David Hookstead
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Kirk Feretnz isn’t going to show his son Brian the exit at Iowa.
The Hawkeyes finished the season 8-5, and while the record ended up not being as terrible as it could have been, it hardly tells the whole story.
For the most part, the team won eight games in spite of the offense, not because of it. There were calls all season long to fire OC Brian Ferentz. Given the atrocious play on the offensive side of the plan, many expected a change to be made and Kirk to get rid of his son.
Well, it’s not going to happen.
“As I stand here today, I anticipate no changes with our staff moving forward. That’s my plan. Certainly, do think we have a terrific staff. I thought they did a great job last year in tough circumstances and navigated us through some big challenges,” Ferentz told the media Wednesday afternoon.
That means Brian Ferentz isn’t going anywhere. How isn’t this a pure nepotism situation? That seems like the million dollar question.
Iowa fans won’t like this decision from Kirk Ferentz.
You can expect Ferentz to have a full revolt on his hands after this decision. It’s impossible to blame Iowa fans for being furious with Brian Ferentz returning as OC in 2023.
The numbers in 2022 were comically bad. The team scored more than 30 points just once all season long, and in two games against ranked teams – Michigan and Ohio State – Iowa averaged just 12 points.
The leading passer on the team was Spencer Petras, who finished the season with just 1,725 passing yards and a one to one TD:INT ratio. He also completed just 55.9% of his passes. That’s terrible, but it was significantly better than Alex Padilla’s 48.8 completion percentage.
On the season, Iowa threw just seven touchdowns and averaged just 5.8 yards an attempt. Good luck winning a lot of games with stats like that. The attack on the ground wasn’t much better. The team rushed for a total of 1,234 yards and averaged just 2.9 yards an attempt.
Yet, Brian Ferentz isn’t being replaced. Iowa fans absolutely have every right in the world to be furious. They watched an atrocious product on offense last season, and Kirk Ferentz just ordered them a second serving in 2023.
Best of luck to Iowa fans this upcoming season. It sounds like they’re going to need it.
It is the same situation as with Joe Paterno some years back. His son, Jay was the QB coach at PS and was terrible but Joe Pa kept him on staff for years. Jay was bad as evidenced by no other team ever hiring him.