Hlas: Can the son, Brian Ferentz, make Hawkeyes' offense rise?

IOWA CITY — It was the second-straight Monday with a college football game in Tampa.

The Alabama-Clemson national-title contest was a few hours away as a gray sky hovered over Kinnick Stadium and a winter wind whipped flags with Hawkeyes colors that flew atop stadium poles.

Iowa's stumbling, humbling 30-3 Outback Bowl defeat to Florida in Tampa's Raymond James Stadium was seven days old. The winds of change had whipped through the Hawkeyes' football complex a short walk from the stadium.

Offensive coordinator Greg Davis' retirement was announced last Friday, a development some might describe as tidy. Monday, head coach Kirk Ferentz bumped offensive line coach Brian Ferentz up to offensive coordinator.

Two distinct questions arise. First, is it the right move? Is Kirk Ferentz's 33-year-old son the right person to coordinate his offense, the best-available person for the job?

'I think he's the best person fit to lead our offense moving forward,' the elder Ferentz said, as you would expect.

'There are a handful of people out there today that I would be very comfortable with. I just think Brian's the best candidate for this job at this point.'

Brian already was the Hawkeyes' alpha dog offensive assistant, a clearly defined authority figure. He's an old 33. He was an old 22 when he was a Hawkeye senior player. He probably was an old 11.

This was never if, but when. Just like it's never been a question if Brian will be positioned to succeed his father as head coach one day. It may require no more than Kirk stepping down after a season that ended with warm feelings about his program.

Stuff happens. But Hawkeye football has been known to have seasons that produce warm feelings at regular intervals. The little matter of winning a bowl instead of getting crushed in one needs correcting. But climbing Mount Everest, that isn't.

Brian knows tons about the college game, the game itself, the organization of a football program, and the Iowa football program itself.

This is where he wanted to coach, not New England or anywhere else in the pros or colleges. Thus, this is where he will coach, perhaps for quite a long time.

He inherits an offense that gained 287 yards or less in eight of its last 15 games, including the 2015 Big Ten championship and the Rose and Outback bowls.

All but one of the 128 FCS teams (sorry, Rutgers) averaged over 287 yards per game in 2016.

The last four games brought passing yardage of just 66, 80, 144 (77 of it on a catch-and-run by Riley McCarron against Nebraska) and 55 yards. That's the opposite of good.

'What we need to try to strive for and regain is that balance offensively,' Brian said, 'and that's one process we'll begin immediately. We've got to start by examining what we've done and figure out how to move forward."

That should rank right up there with 'In Heaven There Is No Beer' as music to the ears of Hawkeye fans.

The second question is whether it's right for a state university's football program to have the CEO's son as co-second-in-charge of the operation.

But that's long been the way of the college sports world. Head coaches with clout hire their sons and brothers. Few in the public ever make real noise about it.

It is, Kirk Ferentz said Monday, 'no different than what happens in wrestling (with Terry Brands serving as associate head coach to head coach/brother Tom Brands), happens around the country.'

You'll not hear a peep about nepotism if the Hawkeyes flourish in September 2017 and beyond. If they still can't get out of their own way when it comes to the forward pass, Brian will be reminded he is the head coach's son every time he turns on an electronic device that features the written word.

'I did suggest he get another level of armor to wear,' Kirk Ferentz said. 'Mentally and physically.'

The 'kid' doesn't need it. A lack of self-assuredness is not his shortcoming. Besides, moving the ball in the Big Ten is tough, but it's not like climbing Everest.