Starting To Also Think It’s Time

Fryowa

Fryowa

Administrator
Don’t reply to this unless you watched KF’s full postgame. I’ll delete responses indicating you didn’t watch. It’s short, and it’s free on YouTube. Search “Ferentz postgame” and it’s right there at the top.

I’ve not been one to say KF needs to go, and I still wouldn’t say that 100%, but after watch ing KF’s postgame last night it’s 99% clear to me for the most part.

It may be age, it may be something else, but this thing has passed him by. There’s no fire, no frustration, no nothing anymore. Watching it it was just “I thought we had a good week of preparation, they’re a good team, our kids are a good group of guys that played hard, and we’ll watch film and learn from it.” You can tell he can’t keep up the fire anymore. You can see it on his face during the game.

Again, there’s no fire, no frustration, no anything. The dude looks like an elderly shell of a man in last night’s presser, guys. He looked frail and tired. Like it’s too much for him. There’s no other way to say it and you have to admit you saw it

I know KF loves coaching. But I also know guys like him don’t quit because they don’t recognize when they can’t do it anymore. It’s hard, I get it, but it is what it is.

We all know KF ain’t getting fired, ever. If you think that’s a possibility you’re an idiot. He’s going to get to choose how much of his contract he uses. My only hope is he realizes it soon and helps make a good decision as to who his successor is. If he doesn’t and the next guy is one of those nebraska/Wisconsin type flubs, we’re cooked. You’re not going to sell the stadium out anymore, you’re not going to sell out of $4,000 RV spots, and people aren’t going to go drop a $50 bill on 3 beers to watch a team get shithoused when they can sit in their garage and spend $1 per beer, and turn the channel when the Hawks don’t get a game-winning 3rd down and miss a field goal that would force Cignetti to panic and play different. They don’t have to sit in traffic for an hour and drive 2 hours home. And we all know what’s going to happen to NIL when we get to that point.

There’s a lot riding on this next hire. I hope it’s coming sooner than later but I also know it’s not going to happen till the end of the contract. Any of you who’ve seen the celebration and huge deal made on KF’s longevity mark and how he’s idolized in Iowa City also know the U isn’t going to say, “Sorry man, you’re fired.”

He needs to realize he can’t do it anymore before this thing gets too late.
 


Seems to me the fire to set the bar higher isn’t there. Just marginal improvement. The offense is still C or C- product. The don’t have a QB on the roster who’s going to take this O to championship level
 


Something definitely seems different about Kirk. Look at his week 1 press conference to last night's and you can see the bags under his eyes and lack of excitement. His voice is softer and sounds....I dont know what it is. Just different.

His time is done and it's time to go.
 




Fryowa said:
Don’t reply to this unless you watched KF’s full postgame. I’ll delete responses indicating you didn’t watch. It’s short, and it’s free on YouTube. Search “Ferentz postgame” and it’s right there at the top.

I’ve not been one to say KF needs to go, and I still wouldn’t say that 100%, but after watch ing KF’s postgame last night it’s 99% clear to me for the most part.

It may be age, it may be something else, but this thing has passed him by. There’s no fire, no frustration, no nothing anymore. Watching it it was just “I thought we had a good week of preparation, they’re a good team, our kids are a good group of guys that played hard, and we’ll watch film and learn from it.” You can tell he can’t keep up the fire anymore. You can see it on his face during the game.

Again, there’s no fire, no frustration, no anything. The dude looks like an elderly shell of a man in last night’s presser, guys. He looked frail and tired. Like it’s too much for him. There’s no other way to say it and you have to admit you saw it

I know KF loves coaching. But I also know guys like him don’t quit because they don’t recognize when they can’t do it anymore. It’s hard, I get it, but it is what it is.

We all know KF ain’t getting fired, ever. If you think that’s a possibility you’re an idiot. He’s going to get to choose how much of his contract he uses. My only hope is he realizes it soon and helps make a good decision as to who his successor is. If he doesn’t and the next guy is one of those nebraska/Wisconsin type flubs, we’re cooked. You’re not going to sell the stadium out anymore, you’re not going to sell out of $4,000 RV spots, and people aren’t going to go drop a $50 bill on 3 beers to watch a team get shithoused when they can sit in their garage and spend $1 per beer, and turn the channel when the Hawks don’t get a game-winning 3rd down and miss a field goal that would force Cignetti to panic and play different. They don’t have to sit in traffic for an hour and drive 2 hours home. And we all know what’s going to happen to NIL when we get to that point.

