A Cautionary Tale

ChosenChildren

ChosenChildren

Well-Known Member
Some observations at the end of the 2025 regular season for Iowa:

1. The stability of the coaching staff at Iowa continues to pay off. Many recruits are attracted to that stability. It is showing up in Iowa's recruiting. we need to keep Ferentz and Parker at the helm.

2. Comparing Iowa to Nebraska, be careful what you wish for when you are clamoring for a new coaching staff (I, of course, have been guilty of this behavior). Exhibit A has to be Nebraska. In 2014, Nebraska fired Bo Pelini, coming off of a 9-4 season. Since then, 3 coaches (Riley, Frost and now Rhule) have gone 35-62 in the Big Ten. That's a horrific 36% winning percentage. Incredible, really, for a program that ruled college football in the 90s and early 2000s. Iowa, on the other hand, has gone 66-31 during that same time, a sparkling 68% winning percentage. During that time, as you know, Iowa has won 10 of 11 from its hated rival. Pretty amazing, really.

Back in 1999, Ferentz went 4-19 in his first two seasons. Iowa had the wisdom to stick with him. It was a good decision.
 


The saying "Careful what you ask for," bodes big here. We have been very blessed with KF and his staff building a culture and continuity. Iowa has an identity. Coaches when asked about Iowa laud them about their ability to do more with less and being a fundamentally sound team.

Former Cardinals Coach Dennis Green would say "They are who we thought they were." LOL. And to me that's a good thing.
 


Its a sports forum so everybody likes to talk about sports but what is often overlooked and under appreciated anymore is the stuff beyond the sport. If you take the time to watch the video that was put together after KF got the record for most wins. There was quite the range of people that expressed gratitude for what KF had done for them and their family.

The thing that surprised me was the amount of guys on the team that never played a prominent part on the field but went on to do great things off the field and credit KF for going out of the way to help them. It would have been extremely difficult to touch that many people without the stability Iowa has had and the loyalty that they have generated.

It's cliche to say we want to teach about life and winning isn't just about wins on the field but it is a fact that stuff is important. KF certainly has his faults and I am sure there are things he feels could have done differently but his impact will last generations at the university and the state.

I guess as I get older and see how the world is changing you realize there are only a few things going on in life that matter and the rest is bullshit. I think KF and staff have done a good job on the stuff that matters and that is where the culture of Iowa Football has gotten its roots and is very important for the type of program that needs to be run and for the type of recruits we are going to get.
 


kameltoez102 said:
Its a sports forum so everybody likes to talk about sports but what is often overlooked and under appreciated anymore is the stuff beyond the sport. If you take the time to watch the video that was put together after KF got the record for most wins. There was quite the range of people that expressed gratitude for what KF had done for them and their family.

The thing that surprised me was the amount of guys on the team that never played a prominent part on the field but went on to do great things off the field and credit KF for going out of the way to help them. It would have been extremely difficult to touch that many people without the stability Iowa has had and the loyalty that they have generated.

It's cliche to say we want to teach about life and winning isn't just about wins on the field but it is a fact that stuff is important. KF certainly has his faults and I am sure there are things he feels could have done differently but his impact will last generations at the university and the state.

I guess as I get older and see how the world is changing you realize there are only a few things going on in life that matter and the rest is bullshit. I think KF and staff have done a good job on the stuff that matters and that is where the culture of Iowa Football has gotten its roots and is very important for the type of program that needs to be run and for the type of recruits we are going to get.
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Watched it, and definitely shows what KF has done beyond the football field. I think Greenway speaking to how KF and staff showed up at his father's funeral unannounced to show respect. Can't remember what player it was but a former player struggling with his newborn being born on the spectrum. When Iowa played Northwestern, KF and staff showed up and showed support.

Those are things beyond the gratitude and respect coaches garner from their time on the football field. That is KF as a person. Pure class. And that is why his players and former players love him.
 




Programs with a tradition of success should be very reticent about coaching staff shakeups; they should embrace incrementalism over radicalism.

That said, you also can't watch a slow descent and do nothing about it. I was concerned about how non-competitive Iowa was against top-level components in 2022 and 2023:

10-54
0-31
0-26
0-35

There was progress in some areas last year, but that did not convince me that Iowa could still slug with the big boys (7-35 vs. OSU last year).

This year was a solid year, but many of our rival fanbases will scoff at us being happy with 8 wins (all the while, most of them would kill for 8 wins being their floor). But what really made this year encouraging, and the reason I hope KF is back next year, is we went toe-to-toe with two top-10 teams at home, and with a top-20 team on the road. That is progress.

While those losses were devastating in that we were so close, none of them could be pinned on coaching failures of strategy or preparation. Simply, we lost close games to better teams (at least in conference...I think we beat ISU at least 7 times out of 10). We need to get a little better, we don't need a tear down. A little more talent in the passing game, some schematic tweaks, continued development of playmakers on the edge, the 2nd level of defense, and the DBs...we are a lot closer to getting that CFP berth than we are to being a Nebraska or Wisconsin. Unless we do something silly, and then we could be with those teams in a heartbeat.
 


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