Does Ferentz Reward Underperforming Coaches?

I get the frustration of the OP, the nepotism hire was ridiculous, and KF clearly hasn't developed the HEADcoaching tree like Hayden, but homes makes some good points.

Case in point Reese Morgan. I have never had the privilege of meeting him but he clearly loves this state and coaching at the U of Iowa. Of course we all know how successful he was as a head coach at the high school level and other than Norm Parker he has been the true MVP of KF's past and present assistants IMO. I would think he has had plenty of opportunities to advance his career elsewhere.

He is an extraordinary coach and a remarkable recruiter with a gift for seeing untapped talent and diverse skill sets. Greenway, Scherff, Jewell, the list goes on. And in the following article I find it interesting how he implored KF to offer David Johnson years back but KF didn't believe Johnson had the right work ethic. Surprised??

Two more points. Credit KF for having the wisdom to hire Morgan, and no one is right 100% of the time but if I was KF I think I would always agree with Morgan's opinions.

https://www.google.com/amp/qctimes....2766ce91-8fa6-5fec-b4ce-45763ac5213a.amp.html
 
homes said:
Or, maybe some guys like the culture where they are at, and want to work within that culture.

Going back over the years - Iowa's original staff stayed in tact from 98-05, not sure when Aiken left but some time in there. He went from Iowa to the Arizona Cardinals.

Joe Philbin left around the same time - he went to Green Bay and then became coach of the Dolphins.

I would agree that Eric Johnson and Rick Kaczenski were not good hires, but that happens in every organization.

Erik Campbell came from Michigan in 2008, which had a long line of successful WRs, he didn't click at Iowa, I don't know why. He's now at the University of Delaware as the passing game coordinator and WR coach.

Seth Wallace started as a grad assistant, left and came back to Iowa.

Charlie Bullen started in 2011 as a grad assistant for the defense and now is a LB coach for the Dolphins

David Raih started in 2011 as a grad assistant for the offense and now is the WR coach for the Packers.

LeVar Woods started in 2011 as an administrative assistant and is now the Special Teams coach

Greg Davis came in 2012 as the OC and retired

Chris Polizzi started in 2012 as a grad assistant for the defense and is now an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Tennessee Tech.

Kelvin Bell started in 2013 as a grad assistant for the special teams and is now the recruiting coordinator for Iowa

Jim Reid came in 2013 as the LB coach and is now the DC at Boston College

Bobby Kennedy came in 2013, was essentially fired and is now the WR coach at SMU. Chris White came in '13 or '14, was also essentially fired, and is now at UCONN. Neither were particularly successful at Iowa, and sealed their fate going behind Ferentz's back, probably not a quality that would serve them well with other HCs either.

Tyler Barnes started in 2013 as an administrative assistant and is now director of recruiting

Broderick Binns started in 2015 as a grad assistant and is now the director of player development

This is a sampling of some of the coaches. Again, if you're looking for a litany of guys who went on to be HCs as the measure of what is a successful assistant, then you win, Iowa's list is short. There have been some who have left who have advanced their careers, and some who have not. Under your law of averages proposition, Iowa has had men come in and left for a promotion and more money. What I don't know, and if you do, please share, is whether the men who either stayed at Iowa, or who left, came back and have stayed, have done so because they have looked, but had no options, or that they simply like it at Iowa and aren't actively looking. Unless you have some evidence to the contrary, derisively calling the Yes Men because they've stayed at Iowa is unfair. Until then, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and I believe that these guys are at Iowa because they like it at Iowa.
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Actually, Campbell did well at Iowa...until GD entered the scene. GD wanted his "boys", White and Kennedy. They're the ones who ultimately caused GDs "retirement".

Frankly, Campbell was the coach who let our WRs know it wasn't a sin to block downfield.
 
The coaching tree thing to me isn't a big deal. I just don't care. What's Joe Paterno's coaching tree look like? I don't think he had many significant branches for as long as he coached. Or Bobby Bowden? Or Frank Beamers? So to me to go bashing KF over that is just reaching and looking for something to go after. Nobody cares. I mean what Hayden Fry had was nuts. It's even more nuts the more time that's gone by but that doesn't mean it should be a measuring stick to how a tenured coaches career should look. They have enough measuring sticks to be judged on for success. Adding somethin like that which is completely out of their hands to it is just dumb.
 
westender said:
Funny thing is if we had a lot of turnover on the staff because the coaches wanted to advance in their career and work the system, people would bitch about Kirk hiring guys that didn't want to stay at Iowa.
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That's not true. If they took lateral career moves, you would hear that. Nobody can begrudge a person that moves on for a promotion.
 
