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KF Article in Chitrib. nice read |
By
Hawkeye314
Posted
on 9/2/2005 - 9:01:16 AM
Nothing really new but:
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/football/cs-0509020140sep02,1,6859417.story?coll=cs-college-print
Right man, right place
Low-key Ferentz, laid-back Iowa turning into an excellent match
By Teddy Greenstein
Tribune staff reporter
September 2, 2005
IOWA CITY -- When the plane touched down around 5 a.m., there was no debating where the Iowa coaches would go.
Forget about catching some Z's. They hadn't earned that privilege. Not after the Hawkeyes had been bludgeoned in a 44-7 loss at Arizona State that was even more lopsided than the final score.
As was his custom, head coach Kirk Ferentz said little to his team after the game. Better to collect your thoughts, he believes, and deliver a message when the players will remember it. As the team charter soared from the desert to the cornfields, Ferentz was alone with his thoughts.
"It's hard to describe what you're feeling," he said. "It's past the point of blood boiling. It's like: `Wow, what are we going to do here?'"
As dawn broke that Sunday morning last September, it didn't take long for Ferentz and his staff to examine the game films.
"You know how coaches like to say you're never as good as you think and you're never as bad as you think?" he said. "We broke that rule. When we looked at the tape, it was worse."
He's not exaggerating. Arizona State had produced 10 times as many passing yards, and Iowa's only points came on a punt return with 18 seconds left.
A game that started with a 38-minute lightning delay ended with the thundering reality that Iowa, with less than a week to prepare for a nationally televised game at Michigan Stadium, could be in for a horrific season.
Yet Ferentz wasn't worried.
OK, he was. It's just that no one could tell.
"He has the uncanny ability to be the calmest person in the world at the strangest times," Iowa linebacker Chad Greenway said.
This, of course, was one of those times.
"Maybe that's the greatest show of how good a coach he is, because that could have completely ended our season," Greenway said.
The next week Michigan soundly defeated Iowa 30-17 as the Hawkeyes rushed for minus-15 yards. But Ferentz wasn't so concerned with the numbers. He was buoyed by the effort.
"We were operating with a sense of urgency," he said.
Then something strange happened. The Hawkeyes couldn't lose.
They clubbed Michigan State at home and put a 33-7 beating on Ohio State. They sneaked past Penn State, earned a comfortable victory at Illinois, held on for a two-point victory against Purdue, eked out a 29-27 victory at Minnesota and throttled Wisconsin 30-7.
"One Sunday I mentioned to our staff: `If we keep messing around and winning, we're going to really get our butts kicked bad on New Year's Day,'" Ferentz said with a smile. "But it turned out OK."
The Hawkeyes played one of the most stirring bowl games in college football history, beating 11th-ranked LSU 30-25 on the last play of the Capital One Bowl. Warren Holloway, a fifth-year senior from south suburban Homewood, hauled in a 56-yard pass from Drew Tate for his first collegiate touchdown.
Iowa had ended the season with eight consecutive victories, a share of the Big Ten title and a No. 8 national ranking, tops in the Big Ten. Not bad for a team that finished 116th in the nation in rushing after losing its top four tailbacks to injury.
No wonder people are calling the place Miracle U.
And more is expected of the Hawkeyes this season. When they take the field Saturday against Ball State, they will carry an Associated Press ranking of 11, Iowa's highest to open a season since 1988.
That gives Ferentz a new challenge. He no longer can play the underdog card.
"The explanation we gave our guys, and we'll go over it 1,000 times is: Expectations tend to keep us from being successful," he said. "It comes down to what we do on Saturdays, and that comes down to our preparation."
It's not a sexy or splashy way to explain why his team has 31 victories over the last three seasons, but what did you expect from Ferentz? The man's greatest vice is splurging on ice cream.
Chi-town hustler
Signing day 2005 was unlike any in Ferentz's seven years as Iowa's head coach. The Hawkeyes introduced perhaps their best class in history, highlighted by a Chicago-flavored Fab Five of Dan Doering, Ryan Bain, Jake Christensen, Tony Moeaki and Dace Richardson.
In a year that saw coaching transitions at Illinois and Notre Dame, Iowa managed almost a clean sweep of Chicago's best talent. Ferentz expects Chicago to remain a prime source of players.
