Hlas column: Ferentz doesn't flinch at criticism as strange saga winds down

IOWA CITY - Nothing to see here, move along.

The tone wasn't nearly that brusque, or brusque at all for that matter. But what we most took away from Kirk Ferentz's Wednesday press conference is there that might not be anything to take away regarding the 13 Hawkeye football players hospitalized last week for rhabdomyolysis.

Was the off-season workout of Jan. 20 punitive for a disappointing season or flat-out barbaric? Both were suggested in scathing opinion pieces on national sports Web sites? No way, Ferentz said.

Was it anything different than similar workouts Ferentz said were employed and supervised by team strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle in December of 2000 and 2007 and June 2004? Again, the coach said no.

Were the hospitalized players guilty of ingesting something before the workout that led to their health problems? Was the problem that players showed up for the first day of winter drills in less-than-ideal condition after a few weeks away from football?

No and no, said Ferentz. He insists the players were not to blame. He said his son, Iowa center James Ferentz, nursed a sore ankle and took it easy over the break, yet came out of that Jan. 20 drill with only soreness and stiffness.

It sounded like the coach doesn't expect a conclusive answer seems likely to come from the university's investigation of why 13 young men spent several days in University Hospitals and Clinics, as tidy as it might be to get one.

Like many of us, Ferentz looked at the very few other examples in sports of several players on a team being diagnosed with a breakdown in muscle fibers that can be harmful to kidneys. Parallels abound.

At the University of South Carolina in 2007, members of the men's and women's swimming team were put through an especially strenuous initial workout. Seven of the 41 athletes contracted rhabdomyolysis.

“I've read about a couple of cases,” Ferentz said, “and the one I'm most fixated on was the South Carolina one that was recently in the paper and a couple things intrigued me there.

“And No. 1 the percentage was roughly the same, seven athletes out of 41. This is 13 out of roughly 80-plus, so pretty close to the same percentages.”

The other most-prominent example was at McMinnville High School in Oregon last summer. The “team building” exercise for the varsity football squad involved repetitive, intensive, alternating chair-dips and push-ups for an estimated 4-5 minutes. It had been used by the previous football teams all the way back to 2003 without incident.

But last August, 22 of the 43 players contracted either triceps compartment syndrome or rhabdomyolysis. Twelve were hospitalized, none had kidney failure.

Iowa's Jan. 20 workout, according to one player on Facebook who was among the hospitalized, consisted of doing 100 squat lifts with 240 pounds on their shoulders, then push a sled 100 yards.

By most accounts, it's a “team-building” exercise designed more to create mental toughness than be useful in building strength or explosiveness.

“We have done something of equal challenge, at least in our opinion, four times,” Ferentz said. “The question begs to be asked is what happened here and why this time and not the other three. And I take it a step further, too. I'm going to assure you, we are not the only team that trains hard and I doubt South Carolina swim team is the only swim team that trains hard. That part is a little bit intriguing to me.”

That's where, barring claims or accusations from the participants that there was irresponsibility in the administering of the workout, this probably doesn't have a dramatic resolution.

Not everything in life does. Ferentz says he's as perplexed about it as the rest of us. Those who assumed it was a case of “Strength Coaches Gone Wild” probably don't have a lot of his respect.

“I would say know the facts,” Ferentz said, “and I would encourage people to know facts and know the people involved would be my suggestion.”

The biggest criticism Ferentz has faced in these last two weeks has been not being with his hospitalized players until last Wednesday night, and not attending a press conference Iowa threw together last week to address the situation.

“That's a decision I made,” he said. “Bad judgment on my part,” he said.

This story left the national consciousness last weekend when the last of the hospitalized players was released. Had Ferentz been at that press conference last week and said the same basic things he offered with calm and conviction on Wednesday, he'd have cut down on the “something rotten in the state of Iowa” talk from afar.

But that ship has sailed, and whether any true and lasting damage has been done from a public-relations standpoint depends on who you ask. Winning games and putting players in the NFL can overcome many recruiting challenges, including being located in a place where blizzards strike.

Wednesday's press conference was also for the coach to talk about his 2011 recruits. He likes them, they trust him. Barring something jarring from the university's root cause analysis of the incident, I guess we all move on.