Kirk Ferentz reveals why his son, Brian, received the smallest salary bump among Iowa assistants

Following a successful 10-win season and trips to the Big Ten Championship and Citrus Bowl, Kirk Ferentz and the rest of the Iowa coaching staff received raises in accordance to the team’s performance on the field. However, there’s one odd note about the jump in salaries for the heads of the Hawkeyes’ program. Ferentz’s son, Brian, received the smallest increase in payment among the entire staff.

One curious reporter asked his dad, Kirk, why that was. Below, you can read his response to the tough, family-related question regarding his son’s compensation and whether it has anything to do with the poor offensive performance of the team.

“Not necessarily. I think he’s compensated really well,” Ferentz said of the small increase being a sign of disappointment in his son’s job performance.

He then went on to explain how the conversations about salaries are private.

“Bottom line, two things. I feel like our staff, the numbers, there’s reasons for everything we do. And we have private conversations regarding that. I feel like the staff salaries reflect levels of experience, contributions to the program.”

Kirk Ferentz then emphasized how important taking care of his assistants is. And even the guy with the smallest raise was still seeing a hike in pay rather than nothing.

“The other part about it – and that was important, as you probably know – I signed a contract back at the new year. And there were two things that were important to me. Most important: make sure our staff is well compensated — I just got done saying I really feel good about our entire staff. If we end up losing a coach, I want it to be for really good reasons. Not because we’re not able to pay them enough.”

Ferentz does this because he wants to keep his staffs in place for a long period of time.

“As a head coach, it’s important to me that we’re able to keep guys, retain guys, and hopefully it’s an attractive place for them to work.

“As I said in my earlier comments. To me it’s been one of the greatest places ever to work. I hope our staff feels the same way. I think we’re in a good place with everybody on the staff.”