Howe: Iowa Football OWI Punishment Must Be More Strict

This may come as a surprise considering I'm an ISU fan, but I think Ferentz does well with this stuff. He's not perfect, and he's coaching a bunch of college kids.

My roommate got an OWI when I was in college with him once. It was a one time thing for him and you knew it right away. The guys who know him best should make the call on the level of punishment because for some people it's a bad moment, and some people it's a habit. It's up to the coaches to determine which it is.

Matt Thomas got a OWI for ISU on the basketball team. Since that time he's been nothing but great and I hope Wirfs uses this to make the right decisions. One thing I know is, I'm not the best one to make that call and quite frankly one-size-fits-all punishments I don't think are the right way to go.
 
This article is ironic since my perception of KF is that he’s pretty much the strictest coach in college football outside of maybe the military academies. I think Iowa having top 25 arrests from 2010 to 2014 is more of a reflection of the Iowa City police than the team. Football players don’t get special treatment in Iowa City like they would other places, like Nebraska for example.
 
I think that Brady Reiff's punishment should have been more like Micah Hyde's when Hyde had his little run-in with the law as a senior. Hyde did not miss any games and neither should Reiff, unless there are previous violations that we don't know about.

Now Wirfs should be suspended 1 game., but only 1 game.
 
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This article is ironic since my perception of KF is that he’s pretty much the strictest coach in college football outside of maybe the military academies. I think Iowa having top 25 arrests from 2010 to 2014 is more of a reflection of the Iowa City police than the team. Football players don’t get special treatment like they would other places, like Nebraska for example.

Much as some scoff at it, there was a big cultural shift in the early-mid 2000s. The East bank crowd (yes, I'm gonna use that term...it's not a myth) always resented the attention that athletics received. The crack down on the game day experience around Kinnick happened about the same time Iowa was labeled a top party school. Then it was game on for the crackdown. Game day has lost much of its edge, except on special days... and the IC cops have gone from a laissez faire approach as long as you're not hurting anybody to looking for people to charge and arrest. (this is coming from a guy most on the board would consider "old").

KFz isn't and has never been a softy on guys who get into trouble. Look around the rest of college football and I'd suggest IOWA handles it better than the vast majority...even in our own conference. (The SEC is another world). But IC is still the fishbowl Lute Olson lamented.

I love ya, Rob...and more often than not you're pretty dead on with your perspective. But you managed to cram a lot of "tired" (I can use that term too) cliches' and predictable narratives into this piece. (Have you been hanging out with Schwartz?) But where would we be without the immediate overreaction story in the media. Congrats. You've made it to the big time.

At least our guys haven't been caught yet with plastic straws.
 
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Drummer, Iowa's long been labeled a top party school, way before the mid-2000s.
I think he’s talking about football game day experience regarding the cops. Not so much the overall “party reputation.”

And also I think being “labeled a top party school” is, while not untrue, a bit loose. What’s the criteria...total OWIs? Beer bong component sales? STD rates?

I’m being facetious but you get the idea. Show me any big public university and I’ll show you thousands of 18-22 year olds getting blackout wasted and spending their student loan leftovers on weed. Every school, every weekend. To say some are way worse than others is like pissing in the ocean.
 
Drummer, Iowa's long been labeled a top party school, way before the mid-2000s.

Yes, but the Princeton review and other annual surveys became increasingly popular. It became more talked about Nationally. And of course, with Game Day etc, more eyes were on IC.

All I know is this. I've been coming to games for a long time, and it was never a problem until somebody in the ivory tower decided it was.
 
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If I remember correctly that top 25 arrest record had more to do with PAULA citations (minors being in an Iowa City bar after 10 pm) than anything. Something most college towns didn't have at the time. A policy pushed by the U of I pres and the IC mayor, and coincided with the crackdown on tailgating and gameday fun. Fast forward to today, yes an OWI is worse than a public intox and the penalty should reflect that. The legal system addresses that, I would be much more concerned with problems at other programs; assaults, domestic abuse. Relative to even Iowa State I think Ferentz has kept a thug free program.
 
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Look...I’m critical of a lot of Kirk ferentz’s management decisions, but I can’t fault his discipline decisions. I wish Iowa would win more, but kirk does run a clean program and I have mad respect for that, especially living in Florida/sec country which is even more absurd than Michigan state which has to be the worst program in the big ten for discipline.
 
Much as some scoff at it, there was a big cultural shift in the early-mid 2000s. The East bank crowd (yes, I'm gonna use that term...it's not a myth) always resented the attention that athletics received. The crack down on the game day experience around Kinnick happened about the same time Iowa was labeled a top party school. Then it was game on for the crackdown. Game day has lost much of its edge, except on special days... and the IC cops have gone from a laissez faire approach as long as you're not hurting anybody to looking for people to charge and arrest. (this is coming from a guy most on the board would consider "old"...and they wouldn't be wrong).

KFz isn't and has never been a softy on guys who get into trouble. Look around the rest of college football and I'd suggest IOWA handles it better than the vast majority...even in our own conference. (The SEC is another world). But IC is still the fishbowl Lute Olson lamented.

I love ya, Rob...and more often than not you're pretty dead on with your perspective. But you managed to cram a lot of "tired" (I can use that term too) cliches' and predictable narratives into this piece. But where would we be without the immediate overreaction story in the media. Congrats. You've made it to the big time.

At least our guys haven't been caught yet with plastic straws.
Excellent post. The tailgating scene has been curtailed and between construction of new buildings and the donation levels necessary to get into any reasonably decent lot, the scene has changed dramatically.

The cops have changed a lot, too. One of my best friends made a horrible decision to drive drunk on his 21st birthday. A cop pulled him over as soon as he left a parking garage without his lights on, saw it was his 21st birthday, didn't breathalyze him, had a stern talk with him and made him park his car. That was 20 years ago. You do that now, you're toast. But my buddy realized the bullet he dodged and never did it again.
 
