There’s a funny moment in The Athletic’s writeup of Kirk Ferentz’s decision to not change his coaching staff that goes like this:
Header: Why keep Brian Ferentz as offensive coordinator?
Section: (Says a bunch of things other than, “Brian Ferentz is Kirk Ferentz’s son.”)
It’s dumb. It’s stupid. It’s so obviously and so completely stupid that it actually makes a guy feel bad for Iowa fans. Nobody deserves this gaslighting-esque behavior. Nobody deserves Brian Ferentz as their offensive coordinator.
It would be one thing if Kirk Ferentz had decided to shake up the staff, putting his kid perhaps in a sabotage role where he sneaks onto the other team’s sideline and tries to earnestly coach their offense. That’s not what’s happening, though. Kirk Ferentz is just keeping his kid around, and keeping his kid in the job where his kid is failing. This is evidently how Kirk Ferentz, at the age of 67, is going to do things. It’s like a cheap movie where the protagonist decides winning is less important than family, except in this movie, Ferentz has never won that much.
Ferentz’s best season was 2002. The Hawkeyes went undefeated in the Big Ten, beat the snot out of Michigan in the Big House, and would have provided the BCS with a major problem had they not lost to the Seneca Wallace team that eventually got buzzsawed and finished 7-7 (instead, Iowa finished the regular season ranked 3rd, then were smacked in the Orange Bowl by USC). The guy won ten or more games six more times, which is impressive, but that was aided in large part by the creation of the Big Ten West. Iowa has been a perennial Big Ten West contender. That’s not saying very much.
Still, all those ten-win seasons are the problem. You can’t fire Kirk Ferentz, right? The man’s results have been, objectively, better than Hayden Fry’s. He’s probably the most successful Iowa coach in history, except for maybe Forest Evashevski with his three “national championships” and the program’s only Rose Bowl wins. Kirk Ferentz is the epitome of coaches good enough to be impossible to fire and bad enough that there’s no realistic hope of winning a title, definitely at the national level but now also probably at the conference level.
We can’t knock what Kirk Ferentz has done. On paper, it’s hard to see Iowa as anything better than the sixth-best job in the Big Ten. It has an engaged fan base, but that can be said of most of the Big Ten, and after that, the advantages stop. Ohio State and Michigan and Penn State are bigger fish. Wisconsin and Nebraska have stronger historical brands. Iowa’s there with Michigan State, somewhere in the vicinity of the pack, but with UCLA and USC joining the league, those two are scrapping with the likes of Minnesota to stay in the top half of the conference as far as good situations for coaches go. Iowa has enough history that there are probably capable candidates out there with ties to the school, but Gary Barta isn’t going to nab some national rising star. All those ten-win seasons are the problem. They also might just be as good as this program can get.
So, Iowa’s cornered. With the right schedule and a lot of luck, sure, this program could make the future 12-team playoff. But anything beyond a first-round appearance is out of reach, even as their floor remains higher than that of most. They’re stuck in the world of being pretty good, and for the time being, they’re stuck with an atrocious offense unless someone body-snatches Brian Ferentz. Pretty good is pretty good, but it leaves you wondering what might be beyond it.
Xavier Held On, Tennessee Did Not
Things got a lot worse for Providence and Tennessee in their conference title races last night, and things got a lot better for Alabama and Xavier. The Vols went down to Gainesville and very understandably (but they still lost) lost to Florida, giving the Tide a two-game SEC lead. The Friars went to Cincinnati and participated in one of the best games we’ve seen all season, but they ended up on the losing end, and now they’re a game back of both Xavier and Marquette, who survived Villanova.
This was partly so big for Xavier because it came without Zach Freemantle, who they’ll be missing for another few weeks. Will he be back when they play Marquette in Milwaukee? It doesn’t sound like it. Will he be back when they play Providence at Providence? It sounds possible.
Tennessee’s loss doesn’t change our perception of them, but it does reinforce it. Tennessee far too often struggles to make shots. You can have a sensational season doing that if you’re good enough at other things (and Tennessee is), but good luck avoiding it six straight times in March against progressively stronger competition. The Vols are a national title contender, but the case against them is clear cut. Clearer cut than it is for any of Houston, Purdue, and UCLA (the case against Alabama is also pretty clear cut, but it’s a little more nebulous because it has to do with youth).
Nothing huge that we know of in the conference title races tonight, but it should still be a fun one. Let’s get to it.
**
What’s happening tonight:
College Basketball (the interesting ones)
- 7:00 PM EST: Florida Atlantic @ UAB (CBSSN)
- 9:00 PM EST: Loyola Marymount @ BYU (CBSSN)
- 9:00 PM EST: Houston @ Wichita State (ESPN2)
- 9:00 PM EST: Washington @ UCLA (FS1)
- 10:30 PM EST: Oregon @ Arizona (ESPN)
- 11:00 PM EST: Santa Clara @ Gonzaga (CBSSN)
- 11:00 PM EST: San Francisco @ Saint Mary’s (ESPNU)
NBA (the best game, plus the Bulls)
- 7:30 PM EST: Memphis @ Cleveland (TNT)
- 8:00 PM EST: Charlotte @ Bulls (League Pass)