"You can drive to Chicago and back in the time it takes to get to Sioux City, and the population there is a little more significant," he said. "It makes perfect sense. About 35-40 percent of our student body is from the Chicago area."
Nearly every recruiting analyst ranked Iowa's class among the nation's 10 best. That couldn't possibly be bad news, right?
Only if you consider this: Iowa was not built on the backs of blue-chippers. It was built on overlooked guys like Greenway and Abdul Hodge, seniors who make up the nation's best linebacking tandem.
Greenway played nine-man football in South Dakota and might have tried to walk on at Nebraska had Iowa not offered a scholarship. Hodge, from Ft. Lauderdale, said he received a "social" scholarship offer from Auburn, meaning: "If we don't get this other guy, then maybe."
Ferentz said: "We all come from humble beginnings. It's pretty much the story of our team, starting with me. I wasn't the first choice here, at least in popular polls."
No, the fans wanted Bob Stoops after Hayden Fry retired following the 1998 season. Stoops had played at Iowa, coached under Fry and interviewed for the job. Instead Stoops signed with Oklahoma, where he won a national championship in his second season.
Through two seasons, Ferentz was 4-19.
He reached his low point during that second season. It was three days before a fierce Ohio State team would visit Iowa City, and injuries already had shredded Iowa's first string to the point where, Ferentz said, "we were the lambs going to slaughter."
Then it got worse. During practice a ballcarrier collided with one of Iowa's few able-bodied linemen, Sam Aiello, who went down "like he got shot," Ferentz recalled.
"For a couple hours I allowed myself to wonder: `Maybe this wasn't meant to be, maybe something is working against us,'" he said. "But the next morning it was back to work. Let's figure out what we can do to try to survive this game."
Ohio State hammered Iowa 38-10. But two weeks later the Hawkeyes beat Penn State in double overtime. Then they beat a 7-2 Northwestern team.
Iowa had turned the corner. Ferentz was named Big Ten and national coach of the year in 2002, and he repeated as the Big Ten's top coach last season.
All that has fueled talk the 50-year-old Ferentz, an offensive line coach for the Cleveland/Baltimore franchise from 1993 to 1998, would return to the NFL. One industry source said the Bears pursued Ferentz for their head-coaching vacancy after the 2003 season.
"That's part of the business," Ferentz said of the rumors. "As I told our local folks, I'd rather be talking about that than: `How many more days do you think you've got?'"
But the unpretentious Ferentz doesn't take so kindly to speculation he might succeed Joe Paterno at Penn State.
There is some logic to the theory, at least in terms of family and geography. Ferentz attended Pittsburgh's Upper St. Clair High School and his wife, Mary, has Penn State connections. Her father, Gerry, was a teammate of Paterno's at Brooklyn Prep and her brother, Kevin, played under Paterno in 1976.
"When the writers up there ask me, I say we're talking about one of the greatest collegiate coaches of all time in any sport," Ferentz said. "Put him in with John Wooden and Bear Bryant in terms of impact on the game and longevity. That was a cow school 50 years ago and he has been a pretty good contributor to its growth as a university.
"So I think it's an irreverent topic. I'm certainly not a decision-maker in the process, but, to me, he has earned the right to coach as long as he wants to."
Cream rises to top
Back to that ice cream. It's Ferentz's drug. He will eat an entire pint of Ben&Jerry's Cherry Garcia. Then he'll top it off with a second pint.
"If it's in the house, I can't sleep," he said. "I'm trying to exhibit discipline, but I'm losing the [weight] war right now."
Brian Ferentz, Kirk's son and Iowa's starting center, doesn't see it that way.
"I weigh 285 pounds and he can out-eat me," he said. "And he doesn't put on any weight."
In many ways, Brian Ferentz is like so many other Hawkeyes. Lightly recruited out of high school, he has blossomed into a solid Big Ten performer.
Other than Iowa, Ferentz received Division I scholarship offers only from Northern Illinois and Kansas State. And he was suspicious of the K-State offer because of coach Bill Snyder's relationship with his dad. The two worked together at Iowa under Fry from 1981 to '88.
