CFB coaching carousel

I heard the check to cut would be $13 million. How the hell does that happen?

First Iowa game I watched all year...man, they seem poorly coached. Lots of dumb mistakes throughout.

 

Here is the parallel I use...

It's like Iowa took out a $950,000 mortgage in southern California in 2003 at 6.5% interest and doesn't have the credit rating to re-finance it. They wanted this house so badly, at the time, that they agreed to any terms. Now they can't get out of it, no one will buy it for that price and they're stuck.

I believe the buyout two years ago was $16 million. Now it's down to $13 million.

Most of the big-money boosters at Iowa - the types whom the buildings are named after - are dead. No coaching change anytime soon.

Ferentz had a classic smug remark yesterday. When asked if he was aware of the temperature outside the Iowa football program after the Tennessee game, he said he was aware it's in the single-digits back in Iowa.

Iowa is trying to run out the clock (literally) on Ferentz's contract but the fans are pretty restless. Iowa football was largely forgettable this year. 7-5 with a soft non-con, including the loss to 2-10 Iowa State. They beat up on the weak Big Ten West teams, lost to the good ones, went to their fourth-rate bowl.

It's like Wisconsin's strategy each year but only for a lower-level bowl. Yet the realization is also here that Iowa will never be in the national college football talk ever again. It isn't 1991 anymore. The expectations around a Ferentz program are that they'll win 7 or 8 each year, perhaps an upset at Kinnick once every 3 years and that's it. They're not Purdue but they'll never be Ohio State and they've been passed by Wisconsin and Michigan State - likely for good. 20-25 years ago, Iowa *was* that team a notch below Michigan/Ohio State in the Big Ten. They were what Wisconsin or Michigan State is now.

Those days are gone. Now they're stuck beating Illinois, Indiana or Purdue and going to a weak-ass bowl game. Even worse, Iowa is closer to THESE teams than they are Ohio State or Michigan State.

The program is eroding and so is the interest. The game-day atmosphere is incredibly stale -- the band plays "Twist & Shout" for the 338th time, Iowa beat a team like Purdue 24-14 and the ticket prices keep going up.

The only thing exciting about Iowa football is watching them try to beat MAC or I-AA schools in the non-con. At least those games aren't usually decided until the 4th quarter.

For all the talk of the $13 million for Ferentz, can't Iowa just siphon off some of that Big Ten Network Trust Fund from Delany and give it to him each year. Reach an agreement with Ferentz where he gets $2 million for the next five years to do nothing.

I was curious if we would have a Glen Mason Bowl Game Situation today with Iowa but apparently not.

The Big Ten, for all of the money that has flowed in from the TV network, also has a football conference where the winner be Ohio State (or whomever wins the talent-heavy East Division). Ohio State or Michigan State will win the East next year and Michigan will probably replace Michigan State in that talk in 2016. East winner will win the Big Ten title game.

From 1995 to 2002, you had Northwestern, Purdue, Illinois and Iowa all winning the Big Ten. With more money, it means the schools like Ohio State, Michigan, Mich State can just spend more of it to build the best program.

A great way to make money. Not a great way to keep and build fan interest from schools that aren't in Ann Arbor, East Lansing or Columbus.

 

Just have the Krause Family cut another check for $10 million to buy him out and be done with it.

Drop in the money barrel for that family.

 

Iowa can probably console themselves with the hope that Wisconsin and Nebraska could really whiff on their choices for new coaches, and Minnesota's resurgence could just be a one-year thing. So going 9-3/6-2 (which appears to be roughly Ferentz's ceiling) might be good enough to win the B1G West over the next half-decade.

In reality-world, it's probably more likely ONE of those three schools are going to get it going.

 

Wisconsin has whiffed. I'm calling it now. They'll be scratching their heads at some of Chryst's decisions by mid-season. Of course, if things get bad enough Baldvarez can just come down and coach.

 

You certainly can't put your finger on any of the B1G West teams and say, "This is going to be a powerhouse for most of the next decade."

Whereas in the East, OSU already has that status, Sparty isn't very far off, and if Harbaugh is even half the wizard he is supposed to be, Michigan could be right back up there too.

 

I agree that Wisconsin has whiffed. Chryst is a solid assistant but was hired mostly for his ability to do whatever Alvarez wants.

While Alvarez revels in the glory of beating Auburn in Tampa the other day, the long-term undermining by Alvarez coaching in this game (and the Rose Bowl two years ago) is toxic to a program's future. Chryst always has to deal with Barry's shadow, from the statue outside the football office to having Alvarez down the hall on Monday each time there's a disappointing loss.

What the last month has proven. The B1G West remains the 1984 American League West. Someone has to win it but they'll get their doors blown off in the B1G Title Game. Anyone here think Wisconsin or Nebraska (or even Minnesota for the pipe dreamers on here) can beat a Michigan State/Ohio State/Michigan team that is playing for a spot in the 4-team tournaments? I sure don't.

