Pete Thamel explains Kirk Ferentz suspension, suggests more NCAA suspensions ahead: 'Look, everyone tampers'

News broke Thursday morning that Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and receivers coach Jon Budmayr will miss the Hawkeyes’ season opener against Illinois State due to tampering that occurred back in 2022.

The two coaches have been suspended due to a recruiting violation related to the recruitment of transfer quarterback Cade McNamara before the Transfer Portal opened that year, according to Scott Dochterman.

ESPN insider Pete Thamel joined The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday and was asked about the suspension.

“It was just kind of run-of-the-mill tampering. I think we’re going to see a few of these as the season heats up here,” Thamel said. “Look, everyone tampers, and those who get caught – it’s hard to get caught – but they clearly have gotten caught enough to I think where they saw the caliber of opponent in the opener and said, ‘You know what, we’ll fall on the sword here, take the game suspension, and then move on to Big Ten play.’

“So I know all of your Illinois State fan audience might be offended by that, but that seems to be what happened here.”

This will be the first time in Ferentz’s tenure with the Iowa program that he won’t be on the sidelines for a game. The last time he wasn’t on the sideline for Iowa was Hayden Fry‘s final game. That came on November 21, 1998 and was a loss to Minnesota.

A handful of college football teams will be in action this Saturday, including Florida State and Georgia Tech. However, most of the country, including Iowa, will open the season on Aug. 31.

Florida State will be without offensive coordinator Alex Atkins for the matchup against the Yellow Jackets after he was suspended for tampering.

Thamel expects more suspensions to be handed out for tampering before the season really gets underway.

“Alex Atkins, the offensive coordinator for Florida State, is suspended for the first three games, and we’re seeing a trend with the NCAA that they don’t have a lot of arrows left in their quiver for punishment… so the game suspension is literally one of the few things they actually have left as a punishment,” Thamel said. “So I’m not going to tell you that we’re going to see a flurry, but I would think an assistant coach here and there, who’s been jammed up on tampering stuff, will see some suspensions here with the season really kicking off with the full slate of games in eight or nine days.

“So I just think it’s sort of the cost of doing business at some places here and we’ll see some consequences from that.”