Evaluating the shakeup on the Iowa football staff this offseason

The Iowa football program announced a number of staff changes on Tuesday, starting with the promotion of Seth Wallace to assistant head coach, which came with a nice raise in pay.

But the program also axed wide receivers coach Kelton Copeland.

“One that was in the works, we’ll start at the bottom of that, which was Kelton Copeland not returning as the wide receivers coach, which wasn’t a surprise,” said Hawkeye Report’s Tom Kakert on the Andy Staples On3 show. “I think everybody kind of thought there might be a little bit off a shakeup beyond Brian Ferentz on the offensive side, and Kelton kind of made the most sense to look into a different direction.”

There’s one additional reason the Copeland firing makes sense, Kakert pointed out.

“And you also think that maybe the OC who’s coming in might want to bring somebody that they want, so you’re kind of laying the groundwork for that,” he said.

The rest of the moves for the Iowa program were ones further increasing stability in the coaching ranks. Wallace and defensive coordinator Phil Parker both had their deals adjusted.

Both moves should keep both men in place for a good while longer.

“Seth Wallace becomes the assistant head coach, which is the first time that Kirk Ferentz has ever done that in his 25-plus years at Iowa, where he’s had an assistant head coach,” Kakert said. “And that was done, you give him a title so you can give him more money is essentially what they did.”

It’s not the first time that Iowa has gotten a little creative with its titles as a way of making sure it can keep its staff intact.

In fact, this wasn’t even the first time they’ve done that with Wallace.

“They did that before with Seth, who was very highly thought of and highly sought as an assistant and a potential defensive coordinator,” Kakert said. “You do that, they made him the assistant defensive coordinator years back so they could funnel some more money his direction so that the head coach thing gives him a bump up to a million dollars a year as the linebackers coach and also assistant head coach.”

The final move, securing Parker with a better deal, was arguably the most important. Iowa has been so successful over the years in large part because of Parker’s defenses.

Keeping him happy and well looked after was a must.

“And Phil Parker, the Broyles Award winner, up to $1.9 million a year and he deserves every penny,” Kakert said. “He’s the best in the business. He’s worth every dime. I wrote in my story about it he’s worth every dime. He just is. They don’t get to 10 wins this past year without him because the offense certainly wasn’t going to get them there.”