Assessing the holdup with Iowa’s offensive coordinator search
While it’s been known since the end of last October that Iowa was in the market for a new offensive coordinator going into the 2024 season, the Hawkeyes are still without a new coach filling the role previously occupied by Brian Ferentz. For now, Hawkeye Report’s Tom Kakert isn’t raising any alarm bells.
Kirk Ferentz had said in December that he planned to make this hire by the third week in January. So as of Tuesday of this week, Kakert is still giving Ferentz time to make a move before things get dicey.
“I think part of it, too, being a little bit honest about it: I think there was part of him, the dad hat got put on, and it was him processing that his son got fired, I think, kind of got him to put off doing this a little bit sooner. But he met with us in late December, before we went to Orlando for the bowl game and he laid out, he said ‘Look, I’m probably not going to get this done until the third week in January.’ So we’re in his timeline and that’s what I’ve kind of just said. ‘Well, this is his timeline of when he’s going to make this decision.’ Now, if this drifts into next week, then it’s — then you kind of go ‘Wow, OK, now maybe they’re having a little bit of a problem finding the right guy.’ But i’m going to wait until the end of the week and see what he does,” Kakert said to On3’s Andy Staples on Tuesday.
The one thing that has surprised Kakert so far is former Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst choosing to stay at Texas as an analyst. He figured that was close to getting done.
“But right now, there’s no logical guy. You thought Paul Chryst would be the guy, for the most part. Joe Philbin never — he got some traction in some circles but I really never felt like that was going to happen. But Chryst I really thought was, for football kind of terminology, I thought that one was in the red zone in terms of getting done. I thought it was close to getting done but I just think Paul got paid $11 million from Wisconsin. I think he’s going to be picky about what he does next,” Kakert said.
Ferentz specifically singling out the third week in January had Staples thinking Ferentz could be targeting an NFL coach to come lead the Hawkeyes offense.
No matter what direction Ferentz does go, Kakert made one thing clear: The clock is ticking.
“I think he’s going to poke around, maybe in the NFL. He does have a lot of connections out there. I think he’ll find somebody this week. I really do. I think he’s gotta, because if it goes into the next week, here’s the other thing: Iowa started classes this week. So today was the first day of classes. All the players are back. You kind of want to have that guy there soon. Even though they’re not starting spring practice until the middle of march, you still want to get that guy on campus, you want him to start kind of meeting with the quarterbacks, talking with the quarterbacks, giving them the terminology they’re going to need and getting going on evaluating the players that he’s going to be coaching,” Kakert said.