Kirk Ferentz clarifies comments regarding offensive coordinator search

On Monday, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz grabbed fans’ attention when he claimed he had made three phone calls about the program’s offensive coordinator position, which will be vacant after the Hawkeyes’ bowl game. Iowa is parting ways with Brian Ferentz, Kirk’s son, who has been the program’s OC since 2017.

While Kirk Ferentz is on the hunt, the decision likely won’t come as soon as fans hope. On Thursday, the 68-year-old head coach provided further details on the situation.

“I said I’ve made three phone calls. I never said I talked to three candidates,” Ferentz said.

Former Wisconsin head coach Paul Chryst was one of the coaches fans speculated was in conversation with Ferentz. Chryst spent seven full seasons at Wisconsin as the headman, going 5-2 against Iowa. He was fired in the midst of the 2022 season and did not make it far enough to play the Hawkeyes.

Before Chryst was a head coach, he served as Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator for an extended period of time. After being fired at Wisconsin, Chryst headed to the Lone Star State to take an analyst role under Steve Sarkisian at Texas.

Ferentz addressed the rumors surrounding Chryst.

“I was not referencing anybody that’s been a head coach in the Big Ten. I was actually referencing a coordinator that’s come into our conference sometime in the last decade,” Ferentz said. “There was a quote in Einstein’s office — that said, ‘Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.’ That was my point.

“The person I’m thinking about, specifically, had a lot of passing yards on his resumé, pretty well-known nationally. You dig a little deeper, you look at what the win total was where he’s been, and I think that is an important statistic.”

Moving on from Brian Ferentz

Whoever Ferentz hires it’ll likely be an improvement. This season, Iowa was 133rd in total offense and 130th in scoring offense out of 133 FBS teams. That was good for 239.3 yards and 16.6 points per game, respectively.

Iowa’s subpar production is nothing to the Iowa faithful. Since Brian Ferentz took over Iowa’s offense, the Hawkeyes have consistently produced one of the lowest offensive outputs in the country. Nonetheless, Brian Ferentz’s time is coming to a close.

On Jan. 1, Brian Ferentz will coach his final game as Iowa’s offensive coordinator. The Hawkeyes will face off against Tennessee at 1 p.m. ET in the Citrus Bowl. The game will be broadcast on ABC.