There’s a lot riding on this next hire. I hope it’s coming sooner than later but I also know it’s not going to happen till the end of the contract. Any of you who’ve seen the celebration and huge deal made on KF’s longevity mark and how he’s idolized in Iowa City also know the U isn’t going to say, “Sorry man, you’re fired.”

He needs to realize he can’t do it anymore before this thing gets too late.
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Agree. This is going to be a team that wins between 4 and 7 games. In his 27th year.

NIL has changed college football in ways most of us don’t really understand.

Time for the Captain to retire.
 




I am speculating here, but in the pressor coach struck me as a man who may have been planning to retire at the end of the season all along. Ideally, he would hope to end his career on a high note. At 3-2 with the remaining schedule left, he knows that ending his career on a high note is no longer realistic and the grind ahead is just not as appealing.

When he said, “There are 7 games left…” he was looking down and I got the sense that he was dreading it more than he was looking forward to the improvement that he was talking about.
 


I think people overlook that aside from his first couple years (when all 5 of his kids were still at home), that at least one of his sons was part of the program for most of 2002 to 2023. Outside of 2005-2007 or so.

Brian getting canned probably was a combination of an enormous weight off his shoulders as well as a motivating factor (with some bitterness) to keep going in 2024.

That's over now. I'd imagine he'd be reflecting a lot lately.

He always said he figured he'd know when he'd know. I think he knows.
 




Also for anyone who might be offended by me saying his heart isn’t in it, you can still care about your players and love the Hawkeyes without your heart being in it.

I just don’t think losing games bothers him anymore. That’s not fair to players, staff, or fans
 


SCHawkeye2 said:
I think he steps down at season end.
He knows the game and culture have changed. And he realizes it's time to go.
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I don’t think so.

He doesn’t want to go out like Fry did.

Which is dumb because when we think of Hayden Fry we don’t we don’t think about his last two years, we think about all the great things he did and the person he was.
 


How many 70 year olds do you know who can effectively work 7 days, 100+ hours a week at any job, let alone one of the most stressful and competitive jobs there are? Honest, non sarcastic question.

And even more important, why would you want to? The male life expectancy in the US is 75.8 years right now. KF has more money than God, go take your frickin grandkids to Disneyland and lay by the pool. You’ve earned it.
 


Fryowa said:
How many 70 year olds do you know who can effectively work 7 days, 100+ hours a week at any job, let alone one of the most stressful and competitive jobs there are? Honest, non sarcastic question.

And even more important, why would you want to? The male life expectancy in the US is 75.8 years right now. KF has more money than God, go take your frickin grandkids to Disneyland and lay by the pool. You’ve earned it.
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"And even more important, why would you want to? The male life expectancy in the US is 75.8 years right now. KF has more money than God, go take your frickin grandkids to Disneyland and lay by the pool. You’ve earned it."

Where did we hear this very recently? Yeah the very point I made on another thread.

I made this same decision about a year and a half ago when I retired from my 29 year career. I don't have a lot of money to throw around but I only have so much time left to spend with my children and grandchildren. To me that's what is most important to me and always has been.

Following Iowa football is a family tradition passed down from generation to generation in my family. It's not just KF's fatigue is my fatigue also. So much so that even though it comes with a lot of frustration and disappointment, you still continue to watch and cheer. Maybe skip a game or two after tough losses but still come back and cheer after the sting wears off. Why, because in many ways it's about family and tradition. Almost like an addiction that is in your blood like a drug.

Walking away as a fan would in some ways be like walking away from your family and all those memories good, bad, and ugly. I hope Kirk can come to the realization the same way I did. If I had continued to work and put in a few more years finances for me would be significant better, but is the money really that important. I don't think so. I had two co-workers who put in 35 years and 40 years. One died six months after retiring and the other two years after retiring, not even getting to enjoy retirement with their families.

I hope Kirk can come to see it, before time passes him by.
 


I'm beginning to lean more towards maybe the game plan has been to go out all along at the end of the season. He got his win to become the winningest coach in Big 10 history. He does look drained. But I also know his pressers aren't too high energy either. He and Belichek both will never light up an interview room with their coach speak.

This game was a gut punch. Game plan was spot on in my opinion. Phil called a great game until the end. I think Lester also did a pretty damn good job. He potentially could lose his starting quarterback who was playing very well. I think the game emotionally drained everyone. Idk....but I think he is done at the end of the year.

