An interview with Kirk Ferentz

IOWA CITY - The season and the grind and the tension and all of it, it knocks on Kirk Ferentz's office door.

Ferentz's life is in rhythm. This is the calm before the two-a-days.

Ferentz will begin his 11th season as Iowa's head football coach with a newly signed contract that pays him $3.02 million a year through the 2015 season. He knows he has it good in Iowa City, a place his family has called home for 20 years. Still, he's a million miles from complacent.

Check out Marc Morehouse's On Iowa blog for more on his 45 minute interview with Iowa Hawkeye head coach Kirk Ferentz.Read

Read Part I, Part II and Part III.

In a 45-minute conversation Thursday, Ferentz touched on the NFL question, his contract, Twitter and team discipline:

Gazette: The new deal, do you look at that as a lifetime contract? If you look at the numbers, you'd be 61 or so ...

Ferentz: Yeah, that would put me in my 60s. But I think you know I just go year by year. Just hope I can make it through one more and worry about the next one afterward. I learned at the University of Maine. I was up there three months and they were talking about dropping the program. It was the first time I understood and appreciated and valued what a contract is. You at least had some security that way. ... That part's nice and it's good not to have to worry about those kinds of things. But at the end of the day, you approach your job the same way you always have. That hasn't changed since I got going back in the late '70s.

Gazette: Was there a time you saw yourself coaching in the NFL?

Ferentz: I've thought about it. Nobody brings this up, but I may end up going back to high school, too. I could go that way, too. To me, it's always been about the people you're with. Maybe not always, but I think you learn that over time. It's the most important thing, the people you're around on a day-to-day basis. One of my mentors gave me that advice back in the late '80s and I thought it was really good advice and it's probably meant more to me each year going through things.

I'm not saying I would never go to the NFL, but if I ever did it would be more because of the people more than because it's the NFL. That's one thing, there's always been a perception by a lot of folks, not all but a lot, that bigger is better. The NFL is the highest level, which it is, arguably it is, and there are some inherent challenges that come with that as well. Contracts and trying to get an entire organization on the same page. That's a massive challenge, or it can be a massive challenge if you're not in the right organization.

It's not like I've got to go there. I've never had that feeling, since I've been out of it. Maybe if I had never been in it, it'd be different. The fact that I'm allowed to stay is one thing. The fact that I've chosen to stay is because I really enjoy this job.

Gazette: You've seen the highs and lows here, you have a high level of security here, does that factor?

Ferentz: It's like when it comes up in recruiting, I've been here 20 years and I'm going into my 11th in my second span. You can put that up against most people in college sports. I read this in the winter, I still get the Connecticut newsletter, and right now Randy Edsall, Bob Stoops and myself are the only ones remaining from our class (of FBS coaches who were hired in 1998). That's a little scary. The reality of what we do is that it could come to an end at any point. Not always, but I've come to understand that over the last 15 years. I've never let that affect me. But that being said, I've always felt that if I was going to leave here, I'd need a compelling reason to leave. Certainly I've not had any reason for that. ...

Growing up in Pittsburgh, the comparison I always make is the Steelers organization. Not only from a coaching standpoint - we've had two coaches here in 30 years - but also from an administrative standpoint. Three athletic directors, I don't know when (former AD) Bump (Elliott) started, late '60s or '70s (1970). Roughly when Chuck Noll started in Pittsburgh, they've had three head coaches. We've had three athletics director. I don't think people in Iowa understand how unique that is. I can't imagine many schools can say that. As a coach, you really appreciate that, too. There's a certain level of expectation in our state and that's something I'm comfortable with.

Gazette: The economy ... I took a call after the contract story about the plane and that kind of thing. I know you've answered this question before about the money and perks. This is what the going rate is.

Ferentz: It's the market. It's what's been established. You can argue the rights and wrongs about it, but it's just reality. Boy, I acknowledge we're in tough times. We always try to find ways to give back and we plan on doing in the future. We'll do more. We're going to do more. But the facts of the matter are, too, but what you do in coaching isn't related to the economy. We could be in a bad economy and if we do well, that's a great thing. We could be in a great economy and if we're not winning, the reality is we're not going to be around long. It's kind of a separate entity, if you will. But I understand it's a sensitive issue, too. I understand that, totally.

Gazette: Do you have a Twitter account? (The social media tool is all the rage with college football coaches.)

Ferentz: No, absolutely no.

Gazette: Do you know what it is?

Ferentz: Yes, I heard it mentioned on the radio coming into work this morning, Mike and Mike in the Morning, (football commentator Mark) Schlereth and his tweets and Twitters. I think I even have my usage of tweet and Twitter down. You never say never, but if you see me with a Twitter account, just hit me with a baseball bat. Go ahead, take a whack at me.

I don't think anyone cares if I have Wheaties or Honey Nut Cheerios. I don't think anyone cares what I had for breakfast, what I chose this morning.

Gazette: Discipline has been and is a topic. The program has had 26 arrests. You can set lines of demarcation anywhere. But the fact of the matter is it's (legal issues) never going to stop. There's going to be a certain amount of “breakage” every year. There's alcohol, college and kids. Are you at the point where you feel good about messages being sent and punishments?

