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After Kirk Ferentz’s fitting 200th win at Iowa, he has shot at making more history in 2024
Iowa earns milestone win while past Hawkeye team that also overcame early adversity was recognized at Kinnick Stadium
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IOWA CITY — After Kirk Ferentz finishing his postgame television interview near midfield, he jogged toward Kinnick Stadium’s southwest tunnel with his protection detail and a litany of cameras following him.
As he approached the tunnel — the same tunnel that he approached after many of his previous 199 wins — former Hawkeye Jonathan Babineaux greeted him with a handshake and a hug before others embraced him on the way to the locker room.
In what already was a fitting way for Ferentz to win his 200th game at Iowa — a 40-16 rout of Washington one week after getting knocked down by then-No. 3 Ohio State — it was even more fitting that, of all the former players who could be there to greet Ferentz right away, it was Babineaux.
“Jonathan almost epitomizes what it is because he had three really good years here,” Ferentz said. “He had two where he couldn’t play. … Then goes on and plays 12 years in the NFL, raising a family. Just what a great, awesome guy.”
Babineaux, the honorary captain for Saturday’s game, was there with members of the 2004 Big Ten title-winning team. That team overcame plenty of adversity as it lost two early games — not all that unlike Iowa’s 3-2 start this season — before winning eight straight (including the Capital One Bowl) to end the year with a 10-2 record.
“That team, boy, it was all about response that year,” Ferentz said. “That was fun. We were 2-2. I think there was some negativity back then, too.”
Can Kirk Ferentz pass Woody Hayes for No. 1 in Big Ten history?
The only coach to have more wins as a member of the Big Ten Conference is Woody Hayes, who finished his legendary career with 205 wins.
The path to passing Hayes yet this season on the list of wins as a Big Ten member is not a cakewalk, but is feasible.
Iowa has six remaining regular-season games and is two wins away from earning bowl eligibility. That essentially means Ferentz and the Hawkeyes need to go 5-2 to tie Hayes or 6-1 to pass Hayes.
It helps that the Hawkeyes will likely be favored in most, if not all, of their remaining games. None of the regular-season foes left on Iowa’s docket are ranked (although Nebraska is receiving votes).
Of course, if the 69-year-old coach decides to coach beyond 2024, passing Hayes would be almost an inevitability. After all, Iowa has won six-plus games in 11 consecutive seasons.
Regardless of what happens in the next six games of the 2024 season, Ferentz has already done something that no other coach at Iowa and only one other Big Ten coach has accomplished. And he has plenty of adversity-overcoming former players to share the moment with, like Babineaux.
“How big of an impact when you think about those moments, 200 moments for all those student-athletes and all of us fans that have lived those with you,” Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz said to Ferentz at the end of his news conference.
Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com
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