As a coach, you do all you can to put your team in a position to succeed. I honestly felt he and his staff did so. Gronk played well. Our defense kept Indiana in check for the most part. Heck, the screen pass was there if Brown was able to complete the pass. That is a first down, and Indiana with no timeouts, and us at probably the 15, the kick would have been much easier.

To be that close and have victory ripped from you, and the way it happened, it would take the wind out of anyone's sail. Especially a 70 year old coach in the twilight of his career.
 


He looks so tired and going through the motions with the same message and answers. Similar to what Fran was like the last year or so, the fire was gone, he wasn't going crazy during games.

It is time for sure, but when will it happen is the big question.
 


Just spit-ballin' here, but how much was fatigue related to the QB position? Through 3 quarters, it FINALLY looked like Iowa had a QB. Maybe Kirk knows Gronowski's injury is pretty serious, and at best he'll be a non-mobile QB. Maybe he also thinks there is a pretty big drop down to Brown.

He knows what's coming on the schedule. It's gotta be incredibly deflating.
 


I'm currently only and coached varsity soccer for 23 years. I started right after I graduated and for that time it was my life. Every year you get attached to a new group of freshman and in the back of your mind you want to be there when they graduate. During those 23 years I got married, had 3 kids, and moved to another nearby town where my kids were enrolled in school and every spring the week of state basketball I was getting ready for another season. In my mind it felt the same every year. The year covid hit they shut down the schools the Friday before we started practice. I had been to the fields had all the nets up and was ready to go. About a week, maybe 2 later they cancelled the season. For those two weeks I was naive enough to think maybe they'd lift it and we'd get a season in since they just had state basketball (indoors and there was rumblings about a baseball season). When I finally received notice that the association had cancelled the spring season, I was also coaching club soccer, and it hit that day clear as day. The entire time I wasn't coaching I was fixated on the club side of things and hadn't seriously thought for a second about the high school season that had just been cancelled.

It was that instant that I realized I still had the fire for coaching, but at that moment i realized that I was 100% committed to coaching at the club level and that since the season was cancelled there wasn't one moment that I even seriously thought about varsity soccer. It was that exact moment that I made up my mind and submitted my resignation a few months later.

I think Fry is absolutely spot on and agree with his assessment based on the presser that he's changed. I've been there first hand and know that its a moment you're not even consciously aware of, and then in an instant it's completely clear. I think KF's seeing it as well despite his love for the sport, the program, players, and fans I think it finally set in that he's not going to be there forever and its time to move on. Last week, I didn't see it, but I agree that he may be 7 games from calling it a career.
 


HawkPowerlifter said:
I'm beginning to lean more towards maybe the game plan has been to go out all along at the end of the season. He got his win to become the winningest coach in Big 10 history. He does look drained. But I also know his pressers aren't too high energy either. He and Belichek both will never light up an interview room with their coach speak.
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I just think this last one was different. Even for him the way he talked was just either from pure exhaustion that he can't deal with anymore or apathy. Neither are good for this program when you're the CEO.
 


SwirlinLingerie said:
Just spit-ballin' here, but how much was fatigue related to the QB position? Through 3 quarters, it FINALLY looked like Iowa had a QB. Maybe Kirk knows Gronowski's injury is pretty serious, and at best he'll be a non-mobile QB. Maybe he also thinks there is a pretty big drop down to Brown.

He knows what's coming on the schedule. It's gotta be incredibly deflating.
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That stuff happens to every team at some point not named OSU, Oregon, PSU, Michigan, etc. You have to be able to deal with it and keep your guys energized if you want to compete. It's a requirement, not an option.

Everything starts at the top and if the guy at the top can't do it anymore, it ain't gonna work out for anyone.

KF is smart enough to know that. Whether he acts on it accordingly or has other motives is up to him. It couldn't have been easy for Hayden Fry to hang it up but he did it because it was best for the team. He knew it was bigger than him and he couldn't keep heading down the same road.
 


Fryowa said:
I just think this last one was different. Even for him the way he talked was just either from pure exhaustion that he can't deal with anymore or apathy. Neither are good for this program when you're the CEO.
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You're not wrong. And I've been trying to analyze this in my head all morning. And I make no bones about defending KF on here. I can be easily accused for being biased. I hope it's just it was an emotional gut punch for him. Damn, we were right there and I'm sure all the staff really had the belief they nailed their game planning how the game was trending.

I've seen blame on KF on play calling and even shots at Phil for his play call on the long touchdown. I totally disagree with those critics. On both, I truly think it was about execution. That is more on the players. Regardless, we have a bye week, and lets hope we can continue to grow and move forward.
 


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