Ferentz: In rough terms, I think we have a very disciplined program. That's a word that could be interpreted in a lot of different ways. To me, the reality of it is we just had a horrific year in 2007. Anytime you get into multiple violations or, more importantly to me, we deviated from college-aged issues. When you're dealing with credit card fraud or things of that nature, that's a path that everyone finds distasteful. I can't to this day give you an explanation for what happened during that stretch. Roughly, the credit card thing was charged in August but it took place in May. And then the close of that period went from May to the following February with the last two guys being arrested.

During that span, seven or eight guys left the team. The only thing I can say there is that we took swift and decisive action. You can judge the harshness of it. I think we treated it appropriately. The thing that concerned me was after four or five guys left the football team, I wondered at that point, what's it going to take to impact some of the guys making bad decisions? We had it continue. That was the time period that was the most alarming and most concerning. Since that time, you can argue the number. I'm just looking back from last August to today, I think last year is an average number with the incidents we had. There's going to be linkage going back to the line of demarcation that everyone is using. Until we move away from those kinds of things, it's going to be natural. I've talked to our team about it. There's going to be linkage until we get away from it and have some distance.

I go back to the last calendar year in August to this date, basically we're back to dealing with alcohol-related incidents. Anyone who knows anything about Iowa City knows that's not going to go away. There are more than 2,000 arrests a year for PAULAS, public intoxes, that's a matter of fact. It's also a matter of fact that kids can get in bars here at age 19. Until that law is changed, either the drinking law goes to 19 or access to bars is 21, I don't anticipate those numbers going down, the public intox and PAULA numbers. I don't think that's realistic. As a result, we're going to have our percentage in that group. I'm not conceding anything. . . . We'll continue to be (proactive) and we'll try to improve that. We're committed to educating our players. It starts there. We're committed to being decisive but also fair with our punishments. The bottom line goes back to these guys are college-aged guys. Anyone who's been a parent can understand not all kids are perfect. Mary and I are raising five of them, five kids, and we've had excitement probably with every one of them so far. That's part of being a parent. It's part of our existence. On one hand, if we can keep it centered on college-town issues, that's a start. Once we get off that path, that's really where I'm alarmed.

I don't think I've ever shied away from the fact that 2007 off the field was an awful year. There's no denying that. Nobody's proud of it and we're all committed to making sure we don't have another year like that. And 2001 wasn't a great year, but 2007 exceeded that. Wish I could give you an explanation. We never dropped our guard. We were working at it, but it just didn't show up in the results.

Gazette: At this point, what do you tell the guys about alcohol? I think the big point is that it's going to hurt performance, across the board.

Ferentz: It's such a huge part of our culture, such a huge part of our college culture, it's a tough battle. It's been that way for 30 years. It'll be that way for 30 more years. The guy sitting in this chair 30 years from now is going to have the same issues. It's not going away no matter what they do with the laws and the ages. ... It's unrealistic to think that nobody on our team is going to drink. We have a lot of guys who are legal age. I'm not sure I have the right to tell them they can't. I can suggest it. But the bottom line is that it gets back to moderation. It pertains to all of us in everything we do. Just understand how things affect you.

Gazette: You have a couple players with OWIs and who face suspension. What do you weigh in the length of the suspensions?

Ferentz: It's a team policy, not the department's code of conduct. (OWIs) face a minimum of a game. This is going back a couple years ago. I added a couple things with our team. If you face one of these charges, you're looking at suspension time that's above and beyond. There's a lot of gray area there. I'm the judge and jury, I guess, in a lot of ways. If I'm looking to suspend a player, James for instance, he had a PAULA and I suspended him the rest of the season. He wasn't playing anyway, so it didn't kill any game time, but he missed the experience of being in the locker room after the Penn State game, being on the sidelines, which is something that's eating at him, I'm sure. So I guess relative to where a player is in his career, a suspension for a guy who's being red-shirted or who's going to be a backup isn't as severe as it is for an older guy. I weigh those factors. Another thing I take into account is where they're at in the program. What they've done. Have they accumulated a lot of credit? Have the been working on the negative side of the ledger? All those things factor into the discipline we dole out. A lot of times, I'll interact with our leadership group and see what they think is fair. Typically, they're a little more stringent than maybe I would be. That's kind of the typical response. Usually, they're a little harder on guys than I would be.

Gazette: This is the dawn of a new season. What revs your motor about this? What do you look forward to?

Ferentz: It always fun when you get going. I've always enjoyed preseason camp as much as anything. It's strictly you and the team. People on the outside know not to call you. They know not to ask you to go speak here or there. They know you're full-scale. The fun part is to see where the team is at. That's a great thing about college football. I've said this before, but players change so dramatically. That happens at different stages for everybody. So all of us are curious to get on the field and see what that first week brings.

The other thing about preseason is that it's a long enough period where the picture becomes clear as you go along. We have a lot of positions right now that are undecided and all of that. Twenty five days of preparation have a way of bringing certain players to the surface. Other players will dip a little bit. Then, you have the other variables, injuries and all of that. It's always an interesting puzzle.

It's really the one time where it's pure coaching. We're not worried about any one opponent, especially for the first two-thirds of camp, so it's just pure teaching, pure coaching. You spend all your time with players and the staff. If you like football, it's a great time.

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