Barry Alvarez Would Never Have Let His HC Keep Brian Ferentz On Staff

Football is the main sport at most major sports schools. By a mile.

Because of that, the head football coach often has just as much or more power (obviously implied rather than specific) than the AD when it comes to decision making in that sport. At Alabama no AD is going to say a word about how the FB program operates unless there’s a scandal, illegalities, etc. And even then it’s going to come from higher up like the regents or president.

For all intents and purposes, P5 ADs are there to run and preside over other sports not named football (or basketball if you’re a Kansas, Duke, etc). Alvarez is unique when you compare him to a guy like Barta or similar. Technically he’s in charge, but we know it’s really the HC and donors.

Which is the reason I brought up Alvarez. He was in the unique position of being a respected and successful football coach prior to becoming AD. I still stand by my opinion that he wouldn’t have allowed Paul Chryst to keep Brian Ferentz on staff with the offensive production he’s had. He would’ve stepped in. And it has nothing to do with firing previous coaches. This is a unique situation.

I could have said the same thing about Tom Osborne during his time as AD, but the guy’s a total piece of shit who isn’t worthy of conversation. Trev Alberts is trying to do the same thing by shaking stuff up in Lincoln—giving ultimatums and forcing changes. Gary Barta’s not that guy, nor should he be
Clearly it's all hypothetical - you could very well be right. You are not the first person who has shared this opinion in regards to Barry having some sort of standard that he won't put up with. I just like to point out the reality that he's never fired a single fucking coach in either of the 2 biggest revenue generating sports. I would say that Barry is really good at HIRING people, just never bought the ole "Barry wouldn't put up with this" trope. He's never had to make a hard fucking decision as an AD in his life at Wisconsin.
 
But you realize that it's no where near one of the worst divisions in FBS?
In fairness he might be confusing FBS with P5. Big difference that a lot of casual fans don't understand. I come across a lot of folks who don't know that there are a bunch of conferences in FBS.
 
Oh, cherry pick your time frame. So convenient. Why not just take the 8 years since the East and West started? Wisconsin and Iowa have more than held their own. Actually, Iowa and KF have done very well with .677% winning. It is ironic that KF has the exact same winning % for intra-division games to.

Also, the best evaluation would include the West division teams against other P5 non-conference and bowl games. But, I don't have the time for that.
 
In fairness he might be confusing FBS with P5. Big difference that a lot of casual fans don't understand. I come across a lot of folks who don't know that there are a bunch of conferences in FBS.

You are correct, sir. There are many FBS teams that are not classified as in a P5 conference.
 
Clearly it's all hypothetical - you could very well be right. You are not the first person who has shared this opinion in regards to Barry having some sort of standard that he won't put up with. I just like to point out the reality that he's never fired a single fucking coach in either of the 2 biggest revenue generating sports. I would say that Barry is really good at HIRING people, just never bought the ole "Barry wouldn't put up with this" trope. He's never had to make a hard fucking decision as an AD in his life at Wisconsin.

Also, I have always said that I think Wisconsin is one of the best schools when transitioning new coaches to these power sports. They always have a pretty smooth and flawless transition, it seems.
 
This won't go over well, but give me the West champ against the Big 12 champ every year and I'm likely giving the edge to the B1G West champ.
 
Most fans don't bemoan KF for his winning percentage. The moaning comes from 1) Style and 2) Crap left on the table.
And that's fine. I personally like the style. I like a defensive minded approach - I feel that our coach thinks that's the best way for Iowa to be competitive. ISU's had a great offense these last few seasons. I wouldn't trade, nah, not at all, I'm good.
 
With every dismal offensive season, and every game like SDSU, Brian's chances for future employment as a coach at any level or capacity become less and less. (It is debatable if he has any prospects at this point)
Kirk now realizes this too. Short term, the only option to keep Brian gainfully employed is to hang on as HC (with Brian as OC) longer than he should (to the detriment of the program).
Long term, Brian's failures become the very reason he becomes the next Iowa HC. Kirk realizes Brian has no other coaching career path. He calls in his markers to the boosters and gains their commitment to name Brian as HC to replace him.
Nope
 
Last 3 or 4 bowl games for the B1G West

MN - beat WV in 21, Beat Auburn in 2019, beat GA Tech in 2018
IA - Lost to KY by 3, Beat USC in 19, Beat Miss State in 18
WI - Beat Az State in 21, beat Wake in 20, lost by 1 to the Ducks in 19, beat Miami in 18
Purdue - Beat TN last season, got rolled by Auburn in 18 and beat Zona in 17

That's the 4 best programs in the West as of late, they seem to be doing ok or at least holding their own against other divisional foes in the P5 on the field as well.

It's not even the weakest conference division in the state.
 
This thread has turned foolish.
"I'll bet we could beat the B12 champ!" has little relevance to the OP.

Let's re-phrase the question...
Would any P5 team with a championship level defense and championship level special teams continue to be held back by a bottom 10% offense for 5 years without making any changes?
 
And that's fine. I personally like the style. I like a defensive minded approach - I feel that our coach thinks that's the best way for Iowa to be competitive. ISU's had a great offense these last few seasons. I wouldn't trade, nah, not at all, I'm good.
When it works, Ferentzing is beautiful. As a followup, can you explain the punter situation a few short year ago and how you reconcile that with "I feel that our coach thinks that's the best way for Iowa to be competitive" when it comes to "crap on the table"?
 
Let's re-phrase the question...
Would any P5 team with a championship level defense and championship level special teams continue to be held back by a bottom 10% offense for 5 years without making any changes?
Only if there was something weird going on, like if the OC was related to the head coach or something.
 
When it works, Ferentzing is beautiful. As a followup, can you explain the punter situation a few short year ago and how you reconcile that with "I feel that our coach thinks that's the best way for Iowa to be competitive" when it comes to "crap on the table"?
I don't understand the question. Was Sleep Dalton or Coluzzi that bad?
 
I don't understand the question. Was Sleep Dalton or Coluzzi that bad?
Put another way...and just having fun... I personally like the style....I feel that our coach thinks that's the best way for Iowa to be competitive.

Hone in on that our coach thinks that's the best way for Iowa to be competitive.....

And reconcile that statement with Rastetter being what the coach thought was the best way...
And CJ, Brad Banks, Stanzi, and other things.

I seriously doubt Rastetter was close to being the best punter on that team.

Personal story. I was at the Illinios Family Day and the kickers were letting kids and dad's...kick.

OK, I'm a soccer player/coach. I'm not young. I walked up and put a 40 yard field goal right through the uprights. Then I did a 2 step kick right through at high from 48 yards. (OK I'm bragging) One of the receivers punted the ball back and hit it a mile high and about 60 yards. NOT a punter on the team. The real situation is that Iowa likely had 5 players or more that could have punted better than KF's man.

I just don't know what he is thinking, but keeping the good of the team the biggest factor.... Why does he do certain things? I doubt BF is his best offensive mind among the coaching staff. Just seriously doubt it. I would guess that the DC could do better for sure.
 
Brian is running the offense his dad demands. It's a run first, field position, possession, value the ball, old school offense. My guess is that the coaching staff is much more concerned about the OL and downfield blocking than the QB. With a 10-4 season last year and sold out stadium for this season, the Hawks need to be staring at a losing season or two before changes to the offense will be forced on KF.
 
He won 3 conference titles and 3 Rose Bowls, and we went 2-8 against them the last 10 years. I'd say there's some credit due there
He did have some good years, you are so, so wrong about his record vs Iowa. He was also essentially a game or two above .500 in conference play
 

Latest posts

Top