This is why it's painful..

Was Ferentz saying these sorts of things when he first got the gig or during the great 3 yr run they had finishing 8th? I don't think so... I get it that every year can't realistically be the same but that doesn't mean your expectations should. The second you do and are ok with mediocrity you've lost me... It just rubs me as a guy who's happy to be reaping the fruits from what he used to do... If he truly is bothered by the lack of success the last few years he sure hasn't shown it with his actions in regards to making adjustments.... And that matters to me more then anything he could say regardless..
 
Xerxes said:
This is the key statement here. I think Norm Parker proved to be a good coach and covered up Kirk's incompetence for many years. Kirk seems to be a good person, but the fact is, even going back to successful years, public relations has been a nightmare for him.

Every presser he says something that makes him and/or the entire program look the fool
He is very poor at promoting the program to young people
Instead of getting out in front of negative incidents that hit the media, he takes the "ignore it and it will go away" approach
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FIFY
 
It really seems like Kirk's goals of where he hopes the program can be and where fans hope it can be are not the same anymore. I really don't know if Kirk looks at Iowa as a top tier B1G team and he seems ok with that. It's like he doesn't want to completely suck, but as long as he's graduating kids, sending some to the NFL and winning 8 games and keeping it close with the good teams, he's cool. Fans want more as they should. Kirk himself has proven you can win here but I don't know how much he wants it anymore.
 
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If Norm Parker and/or Joe Philbin didn't exist, Kurt would probably have been fired by 2004ish.
 
tksirius said:
If Norm Parker and/or Joe Philbin didn't exist, Kurt would probably have been fired by 2004ish.
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This^^^

IMO KF has never been much more than an OL coach. He doesn't know offense beyond 5 yards from the line of scrimmage. Does anyone seriously want to argue this point? We all know the pathetic record of putting skilled players in the NFL.

KOK clearly had his faults but how much was due to KF's meddling? He admits he probably spends too much time in the strategy room of the offense. And if he truly knew offense would he have hired GD??

BUT, he can sleep at night because he keeps games close AND he is the darling of NFL GM's for developing offensive lineman.

I want my college coach to be feared and loathed by his peers. I could care less about how he is viewed by the suits in the NFL.

He never would have gotten this gig or probably any job of this caliber if it hadn't been for the ineptness of Bowlsby and the bureaucracy of the U. Do you think Stoops would be OK with keepin' 'em close?
 
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uihawk82 said:
KF should be striving for excellence. All the stuff I touch at work has to work or I keep fixing it and working on it. KF seems happy with 7-8 wins huh.

Now in all honesty KF makes some dumb statements to the press and this is one of them. I bet he could recant and say something like 'we want to win all are games and try to win them all'
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At the very least an athletic department as well-financed as Iowa's should have a first-rate PR staff doing damage control when KF makes some of these statements. But there's not a peep from the desk-jockeys from the sports marketing office. It's not just KF and Barta that need to go. It is the entire department. Every. Last. Position. From AD to the toilet-scrubbers. A complete change in mindset is desperately needed and by simply rearranging the chairs at the top of the department pyramid is not going to do it. Where's a good corporate takeover artist when you need one?
 
^Absolutely agree. "Complete change in mindset" is the key phrase here. I hope they get a new President who will shake things up in this regard, but it's probably just wishful thinking.
 
okeefe4prez said:
I've gotta agree with Ferentz. Say we win that ISU game and eek out both the Wisconsin and Nebraska games. I think we may have had to play OSU (I forget, maybe Minnesota would have gotten the shot at them) and they would have beaten us at least 84-0. Then, we would have gotten a higher bowl game and had to play someone better than Tennessee and instead of being down 35-7 at the half, we would have been down 70-0 and wouldn't have been able to close it up to a respectable 17 point loss. Ferentz watched out for us. Imagine ending the season with 2 losses by a combined total of 150 points. I wouldn't watch Iowa football again for 5 years.
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DAMMIT, OK4P!! Yer like the Kurt Ferentz of Hawkeynation ... resting on decade-old laurels and sucking the life out of what used to be a fun troll. If yer gonna be this obvious, at least do it as Hawknick.

