Daily briefing: On a fleeing quarterback, Kirk Ferentz and mental health
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
On the road again
Charlie Brewer lost the job as Utah’s starting quarterback, so he left Utah. I get it. Nearly 40 percent of the starting quarterbacks in the FBS this season started their career at a different school than their 2021 address. Unlike the other 21 positions, you play one quarterback at a time. But when the Hired Gun gets demoted and leaves town before his butt has time to warm the bench, it gives the lie to the whole role of higher education in college football. Maybe Brewer doesn’t really care about getting his master’s degree. Maybe I’m just shouting at Brewer to get off my lawn. And I haven’t gotten to the part yet about “we” before “me.” By mid-afternoon Tuesday, Brewer did not appear on the football roster at Utahutes.com.
Kirk Ferentz, joke-master
Iowa led Kent State 23-7 early in the fourth quarter Saturday, and on fourth-and-9 from Kent State’s 42, Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz gave the nod to go with a fake punt. The good news is that punter Tory Taylor completed the pass to tight end Sam LaPorta. The bad news is the play gained 3 yards. Asked about the call Tuesday, Ferentz said, “Yeah. It’s called bad coaching,” then used the word “dumb” eight times. “There was one positive,” Ferentz said. “It’s on film now, so people are going to think, ‘OK, maybe they’re going to fake a punt.’ In that case they’ll probably say, ‘I hope they do it in that situation. It would be great.’ ” Ferentz has a rep for being maddeningly even-keeled. But he does have a sense of humor.
Big Ten deserves praise
In May 2020, during the early, panic-laced days of the pandemic, the Big Ten announced a number of initiatives to strengthen mental health among not only the student-athletes at its 14 schools but athletic department personnel as well. One of the more creative ideas: The conference struck a deal to provide the Calm app to every student-athlete, coach and administrator in the league. In the ensuing 15 months, conference chief of staff Adam Neuman said the Big Ten account logged about 400,000 uses. That is at once astounding and reassuring. The need is enormous, and the league found a method to address the need.