as OC. I know it made our eyeballs hurt, though
Click to expand...
But we had no chance against the good teams. And then we lost to teams like Minnesota at home because we had a quarterback who had no place playing at the D1 level and who could not move. Not to mention, we couldn't recruit wide receivers because no one wanted to play in an Iowa offense.

Deacon was the Hill that Brian Ferentz died on.
 
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rchawk

rchawk

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Oct 27, 2001
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Brian Ferentz seems to get fired about twenty times a day on this board.

Gary Barta set the requirements for Brian to keep his job. Barta retired and Beth let Brian go for not meeting those requirements.

Hindsight is always easy, but the day Barta put the requirements out Brian should have been seriously looking for another job. He apparently did not.
 
rchawk

rchawk

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Oct 27, 2001
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Kceasthawk@77 said:
I imagine the plan was to put Brian in a position as OC to take over for Kirk as HC. Obviously that was a mistake for all parties involved.
Click to expand...
Brian was a good OL coach. When he was promoted to OC there were plenty of posters on this board who thought it was a great move-Bill Belichick, Patriots, the Ferentz, legacy, yada yada.

Some of us questioned if he was ready for the job, largely due to no experience. We were ignored.
 
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Kceasthawk@77

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rchawk said:
Brian was a good OL coach. When he was promoted to OC there were plenty of posters on this board who thought it was a great move-Bill Belichick, Patriots, the Ferentz, legacy, yada yada.

Some of us questioned if he was ready for the job, largely due to no experience. We were ignored.
Click to expand...
I agree, I'm just saying that's why he got promoted and probably why he didn't step back. They thought they could pull off a better outcome after Bartas ultimatum. Obviously that didn't happen, and Beth did what needed to be done.
 
S

silasstarr

Sophomore
Aug 25, 2003
4,308
114
63
Hopefully, this years recruiting (dead last in the Big Ten) is only because of numbers, but I suspect it has to do with Kirk's age. Getting ahead of that with an extension (hopefully with no buyout) will calm those worries.
 
G

Grayhair1981

All-Conference
Sep 3, 2006
770
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Kceasthawk@77 said:
And yet LAST season might have been one of his best coaching jobs given how close we were to beating Indiana, (who nobody else stayed with) and Oregon. And your statement that "he'd have been fired two or three times at ANY other major college program" is absolute nonsense, unless you're only talking about the top 8-10 schools. If that's your definition of MAJOR programs , then I guess Iowa and most of the B1G schools are not " MAJOR" programs. I'd bet we could name 40-50 teams including most of the teams in are own conference who would not have fired the guy. For most of the last 60 years its basically been the same 8-10 schools winning the ONLY game that matters to many fans.
Click to expand...
I decided to look up winning percentages of successful coaches. The criterion I used is ten years at a single power conference or equivalent school. I found 40 that matched.
4 had winning percentages>85%. Frank Leahy is the highest at .888
16 had percentages of at least .800
32 are at or above .750
The lowest four on the list are:
Ferentz .620
Don Nehlen .616
Hayden .616
Mike Price Washington St .513
The most interesting is Dana Bible. He was .791 at Texas A&M and .670 at Texas
 
H

hawkeyebob1962

Junior
Aug 14, 2025
212
306
63
rchawk said:
Brian was a good OL coach. When he was promoted to OC there were plenty of posters on this board who thought it was a great move-Bill Belichick, Patriots, the Ferentz, legacy, yada yada.

Some of us questioned if he was ready for the job, largely due to no experience. We were ignored.
Click to expand...
It wasn't as OC that we saw any glaring weakness. It was as QB Coach, and QB recruiting, that we saw his biggest fail.

The score-points-or-get-fired didn't come until 2022. Yes, 2021 was also a low-scoring season, but 2017-2020 seasons saw adequate scoring offense.
Grayhair1981 said:
I decided to look up winning percentages of successful coaches. The criterion I used is ten years at a single power conference or equivalent school. I found 40 that matched.
4 had winning percentages>85%. Frank Leahy is the highest at .888
16 had percentages of at least .800
32 are at or above .750
The lowest four on the list are:
Ferentz .620
Don Nehlen .616
Hayden .616
Mike Price Washington St .513
The most interesting is Dana Bible. He was .791 at Texas A&M and .670 at Texas
Click to expand...
Citing a coach from ND and a coach from Texas vs coaches from Iowa, WVU and Wazzu. By God, I'm shocked ND and TX came out on top. Utterly shocked.
 
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