Brian Ferentz not going to ‘surrender’ as Iowa’s offense struggles, nepotism concerns linger

IOWA CITY — Questions about nepotism are nothing new to Brian Ferentz.

“I’ve been answering questions about nepotism my entire adult life,” said Ferentz, the sixth-year offensive coordinator and son of the head football coach.

The word — it means showing favoritism to friends or family, often by employing them — is at the forefront again as Iowa’s defense and special teams thrive while the unit head coach Kirk Ferentz’s son oversees has faltered.

The Hawkeyes are 131st out of 131 FBS teams in yards per game, 127th in points per game, 118th in completion percentage, 126th in red zone offense and 122nd in third down offense.

Had it not been for the two safeties and two touchdowns from the defense, Iowa would be in last place in points per game.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have a root cause,” Brian Ferentz said of the offensive dysfunction. “We all have ownership in it.”

Advanced analytics don’t look at Iowa’s offense much more favorably than the traditional stats.

ESPN’s Football Power Index rates Iowa 121st in offensive efficiency. The one Power Five team ranked below Iowa, Colorado, already fired its head coach.

SP+, an analytic measure that adjusts for tempo and strength of opponents, ranks Iowa’s offense as 102nd among FBS teams. The defense, on the other hand, is the best in the country, and its special teams rank ninth.

Brian Ferentz, when asked about any concern with his job status and whether he’d consider stepping down, pointed to “two options in life, in any situation.”

“You can surrender, and if you surrender, then I think the results are pretty much guaranteed,” Ferentz said. “Or you can dig in, you can continue to fight and you can try to improve and do things better.”

Ferentz made it “crystal clear” he’ll always choose the latter.

“I wouldn’t be able to go home and look my children in the eye if I wasn’t an option B person,” the 39-year-old coordinator said.

Iowa’s offensive idleness isn’t new to this year. In 2021, Iowa was ranked 121st in total offense, 122nd in red zone offense, 114th in completion percentage and 99th in points per game.

But this year’s shortcomings are at a historic level. Iowa’s 238.7 yards per game and 4.1 yards per play are the lowest in the Kirk Ferentz era. Iowa’s 30 percent third-down conversion rate matches 1999 as the lowest in the Kirk Ferentz era.

The 53.7 percent completion rate is the lowest since 2007 — an improvement from early weeks, but still far from ideal. In the three years Kirk Ferentz-led Iowa teams completed less than 54 percent of passes, only one of those teams went to a bowl game.

Brian Ferentz, like his father, has shown a reluctance to make dramatic changes to seek offensive improvement.

When asked about the downside of trying a different quarterback, he flipped the question around. “What would be the upside?” Ferentz said.

“I’m not interested in making a change for change’s sake,” Ferentz said. “There’s unknown there. I know what Spencer’s done. I know what Spencer (Petras) can do.”

Ferentz recognized the need to “work on ways to get better” as a playcaller, but he later said “you’re really not changing anything” schematically during the bye week.

“It’s not that you’re just going to overhaul this game,” Ferentz said. “It’s what are you working to feature. … At the end of the day, a lot of our issues — when we’re talking about making makeables, we just need to do that.”

Fan frustration is increasingly evident.

“Fire Brian” chants from the student section have been audible at Kinnick Stadium this season. Recruits who are considering whether to play for a Brian Ferentz-led offense sit in a section surrounded by students and may have heard the chants.

A Slate article called Iowa football “the best case against nepotism that humankind has ever seen.”

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said last week he has “full faith” in Brian Ferentz (as well as Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa roster) and will not fully evaluate him until the end of the season.

Barta is officially Brian Ferentz’s supervisor because of the University of Iowa nepotism policy. In practice, the lines seem to be blurred.

When asked about whether his father being the head coach influences his job evaluation, Brian Ferentz referred the question to his father instead of Barta, who is supposed to supervise and evaluate him.

“You would have to ask the head coach,” Ferentz said. “That would be a question for him.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com