GoIowaAwesome has a good article on former Iowa coaches on the Packers' staff. I forgot about Jerry Montgomery.

A quote from the article: "In all, you’ve got six players or coaches with Iowa ties on the Green Bay Packers roster. That’s credit to the longevity of Kirk Ferentz and the type of player he recruits and develops or the types of coaches he hires."
 
homes said:
GoIowaAwesome has a good article on former Iowa coaches on the Packers' staff. I forgot about Jerry Montgomery.

A quote from the article: "In all, you’ve got six players or coaches with Iowa ties on the Green Bay Packers roster. That’s credit to the longevity of Kirk Ferentz and the type of player he recruits and develops or the types of coaches he hires."
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I think Jerry has left the Packers now for Texas A&M. He wants to be a DC eventually, and would love to get back to Iowa. He loves college football.
 
Look Kirk recruits coaches like he does players "development" types. I'm certainly willing to give this guy the benefit of the doubt. His JUCO experience may be more value than we are considering. AND we saw some really good special plays from special teams. The punting was a major issue and cost us at least 1 game because it is SO bad. We are going to get to see if BF can earn that $700,000 salary + bonuses. Last season was certainly UP and DOWN in terms of play calling and I'm certainly frustrated by bringing in Polashek an OC demoting him to OL and making the nepotism promotion. I do think we saw some flashes of formation brilliance that we hadn't seen in years at Iowa but it didn't translate into competence throughout games. AND the Michigan State game was lost by two terrible TO's by Wadley and Stanley. More disturbing was that we had game after game where we could go a quarter to a quarter and a half without 1st downs...that's terrible. If we are going to improve next year the O needs to move the ball more consistently and help keep whatever our LBs look like on the sideline.
 
homes said:
Or, maybe some guys like the culture where they are at, and want to work within that culture.

Going back over the years - Iowa's original staff stayed in tact from 98-05, not sure when Aiken left but some time in there. He went from Iowa to the Arizona Cardinals.

Joe Philbin left around the same time - he went to Green Bay and then became coach of the Dolphins.

I would agree that Eric Johnson and Rick Kaczenski were not good hires, but that happens in every organization.

Erik Campbell came from Michigan in 2008, which had a long line of successful WRs, he didn't click at Iowa, I don't know why. He's now at the University of Delaware as the passing game coordinator and WR coach.

Seth Wallace started as a grad assistant, left and came back to Iowa.

Charlie Bullen started in 2011 as a grad assistant for the defense and now is a LB coach for the Dolphins

David Raih started in 2011 as a grad assistant for the offense and now is the WR coach for the Packers.

LeVar Woods started in 2011 as an administrative assistant and is now the Special Teams coach

Greg Davis came in 2012 as the OC and retired

Chris Polizzi started in 2012 as a grad assistant for the defense and is now an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Tennessee Tech.

Kelvin Bell started in 2013 as a grad assistant for the special teams and is now the recruiting coordinator for Iowa

Jim Reid came in 2013 as the LB coach and is now the DC at Boston College

Bobby Kennedy came in 2013, was essentially fired and is now the WR coach at SMU. Chris White came in '13 or '14, was also essentially fired, and is now at UCONN. Neither were particularly successful at Iowa, and sealed their fate going behind Ferentz's back, probably not a quality that would serve them well with other HCs either.

Tyler Barnes started in 2013 as an administrative assistant and is now director of recruiting

Broderick Binns started in 2015 as a grad assistant and is now the director of player development

This is a sampling of some of the coaches. Again, if you're looking for a litany of guys who went on to be HCs as the measure of what is a successful assistant, then you win, Iowa's list is short. There have been some who have left who have advanced their careers, and some who have not. Under your law of averages proposition, Iowa has had men come in and left for a promotion and more money. What I don't know, and if you do, please share, is whether the men who either stayed at Iowa, or who left, came back and have stayed, have done so because they have looked, but had no options, or that they simply like it at Iowa and aren't actively looking. Unless you have some evidence to the contrary, derisively calling the Yes Men because they've stayed at Iowa is unfair. Until then, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt and I believe that these guys are at Iowa because they like it at Iowa.
Click to expand...

I would like to add that the hiring of Greg Davis as OC may be the single worst decision in the Ferentz era perhaps even more so than Coach K, which stands for, Klearly Nuts.
 
skinnykilmer17 said:
I get the frustration of the OP, the nepotism hire was ridiculous, and KF clearly hasn't developed the HEADcoaching tree like Hayden, but homes makes some good points.