There is no excuse for drunk driving for anyone. Your putting yourself and others at risk of serious injury or death. Have fun but have someone drive you home or plan on camping out at the party. I mentioned in another post I can see Kirk suspending the player two games and then letting the player come in after the second half starts on the third game. I also said that a second drunk driving charge is grounds for a season long suspension. So Rob and I are pretty close on this one. I suspect Kirk will decide on something pretty close to what we are suggesting.

Don’t try to justify something the players do just because you do it too. Drunk driver can be a deadly mistake for anyone.
 
Don’t try to justify something the players do just because you do it too. Drunk driver can be a deadly mistake for anyone.

I don't see anybody "justifying" drunk driving, though it was inevitable somebody was gonna claim that. Nor do I see anybody claiming they do it, so it's OK. Where do you get this crap?
 
Excellent post. The tailgating scene has been curtailed and between construction of new buildings and the donation levels necessary to get into any reasonably decent lot, the scene has changed dramatically.

The cops have changed a lot, too. One of my best friends made a horrible decision to drive drunk on his 21st birthday. A cop pulled him over as soon as he left a parking garage without his lights on, saw it was his 21st birthday, didn't breathalyze him, had a stern talk with him and made him park his car. That was 20 years ago. You do that now, you're toast. But my buddy realized the bullet he dodged and never did it again.

Also an excellent post. The cops HAVE changed a lot. And yes, the "East Bank" HAS made much about "athletic endeavors", especially since the 1990s.

In the 1980s, cops were much more willing to give "warnings", both to athletes AND non-athletes. They also were around to "serve and protect" and "protect and serve". A Friday night before a big game didn't see tons of arrests. The cops were there to keep things orderly, and mainly as observers.

In the 1990s we saw the "East Bank" crowd start to crow about funding. Some insinuated that athletics, as a function of budget, paled in comparison to the "overall", such as grants, subsidies, etc. What they failed to mention is that many of them were recipients of those grants and subsidies, and were being "paid in advance" for their work. They weren't even required to be "successful" to any degree, just do the research, or implement the program. Athletics--i.e., the football program--was self-funding, and in fact, funded many of the women's programs. Like it or not, the women's basketball, gymnastics or field hockey could NOT, on its own, swing West coast trips, extended hotel stays and tournament trips without funding from other sources. In this case, the football program.

Now we have the football-is-dangerous-and-should-be-banned crowd, as well. We have the ground surrounding Kinnick being swallowed up for medical school/hospital/etc. facilities and, as you mentioned, Joe Fan has little chance of attending a game and parking/tailgating within any reasonable distance. We have those who want to pay the players, while others want football to be a cash cow for "diversity" and "righting wrongs". We have pseudo-patriots who insist on national anthem protocol, while their counterparts march outside to make sure Roe v. Wade isn't overturned.

In short, if I had Bezos-level funds, I too would be selling streaming to fans. WTH is the point for someone in Florida planning a big trip to Kinnick just to stay in Moline, park in Coralville and get busted for doing a post-game celebratory shot on a "public" sidewalk, when instead he/she can go to Lucky's Market, fill a couple growlers, grill in the backyard and watch the game four times over the course of the weekend, complete with working wi-fi, air conditioning, and nobody crowding your seat on the couch?
 
There will always be inequities when it comes to disciplining an entire football program. Each case is unique. There is no one size fits all system. You've got to take each case on its own.

I think guffus' post above is correct. Reiff tried to do the right thing and still got punished. Reiff should be sitting out 1st half. Wirfs should miss a game.
 
One of the reasons the cops have changed so much is our litigation-happy society. If a cop pulls someone over, sees they're drunk, makes them park their car and walk, then that person gets injured or killed on the walk home, the police will be sued to the wall for not taking him to jail to "keep him safe from himself". It's a CYA tactic for the cops as much as it is anything else.
 
One of the reasons the cops have changed so much is our litigation-happy society. If a cop pulls someone over, sees they're drunk, makes them park their car and walk, then that person gets injured or killed on the walk home, the police will be sued to the wall for not taking him to jail to "keep him safe from himself". It's a CYA tactic for the cops as much as it is anything else.

This is undoubtedly true. I don't blame the police for not just telling people to park their car and go home. If said person got injured walking home, there would be trouble. If said person drove drunk another time (didn't learn their lesson from the "warning" from the police), the police would be in trouble.
 
Two other people with Wirfs on a moped, blew a .129.

LINK

I appreciate others sharing their opinions on the topic. I'm not picking on Tristan. I've known him since he was a sophomore. He's a good kid from what I know.

I do think OWI should face stricter football penalties than public intox. If you know going in, hey, if I drink and drive, I face a three-game suspension, it's a greater deterrent.
 
I don't see anybody "justifying" drunk driving, though it was inevitable somebody was gonna claim that. Nor do I see anybody claiming they do it, so it's OK. Where do you get this crap?

Yes, no need to make strawman arguments on either side. 99.9% of the population and fan base thinks OWI is serious and should be treated as such. Reasonable people can differ on what punishment should be for that (from a team perspective). There is a student code of conduct policy that covers this, as well as KF's approach to dealing with matters where the more years a player has been in the program, the larger the punishment tends to be.
 
Yes, no need to make strawman arguments on either side. 99.9% of the population and fan base thinks OWI is serious and should be treated as such. Reasonable people can differ on what punishment should be for that (from a team perspective). There is a student code of conduct policy that covers this, as well as KF's approach to dealing with matters where the more years a player has been in the program, the larger the punishment tends to be.

Yes, Wirfs is 19. This whole thing screams "bone headed teenager".
 

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