JonDMiller
Publisher/Founder
That was the title of a press release I received from Iowa's Sports Information department at 9:51pm on Tuesday night, December 20th.
Here is the meat of what it contained:
University of Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz, the longest tenured head football coach in the Big Ten Conference, reiterated Wednesday his long-term plans to remain the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“There continues to be public speculation and questions, as recently as the December 4th press conference, regarding my coaching future at Iowa or elsewhere,” said Ferentz. “To emphasize what I have said previously, I am very happy at Iowa. We have a great staff and group of student athletes, and we receive outstanding support from President Sally Mason and Director of Athletics Gary Barta. I fully intend to be at Iowa next year and well beyond 2012.”
At the December 4th press conference, Ferentz was asked by a reporter something along the lines of if he had heard from Penn State. He didn't seem to care for that question, nor the follow up.
My guess is this release was sent out because Iowa is getting feedback on the recruiting trails of some negative recruiting, or is anticipating more of it. Ferentz has had to deal with the 'NFL' question for a number of years.
Ferentz cannot control some of this speculation, however there may be a few reasons his name likely comes up every year. One of them is his NFL past, another is the success he has had at Iowa running an NFL style program. Another may be his agent doesn't shut people down when they contact him as it relates to Ferentz.
That being said, when this year's spate of NFL rumors came out, I wasn't buying. For that matter, I haven't been buying since the Jacksonville Jaguars flirtation many, many, many years ago.
The timing (literally, 9:51pm on a week night) of this press release has negative recruiting written all over it. Ferentz must feel he needs to get out in front of this right now to keep the verbal commitments in the live well and to help finish strong after Iowa gets back from its Insight Bowl trip.
Perhaps some have been pointing to Norm Parker's retirement as some sort of harbinger that Ferentz would be moving on, too. Perhaps that, combined with Tuesday's release that Defensive Line coach Rick Kaczenski would be leaving the program added to that.
Iowa has had 15 assistant coaches under Ferentz in 13 years, and there can only be nine on your staff at one point in time. With Norm and Kaczenski leaving, that has them at seven current staff members. Carl Jackson (2008) retired from Iowa, Ron Aiken (2007), Pat Flaherty (2000) and Joe Philbin (2003) left for the NFL, Bret Bielema (2002) left for Kansas State and Chuck Long (2000) left for Oklahoma. Not a lot of turnover, so perhaps some are jumping on the negative train right now, or soon will be.
Anything other than that doesn't make sense, or I am just to dense to think of it at this late hour.
Here is the meat of what it contained:
University of Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz, the longest tenured head football coach in the Big Ten Conference, reiterated Wednesday his long-term plans to remain the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes.
“There continues to be public speculation and questions, as recently as the December 4th press conference, regarding my coaching future at Iowa or elsewhere,” said Ferentz. “To emphasize what I have said previously, I am very happy at Iowa. We have a great staff and group of student athletes, and we receive outstanding support from President Sally Mason and Director of Athletics Gary Barta. I fully intend to be at Iowa next year and well beyond 2012.”
At the December 4th press conference, Ferentz was asked by a reporter something along the lines of if he had heard from Penn State. He didn't seem to care for that question, nor the follow up.
My guess is this release was sent out because Iowa is getting feedback on the recruiting trails of some negative recruiting, or is anticipating more of it. Ferentz has had to deal with the 'NFL' question for a number of years.
Ferentz cannot control some of this speculation, however there may be a few reasons his name likely comes up every year. One of them is his NFL past, another is the success he has had at Iowa running an NFL style program. Another may be his agent doesn't shut people down when they contact him as it relates to Ferentz.
That being said, when this year's spate of NFL rumors came out, I wasn't buying. For that matter, I haven't been buying since the Jacksonville Jaguars flirtation many, many, many years ago.
The timing (literally, 9:51pm on a week night) of this press release has negative recruiting written all over it. Ferentz must feel he needs to get out in front of this right now to keep the verbal commitments in the live well and to help finish strong after Iowa gets back from its Insight Bowl trip.
Perhaps some have been pointing to Norm Parker's retirement as some sort of harbinger that Ferentz would be moving on, too. Perhaps that, combined with Tuesday's release that Defensive Line coach Rick Kaczenski would be leaving the program added to that.
Iowa has had 15 assistant coaches under Ferentz in 13 years, and there can only be nine on your staff at one point in time. With Norm and Kaczenski leaving, that has them at seven current staff members. Carl Jackson (2008) retired from Iowa, Ron Aiken (2007), Pat Flaherty (2000) and Joe Philbin (2003) left for the NFL, Bret Bielema (2002) left for Kansas State and Chuck Long (2000) left for Oklahoma. Not a lot of turnover, so perhaps some are jumping on the negative train right now, or soon will be.
Anything other than that doesn't make sense, or I am just to dense to think of it at this late hour.
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