Case in point Reese Morgan. I have never had the privilege of meeting him but he clearly loves this state and coaching at the U of Iowa. Of course we all know how successful he was as a head coach at the high school level and other than Norm Parker he has been the true MVP of KF's past and present assistants IMO. I would think he has had plenty of opportunities to advance his career elsewhere.

He is an extraordinary coach and a remarkable recruiter with a gift for seeing untapped talent and diverse skill sets. Greenway, Scherff, Jewell, the list goes on. And in the following article I find it interesting how he implored KF to offer David Johnson years back but KF didn't believe Johnson had the right work ethic. Surprised??

Two more points. Credit KF for having the wisdom to hire Morgan, and no one is right 100% of the time but if I was KF I think I would always agree with Morgan's opinions.

https://www.google.com/amp/qctimes....2766ce91-8fa6-5fec-b4ce-45763ac5213a.amp.html
Click to expand...
For those old enough to remember this, when Reese Morgan talks, Kirk Ferentz should listen. Missing on David Johnson was a blunder, but in the end, it only lends further credibility to Reese's opinion about talent and potential. Even when he wants to retire as a coach, I'd keep him around as a consultant on recruiting.
 
seepig said:
I would like to add that the hiring of Greg Davis as OC may be the single worst decision in the Ferentz era perhaps even more so than Coach K, which stands for, Klearly Nuts.
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I tend to agree it was not the best fit, but the W-L results are a mixed bag. People tend to recall the bad stuff more than the things that worked. As someone else has pointed out, bringing in anyone from outside who has a different philosophy of offense than Kirk would be putting a square peg through a round hole. That's a whole different discussion, but my point is that I'm not sure any other OC would have necessarily had more success than Davis.
 
lightning1 said:
That's not true. If they took lateral career moves, you would hear that. Nobody can begrudge a person that moves on for a promotion.
Click to expand...

haha this board would. It would be Ferentz's fault to hire guys that just want to use it as a stepping stone.
 
HawkeyeFever said:
That's the beauty of it. Someone can bitch about KF tomorrow for whatever reason, and you get to bitch about someone else bitching about KF. Win Win.
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that's a reversal right there. I shouldn't have watched that Iowa / Michigan wrestling Saturday on BTN.
 
lightning1 said:
Haha. We'll never know because KF doesn't hire rising young coaches.
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Our last three hires, Polasek, Copeland, and Samson are all younger guys (early to mid 30s) hired from a lower-tier school, and both Polasek and Copeland had substantial success at their previous positions. When BF was first hired, he was a "rising young coach", having coached up the best TE tandem in the NFL at the time, and was sought after by Bill O'Brien with the Texans.
 
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BVHawk95 said:
What constitutes a rising young coach to you? You do realize it's difficult to hire an assistant from another P5 school for a similar position, since it's usually a lateral move, and a slightly better job at best. And if these coaches are "rising" in the first place, upwards movement is always a motivator, so they're likely not going to entertain such a proposal, unless they're being overpaid, or going to places like Alabama and OSU.

Our last three hires, Polasek, Copeland, and Samson are all younger guys (early to mid 30s) hired from a lower-tier school, and both Polasek and Copeland had substantial success at their previous positions. When BF was first hired, he was a "rising young coach", having coached up the best TE tandem in the NFL at the time, and was sought after by Bill O'Brien with the Texans.
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I was being sarcastic.
 
The fact is, when you're handed a gift like the ability to hire a 10th coach and you've got nearly an unlimited budget, then you drop the ball by hiring a nomad who has been with 5 different schools (all no-name schools) in 5 years all in the southeast with no Midwestern recruiting ties...and nomad coach failed to perform at those no-name schools should be concerning to ANY Hawk fan with any kind of awareness. There's just no way to put a positive spin on it when Ferentz could have literally thrown a dart at a map and found a dozen more sensible hires. Hell, even a guy like Dan McCarney, Chuck Long, or the hundreds of known commodities out there would have made more sense. How about a former Hawk legend like Chad Greenway or Bob Sanders? They certainly could not be a worse hire.

Then the hire before this latest gem...an offensive coordinator from a dakota school? If you're paying your son nearly a million dollars a year to be the offensive coordinator, isn't it a little shady and disingenuous to bring in an offensive coordinator with zero recruiting ties other than the snow white dakotas solely to tutor your son at 1/4 Brian's salary? That would be akin to making $4,000,000 per year and still having your son qualify for subsidized welfare housing, living next door to single moms and crack babies for free. Woops, that happened too.

The fact is, when your CEO makes puzzling hiring decisions and puzzling personnel decisions, it's tough to get fired up about the team's chances of ever reaching the next level of success. Football isn't rocket science, but it does require sound decision making at the top.
 
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