After the school made a choice during the season about his son’s future, Iowa coach Chris Ferentz “is moving forward.”
Kirk Ferentz, the coach of Iowa, said that the decision that the his son, Brian Ferentz, would not be returning in 2024 was different from how the school usually makes decisions about staff.
Because of nepotism rules, interim sports director Beth Goetz is in charge of Brian Ferentz. She decided that the assistant wasn’t going to be coming back and made the announcement Monday.
Since 2017, Brian Ferentz has been Iowa’s offensive coordinator. He has worked for his father since 2012 as a staff member.
“My policy is usually to assess everything—players, coaches, everything that—postseason because seasonal we’ve got a lot in our plates,” Ferentz said Tuesday. “That was the way it was.” That’s how it’s been since I started working full-time at Iowa in 1981.
The day doesn’t have enough time. It seems like a better time; I’m not as upset about things. There are many reasons why I did it that way. It doesn’t really matter, though. There is something we need to deal with, so we will.
Ferentz said that Iowa operates with a “chain for command to everything we do,” which means that Goetz is in charge of Brian Ferentz.
“Our priority is to place all our student-athletes within the best position for long-term as well as short-term success, both on and off the field.”
During the season, Goetz said in a statement that she would not be keeping Brian Ferentz. She did this to “provide clarity throughout this pivotal time on the schedule.”
Iowa didn’t play last week, but they will play Northwestern on Saturday at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
“It is not my practice of being involved with assistant coaching decisions as well as certainly not to make such an alteration public throughout a season,” Goetz’s statement said.
After Iowa’s offense hit an all-time low in 2022, Gary Barta, who was athletic director at the time, changed Brian Ferentz’s contract in a strange way: the team would have to average 25 points and win a minimum of seven games in 2023 for his term to end on June 30, 2024.
In an August interview with ESPN and again to Monday’s statement, Goetz talked about the “Drive to 325,” saying that it represented a “unique” part of Brian Ferentz’s job.
In the middle of the season, interim athletics director Beth Goetz did her own evaluation of one of a 25th-year coach’s employees and told everyone that offensive coordinator Bryan Ferentz was going to be leaving in 2024.
Kirk Ferentz dodged most questions about his son’s impending removal on Tuesday, but he did say that he didn’t agree with when the news was made.
He said that choices should be made at the end for the season when people are less emotional.
He said, “I can give you plenty of justifications why I did it this way, but it doesn’t matter.” “There’s not much point in talking about it right now as we have to contend with something and we will.”
With only 133 points per game, Iowa is last in the Cotton Bowl Subdivision. The Hawkeyes score 118 points, run 108 times, and throw 128 times.
Goetz made her choice during Iowa’s bye week, which came after the Hawkeyes lost 12–10 at home to Minnesota and had only 12 yards in the second half.
When they met with reporters after Kirk Ferentz’s weekly news conference, neither he nor Goetz would say more about the choice or when it would be made.
Goetz told them, “Those are private talks.” “That’s how it will stay.” When asked when he learned of Goetz’s choice, Ferentz replied, “I saw the news release that you and I all read over the weekend.”
Brian Ferentz will stay as offensive mastermind for the rest of the season. He has been working under a new deal that says Iowa has to win seven games and average thirty-five points per game or the contract will end.
“I hope all Hawks can join me in demonstrating appreciation over all that Brian demonstrated both as an actual student-athlete, an alum, as well as a coach to the program,” said Goetz.
“We have an extremely successful head coach, a future Hall of Fame head coach in a steady hand focused on running this program over the rest this season.”