Cripes, man! Don't go complete derKirkFer and let the game pass you by! Soon there won't be anything remotely entertaining left about Hawkeye football!
 
Please make this Kirk's last year at Iowa. Kirk is tired. Has no urgency to win, and is basically just riding this out ... We all know what Kirk thinks of the Iowa fans who critique the almighty Kirk Ferentz ... but the bottomline is this program is sinking. Kirk is not going to turn this around. Every year he walks the sideline we will be looking at 6 wins max from here on out.

Bring in more of a fireball coach who expects to win ... who isn't comfortable sleeping at night just because Iowa played a good game ... The problems with the program are too many to count ... but right off the top of my head: Lackluster recruiting; bad coaching hiring; bad in-game coaching; poor decision making (i.e. QB situation + now having two mediocre coaches on staff); losing to mediocre teams ... on and on and on ... Honestly, I can't believe the guy is still our coach. Fat contract or not ... It is going to be much, much more costly to Iowa to KEEP Kirk then to just cuts its losses. Fans are turned off, and fans are tuning out ... Fire this staff after this season ...
 
No coach can possibly be this stupid. He obviously is begging to be fired. He wants to be done but why leave millions on the table?

STILLBUSTER said:
Q: There seems to be some growing angst among the fan base. How are you dealing with that?

A: We aren’t happy either. I don’t know that things have changed a lot other than there are more avenues to make noise than there used to be. To me, it’s not as much about the numbers, seven wins or eight wins. It’s more about how the games go. The illustration I can give you is our last two home games. We lost to Wisconsin (26-24), not our desired outcome by any stretch. It was a great environment in Kinnick. It was two good teams really competing. A really good college football game. I don’t want to lose. But at least you can go home at night and sleep.

In other words, moral victory. Hayden Fry would punch Kirk in the mouth (and I wish he would)!!
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herkytime said:
http://btn.com/2015/05/04/kirk-ferentz-qa-we-arent-happy-either-about-recent-results/

"To me, it’s not as much about the numbers, seven wins or eight wins. It’s more about how the games go." - KF

Striving to be mediocre. Don't really care about wins and losses as long as we put up a good fight and don't get blown out. If we are in it in the 4th quarter all is well. If we lose, "That's Football".

The classic ebb and flow phrase made an appearance in this article as well.
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I agree that he's ultimately judged by Ws and Ls but, c'mon, you know what he was trying to say. He's saying he cares more about whether the team is getting better or not, not that he's "striving to be mediocre". There's a lot to criticize Kirk for but we know that he's not just content putting up a mediocre product and cashing in. That's just not true.

It is true that the product has been mediocre and he's cashing in, but it's not true that he's content with that.
 
SteveGarvey said:
I agree that he's ultimately judged by Ws and Ls but, c'mon, you know what he was trying to say. He's saying he cares more about whether the team is getting better or not, not that he's "striving to be mediocre". There's a lot to criticize Kirk for but we know that he's not just content putting up a mediocre product and cashing in. That's just not true.

It is true that the product has been mediocre and he's cashing in, but it's not true that he's content with that.
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Maybe, but at least we know he's well rested.
 
