Vannini: Iowa’s contract incentive for Brian Ferentz is a smart move. That’s why it’s embarrassing
You almost have to credit Iowa for leaning into the jokes. Finally some self-awareness.
When you think of Iowa football, what do you picture? You think of an elite defense and an offense that ranges from bad to abominable. The 2022 Hawkeyes had six defensive touchdowns and seven passing touchdowns, scoring 17.7 points per game. Week to week, they flirted with the lowest over/under point totals in college football betting history. The Music City Bowl indeed set a new record low at 31 points. The under still hit as Iowa scored two defensive touchdowns and one offensive touchdown in a 21-0 win full of backup players, including both quarterbacks.
Brian Ferentz will return as the Hawkeyes’ offensive coordinator with one of the most bizarre contract amendments we’ve ever seen. Iowa must score 25 points per game and win at least seven games for him to continue in the role. (That’s 25 points by the team, not just the offense.) His two-year rolling contract is, for now, a one-year contract that expires on June 30, 2024. If he hits the comically-low benchmarks, he’ll go back to his rolling two-year contract and get the money back, with a slight pay bump. Back to the status quo. If he doesn’t hit them, the contract ends and it’s an easy out for everyone.
Iowa OC Brian Ferentz's amended contract contains PPG target
Believe it or not, I actually think this is a pretty smart deal for Iowa, given the circumstances. It’s also incredibly embarrassing, and that’s the problem.
The “Iowa 25/7” shirts are already available. Get ready for a running point tracker, counting up to 325 (25 points per game in 13 games). Will Iowa attempt more fourth downs? Will it keep the starters in longer during a blowout? Will Kirk Ferentz be more aggressive to try to save his son’s job? These are the questions that surround the program now.
No normal college football program would be in this position. This isn’t the first coaching contract to provide extensions for hitting benchmarks. But it’s almost never the case for an assistant coach. The only reason this is in place is because the offensive coordinator is the head coach’s son, and the longtime head coach, Kirk Ferentz, wields a lot of power relative to his longtime boss, athletic director Gary Barta.
This is the whole reason nepotism laws exist. This is why nepotism hires can create awkward work environments. By law, Barta is Brian Ferentz’s supervisor. And yet, Barta clearly doesn’t have enough leverage or desire to fire Brian Ferentz as fans clamor for it. He can only work out this awkward deal that treats everyone like a child. If you’re good at the doctor’s office, you get a lollipop.
Throughout history, athletic directors without direct supervision over assistants have pushed head coaches to make staff changes. But not this AD with the actual ability to do so.
The cost of firing Brian Ferentz at any point would be less than $2 million. That is doable for any Big Ten school, especially with a new television contract on the way. Iowa won’t do it. Instead, the program will pay a minimum of $850,000 to gamble on getting out of the rest of the deal or finding itself back in the exact same position. Because it feels like it has to. It announced the contract change in a press release solely to appease fans.
Iowa fans on verge of apathy. That's dangerous for more than the football program
Kirk Ferentz’s buyout is around $42 million — $6 million per year remaining on the contract through 2029. Getting out of that is obviously not doable. Kirk Ferentz will be the Iowa head coach until he retires, barring something that gets him fired for cause. This contract used to be the butt of Iowa jokes in college football, but it’s actually not so bad when you look at history. Iowa won 10 games in 2021 and 2019. It had four consecutive Top 25 finishes before this year.
Kirk Ferentz is still a good head football coach. As bad as Iowa’s offense was this year, the Hawkeyes still won eight games. But stubbornness has held the program back and it’s allowed his son — still good at developing offensive linemen — to get dragged in the public by fans and us in the media, instead of cutting him loose or hiring someone else to run the offense.
Iowa fans deserve better. Last year, they sold out the entire home schedule before the season started for the first time since 2011. Tripling down on this offense could turn anger into apathy. My poor colleague Scott Dochterman limited his Twitter replies and has directed fans to Barta’s email address to yell and scream instead of at him.
Maybe this works out. Maybe Iowa’s offense breezes past the low benchmarks — the offense was second in the Big Ten in scoring in 2020 at 31.8 points per game. Or maybe Brian Ferentz lands an NFL gig and everyone gets out of this. Or maybe Iowa barely reaches the benchmarks and the situation gets even more untenable (and expensive).
Until any of that happens, Iowa football continues to be the butt of offensive football jokes, and this latest punchline was a creation of its own doing. This unusual contract tweak might be the right thing to do. But it never should have been.
