It’s time to check back in on one of the weirdest contract situations in American sport – and how it’s still ruining what could be a powerhouse team.
We’re talking about college football’s Iowa Hawkeyes, one of the midwest’s strongest programs, with a proud history of churning out stalwart defenders, beastly tight ends and towering offensive linemen.
As we wrote about back in February, they’re led by veteran coach Kirk Ferentz, who’s had a statue-worthy run at the top of the program – though not without some off-field concerns.
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One of those major concerns involves his son, a former player turned coach, Brian Ferentz. Who remains employed for some reason.
Not only has Ferentz survived numerous accusations of player mistreatment, but being terrible at his job, leading Iowa to consistently awful offensive results over six seasons, wasting what is typically an excellent defence.
With his dad essentially being the most powerful man in the state because of what he’s done for the football program, Ferentz remained employed heading into the 2023 season – but with a catch.
To extend his contract, Ferentz’ offence would need to average 25 points per game. Which a whopping 85 teams, well over half of all of those in top-division college football, did last year.
And so the ‘Drive to 325’ was born – the number of points the Hawkeyes would need to score over a 13-game season to keep Ferentz in his job. (This also included points scored by the defence or on special teams, things Iowa is actually good at.)
So how are they going? Terribly!
Despite his team sitting 6-2, and probably deserving to be 7-1 after a controversial fair catch penalty wiped a touchdown late in Sunday’s loss to Minnesota, Ferentz’ offence has been typically pitiful.
Through eight games they have scored just 156 points, averaging less than 20 a game, and needing to average a whopping 33.8 over the final five games to reach that magical 325 mark and theoretically keep Ferentz employed.
So they set a low bar, because his dad basically wouldn’t sack him, and Ferentz can’t even clear that.
What makes this incredibly frustrating, even for a neutral fan, is how Iowa should actually be a threat to conference powerhouses Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.
The defence is legitimately one of the best in the sport; yet Ferentz, who has never shown any sign of being good at his job, was kept in the role with this ridiculous contract clause… which based on past behaviour, Iowa may not even adhere to! His dad could easily just say “nah, I’m good” and re-sign him again, in what Le Sserafim’s Huh Yunjin would refer to as nepotism.
As ESPN’s Bill Connolly wrote this week: “Their defence is incredible, and if Kirk Ferentz cared even 1% about competent offence, they’d be in incredible shape as a program. They’re in good shape as-is.”
But instead, the Hawkeyes were embarrassed 31-0 against Penn State a few weeks back, and even with the aforementioned 12-10 loss to Minnesota, are still right in the mix to make the conference championship game.
There they’d almost certainly play Michigan or Ohio State – who would blow them off the park.
Thankfully, as the Big Ten expands next season, it will abandon its divisional format. No longer will Iowa be able to limp into the conference title game just because of geography, with its local rivals typically being even worse than them.
One suspects the first time they make the title game post-2023, they won’t have Brian Ferentz helming the offence.
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