Of the "Other 11" schools, Wisconsin had the "Last Great Chance" to win the Big Ten *and* make a national title run, three years ago with Russell Wilson. Yet Bielema's awful late-game management cost them twice in the regular season (Ohio State, Michigan State). Even Bielema recognized he'll never have another QB of Wilson's caliber at Wisconsin so he bolted one year later, partly for the money and a big part to get away from Saint Alvarez.

 

Lots of good points here, ex. Especially this one:

"Yet the realization is also here that Iowa will never be in the national college football talk ever again. It isn't 1991 anymore."

If Iowa and its fans (and my fellow alumni) are realistic, they'll understand that Iowa needs the Big 10 way, way more than the conference needs the Hawkeyes. Let's hope when the next round of realignment happens — and it will, whenever TV contracts need to be renewed — Iowa isn't tossed in with Iowa State, Nebraska, Wyoming and Boise State in the "Land of Misfit Toys" league of undesirable FBS media markets.

 

You bring up a solid aspect on TV markets and location.

Minnesota has value for any conference because it is Market 14. Wisconsin has Milwaukee (32) plus good medium markets in Green Bay and Madison. The rest of the Big Ten schools - even if the campus is not in a large market - have a traditional following in nearby large markets (Michigan State -> Detroit, Purdue or Indiana -> Indianapolis, Penn State -> Pittsburgh or Philly).

Iowa and Nebraska don't have this. Iowa's two "large" TV markets are Markets 70 and Market 89. Nebraska's two "large" markets are Markets 75 (although Omaha plays a bit larger, IMO) and Market 105.

This is also a major element in why the Big XII fell apart. Outside of Dallas and Houston, they don't have the gigantic TV markets of the Big Ten or Pac 12. Once they lost Colorado (Market 18) and Missouri (small market but with followings in STL and KC), they eyeballs went down dramatically. West Virginia is like Iowa - a small state with a good following but STILL a sparsely populated state

 

Bingo on all of it Coco and Ex.

This is my hack observation from afar, though I live here in Iowa: Iowa is who they are -- a decent team that will get 1-2 big wins, be in the middle of the pack, and go bowling. Nothing more, nothing less. It essentially sounds like the Hayden Fry era, and yet Iowa fans accepted as it as gold. Will they ever win a national title or a be "power" in college football? Personally, I say no. It'll have to take some luck and fortunate for those things to happen. Iowa isn't built for that. In fact, it never was.

Yeah, the landscape has changed dramatically, but with that, Ferentz isn't going to change his philosophy, and by not doing that, those diamond in the rough guys like Dallas Clark are few and far between. Getting 2 and 3 star players and trying to turn them into 4-5 star NFL prospects isn't as easy as it was a decade ago. The recruits Iowa brings in are who they are: 2-3 star players that are not going to be better.

From a wider perspective, and I could be wrong, they're recruiting kids who don't fit into their offensive/defensive philosophy. Why in the hell would Bobby Beathard's kid go to Iowa to be a "game manager" and not chuck the ball around? That kid's a gunslinger, take the reigns off of him. That's isn't going to happen, now they're talk he may transfer. He should have done it last year.

The big rub out of all it is the contract. Iowa fans bitched and complained when Bowlsby signed Ferentz to that contract as Bowlsby left for Stanford. "Why does a coach get $3 million dollars for?" My response to it then and now: "if you want the best coach on market, you pay the going rate. A large number of the Power 5 schools coaches are making $1 million or higher." That includes crappy coaches. For the last few years I hear from fans wanting to replacing Ferentz and I reply "Who?" And none of them can give me a damn answer. They just want a new coach....and they better be ready to pay him the same amount Ferentz is making or a little higher.

Simply put, Iowa fans are unwilling to pay for a big name coach or someone who can win right away.

Coaches are not taking a job at a middle-of-the road Power 5 school for $750k as a favor to the fans and their pocketbooks. Besides, coaches answers to two groups: the AD/administration, and boosters/supporters. Fans be damned.

Iowa fans are restless for sure, but as we know, it wasn't like that for a majority of the 20th century with this program, sans Kinnick/Anderson, Evy, and Hayden. The Hayden/Ferentz era is the longest successful era in school history, eclipsing the 20-year dark period of Jerry Burns, Ray Nagel, Lauterbur and Commings. Iowa fans forget that part, because we've been spoiled rotten by Hayden.

Barta is stuck with that contract and I don't think boosters like Knapp, Jacobson, etc. are willing to cut a check to send Ferentz out the door. I will say this, if and when a coaching change does happen, Iowa fans will have to answer this questions: 1). are you willing to pay more $$ to get the best coach on the market?; 2). are you willing to deal with bigger scrutiny if you become a "national" power that you so desperately want to be; 3). are you willing to put up with a few "issues" (players are trouble-prone, less likely to be scholars, etc) on the team, if they help your team win); and 4). will Iowa administration be willing to let you bring in a few transfers into the program? The Big Ten isn't nuts about transfers, but it's working wonders at Iowa State for Fred Hoiberg.

 

It wasn't long ago that Ferentz was talked about for NFL jobs has a sharp "up and comer"

 

Christ almighty. Write more about it. Please.