SteveGarvey said:
It is true that the product has been mediocre and he's cashing in, but it's not true that he's content with that.
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I think if Kirk was truly concerned about his job he would have shaken up this staff. Any coach truly concerned about his job would not have brought Davis back as OC ... All Kirk did is re-shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic ... A coach who in January said he "needs to spend more time in the office" ... well ... enough said ... Yeah, sure, Kirk wants to win ... But this is a coach who is simply riding it out ... Either way, he knows he gets a nice fat paycheck ... This is simply a tired coach ... and a coach who peaked about 10 years ago ... The sense of urgency would be a heck of a lot more if Kirk truly was concerned about keeping his job ... The determining factor for me that this is a coach riding it out is that he brought Davis back and simply moved some other coaches around ... Kirk is going down with the ship ... This is NOT a coach with any true sense of urgency ... Think about it ... You have a nice job, with a big fat paycheck ... You are closing in on retirement ... The company you work for will continue to pay you a very hefty salary ... as long as you keep putting in average work ... You know your days at your job are about over ... You know if you get fired you will get a nice big pay off ... You even admit to your peers and bosses that 'you know, I should spend a little more time in the office ...' ... Seriously ... you think Kirk is not just riding this out? There is absolutely no sense of urgency to shake things up because either way he gets a nice big fat paycheck ... I work for a fortune 100 company ... If I had a deal similiar to Kirks ... of course I would just ride it out ... if they fire me, I get millions ... if they keep me ... even with mediocre performance ... I get millions ... I can't lose!
 
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SteveGarvey said:
I agree that he's ultimately judged by Ws and Ls but, c'mon, you know what he was trying to say. He's saying he cares more about whether the team is getting better or not, not that he's "striving to be mediocre". There's a lot to criticize Kirk for but we know that he's not just content putting up a mediocre product and cashing in. That's just not true.

It is true that the product has been mediocre and he's cashing in, but it's not true that he's content with that.
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Fact is Davis would have never been brought back had he had those results at any other Program that cared about winning! KF looks very content from my seat~
 
DesMoinesHawki said:
I think if Kirk was truly concerned about his job he would have shaken up this staff. Any coach truly concerned about his job would not have brought Davis back as OC ... All Kirk did is re-shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic ... A coach who in January said he "needs to spend more time in the office" ... well ... enough said ... Yeah, sure, Kirk wants to win ... But this is a coach who is simply riding it out ... Either way, he knows he gets a nice fat paycheck ... This is simply a tired coach ... and a coach who peaked about 10 years ago ... The sense of urgency would be a heck of a lot more if Kirk truly was concerned about keeping his job ... The determining factor for me that this is a coach riding it out is that he brought Davis back and simply moved some other coaches around ... Kirk is going down with the ship ... This is NOT a coach with any true sense of urgency ... Think about it ... You have a nice job, with a big fat paycheck ... You are closing in on retirement ... The company you work for will continue to pay you a very hefty salary ... as long as you keep putting in average work ... You know your days at your job are about over ... You know if you get fired you will get a nice big pay off ... You even admit to your peers and bosses that 'you know, I should spend a little more time in the office ...' ... Seriously ... you think Kirk is not just riding this out? There is absolutely no sense of urgency to shake things up because either way he gets a nice big fat paycheck ... I work for a fortune 100 company ... If I had a deal similiar to Kirks ... of course I would just ride it out ... if they fire me, I get millions ... if they keep me ... even with mediocre performance ... I get millions ... I can't lose!
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I've taken my shots at Ferentz, but I still think he's now coaching for his legacy at Iowa. I believe (hope?) that his ego is big enough that he doesn't want to get run out of town on a rail, and that will lead to him finishing strong, or at least giving it his best shot. I do think that he had it on cruise control for awhile, and as you point out, he as much admitted it by saying he needed to spend more time in the office (although he would say that it simply meant spending less time on the rubber chicken circuit). Regardless, I think that's his motivation, I just wonder if his under performance in the past few years have left him with too much ground to make up and will prevent him from getting back to the top.
 
SteveGarvey said:
I agree that he's ultimately judged by Ws and Ls but, c'mon, you know what he was trying to say. He's saying he cares more about whether the team is getting better or not, not that he's "striving to be mediocre". There's a lot to criticize Kirk for but we know that he's not just content putting up a mediocre product and cashing in. That's just not true.

It is true that the product has been mediocre and he's cashing in, but it's not true that he's content with that.
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BS. Hes content. That type of quote from KF is something a person would say with zero pressure for job security. College football is a bottom line business, W/L's, everywhere but Iowa. Nobody gives a **** how the game goes, did you win or lose, that's all that counts in major college football.
 
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