Brian Ferentz opens up about how he handles pressure, criticism that comes with calling plays

Brian Ferentz has dealt with his share of criticism during his time as the offensive coordinator at Iowa under his father, Kirk. That pressure could go to another level this year after the university put a clause in his contract that requires 25 points per game to hit an incentive.

Iowa’s offense went through infamous struggles a year ago, averaging just 17.7 points on offense and ranking last in the Big Ten with 251.6 yards of offense per game. The Hawkeyes made multiple big-name additions, though, in what’s shaping up to be a big year for Ferentz.

Ferentz knows what comes with the territory of calling plays at a high level, and he shared how he deals with it during an interview with Big Ten Network’s Gerry DiNardo.

“It’s a great question,” Ferentz said. “Anybody in this club understands what comes with it. I would just say that if you’re a competitor, if you like competing, if you like going out there and putting yourself out there, it’s the job. It comes with the territory. And I think if you want to be good at anything, if you want to accomplish anything and if you want to do anything significant or meaningful, you have to understand that there’s going to be eyes on you.

“If you call plays, there’s only one of two things that can happen. You can be really smart, or you can be really dumb. But the longer you do it, the more I think what you really understand is none of that matters.”

Brian Ferentz shares advice he received from former Iowa OC to deal with criticism

Ferentz also recalled some advice he received from his predecessor. Greg Davis was Iowa’s offensive coordinator from 2012-16, but was still the subject of plenty of criticism regarding his play-calling abilities. During his time with the Hawkeyes, they went from 310 yards per game in 2012 to 386.1 yards per contest in 2015. In 2016, though, that number fell to 325 yards on average before Davis announced his retirement.

Those thoughts stuck with Ferentz, who said they help keep things in perspective.

“I got great advice from Greg Davis about seven, eight years ago,” Ferentz said. “It was when he was our play caller. I asked him the same question. I said, ‘Greg, you know, how do you do it?’ At that time, he had become a lightning rod, wasn’t a super popular guy. And here I am just a young guy on the outside saying it looks like a lot of unfair criticism, in my opinion, at the time. I thought he was a pretty tremendous coach. And he just gave me some advice that stuck with me.

“He said, ‘What I try to remember is when I go to bed at night, my job is to put us in position to win and give the players a chance. And if I feel like I’ve done that, then I sleep just fine.’ I think the hard part about doing what we do is when you don’t feel like you’ve done that, there’s no pressure, there’s no criticism in the world that can compare to your inner monologue.”

Iowa kicks off the 2023 season Sept. 2 against Utah State at Kinnick Stadium.