But Ferentz never wanted to go anyplace else, saying: "If you grow up in Iowa City, you're a Hawkeye. The only question was whether I could play there."
Offensive line coach Reese Morgan convinced him he could. It was Morgan, not his father, who assessed Brian Ferentz's play in high school and deemed him worthy of a scholarship.
Better for the old man to stay out of it, especially after what happened when Ferentz coached his son's Little League team.
"I remember not playing a whole lot and I don't think I was the worst guy on the team," Brian Ferentz said. "My mom said he couldn't [coach me] anymore. We were bickering too much. We still bicker sometimes."
Brian Ferentz is entering his fifth and final season at Iowa, but he never has had the sense that this also will be his father's final year in Iowa City. Ferentz, who has four younger siblings, said when fellow students ask him about his father's plans, he replies with a simple, "I don't know."
And when reporters ask?
"I say, `The day my father comes to me for career advice, that's the day he has to get out of coaching,'" Ferentz said.
Perhaps Kirk Ferentz could have even more success coaching in Pennsylvania or Ohio, states better known for producing recruits than corn. Ferentz said in most years, Iowa attempts to sign no more than four to eight in-state players.
An NFL job would be far more lucrative, but Ferentz said money is not a motivating factor.
"If it were, I wouldn't be here right now," he said. "That's pretty clear."
Iowa's administration is making every effort to keep him. The school recently signed Ferentz to an extension through 2012 that calls for an annual base salary of at least $1.2 million with bonuses for Big Ten titles, bowl appearances and a team graduation rate better than 55 percent.
Not only that, Ferentz will qualify for a longevity bonus of $400,000 each year he remains in Iowa City.
Looking at it another way, why would he leave? Would ice cream taste better elsewhere?
"I'm not a celebrity here," he said. "I love going to Little League games and spending time with my family. I can't do enough of that. This a pretty blase, normal, everyday American kind of life. It's not Pleasantville, but it's pretty close."
Reply |
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REPLIES
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By
BillBlank
Replied on 9/2/2005 - 9:27:36 AM
Thanks 314!
Great read. I just can't get enough of captain Kirk. He's the closest thing to perfect since Jesus. Reply |
By
Earnest T. Bass
Replied on 9/2/2005 - 9:30:52 AM
" Cerrano, Are you sayin' Jesus can't hit a curve ball? " Reply |
By
nashvillehawk
Replied on 9/2/2005 - 10:27:35 AM
"We should have gotten a live chicken"
ON IOWA!!!!!!!! Reply |
By
Hawkeye314
Replied on 9/2/2005 - 10:54:20 AM
^^or a pint of Cherry Garcia:) Reply |
By
BillBlank
Replied on 9/2/2005 - 1:25:14 PM
LOL... One of my top 5 movies.
I'm pretty sure I have the WHOLE screenplay in my head.
"Alright Harris let's not start a holy war here."
Let's see if we can't give Ball State, and Iowa State a nice big s--tburger to eat. Reply |
By
Keosahawkeye
Replied on 9/2/2005 - 2:02:11 PM
Funny how he mentioned going to little league games and didn't complain about the attention. During the road brouhaha, Mary has said they CAN'T go to those games without it being a pain.
Just makes you wonder if Mary is a "half empty" personality while Kirk is "half full". Opposites tend to attract. Reply |
By
TheEnigma
Replied on 9/2/2005 - 5:03:53 PM
WHO Can Forget us drinking a nice big shot, and INSTEAD of saying UP YOUR BUTT JOBU... how about UP YOUR BUTT USC (insert your own word after butt LOL)..... I absolutely LOVE Major League!!!
JUUUSSSTT A Bit outside, Tried the corner and missed....
BALL Four.....
Ball Eight...
LOW! And Vaughn Has walked the bases loaded on 12 straight pitches.
OR after our games this year, ALL OPPOSING ANNOUNCERS WILL BE SAYING in a DRUNKEN SLUR
"Post Game Brought to you by................ CHRIST I cant find it, THE HELL WITH IT!!!!"
LOL GO HAWKS SEE YOU ALL SATURDAY!!!!!!!!
TheEnigma
-A DYNASTY WILL RISE 9/3/05, ARE YOU READY FOR THE POWER OF THE DARKSIDE????????????????? Reply |
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