Thursday Reading Room - Ferentz 1-0 in his career vs. Georgia Tech's coach

Iowa and Georgia Tech have never met in football. Hawkeyes Coach Kirk Ferentz and Yellow Jackets Coach Paul Johnson have never competed against each other. On the field.

In recruiting, Ferentz has a 1-0 edge on Johnson, as this Atlanta Journal-Constitution story tells us. The two coaches were in the Miami area Wednesday to promote the Orange Bowl and talked about meeting for the first time while recruiting.

“We bumped into each other and talked at a high school in New Jersey in January, I believe it was,'' Ferentz said. That matched Johnson's recollection. The obvious question: Who landed the recruit?

“He did,'' a smiling Johnson said. “I owe him one.”

“I cheated,” Ferentz quipped. “[The player's] dad went to high school with me.”

The player was offensive lineman Nolan McMillan.

Actually, the two coaches were assistants on competing teams.

. . . Ferentz said he first became aware of Johnson when Ferentz was an assistant coach at Iowa under iconic Hayden Fry in the 1980s and the Hawkeyes opened the 1988 season at Hawaii, where Johnson was the offensive coordinator.

Ferentz recalled Iowa's defensive coordinator (Bill Brashier) “pulling his hair out all week” trying to scheme against Johnson's deceptive attack.

“We struggled that Saturday,” Ferentz said. Hawaii won, 27-24.

But Iowa's current defensive coordinator is 1-0 vs. Johnson.

“I remember us [Hawaii] playing against Norm Parker in a bowl when he was defensive

coordinator at Michigan State and they beat the fool out of us," Johnson said. "We had a hard time getting back to the line of scrimmage.”

The Spartans drubbed Hawaii 33-13 in the 1989 Aloha Bowl. “We know we've got our work cut out for us,” Johnson said.

That was good stuff from Gary Long, writing for the Journal-Constitution.

A few weeks ago, I meant to read a Sports Illustrated feature on Johnson and Georgia Tech, thinking there was a remote chance Iowa might play the Jackets in the Orange Bowl. Wednesday, I got around to reading it while at home during the Blizzard of  '09. I enjoyed it, and you might, too. Two excerpts:

Throughout his career, which took him from Georgia Southern to Hawaii (as offensive coordinator) back to Georgia Southern (where he won two more national titles as head coach) to Navy (where his teams led the country in rushing in his last three seasons), Johnson has been hearing all the reasons why the triple option can't thrive at the BCS level. Reason No. 1: Programs that run the option will never attract elite skill-position recruits, who expect to play in the NFL. Says Johnson, "If you're talking about a classic, pro-style quarterback, that's probably right. But that's because he wouldn't fit in here." Reason No. 2: The quarterback takes a pounding running the ball so often. "When I was at the University of Hawaii for eight years, [passing teams] BYU and Utah lost a guy or two every year because they get blindsided and they're not used to taking the shots," he says. "Sure, you're going to take some hard shots [in the option], but you also learn how to minimize them." Reason No. 3: Defenses have become faster. Says Johnson, with a laugh, "Well, so have offenses."

And to all you athletic directors out there with floundering football programs, these guys are anything but boring. As they lull teams with dive plays up the middle, the Yellow Jackets are capable of the big play on any snap-either on the ground or through the air. Georgia Tech may throw the ball only 11.7 times per game, but it averages 23.7 yards per completion. While (Josh) Nesbitt is only a 45.2% passer, junior wideout Demaryius Thomas, a big target at 6'3", 229 pounds, leads the ACC in receiving yards per game (86.1) and ranks 24th nationally. In the fourth quarter against Vanderbilt, Johnson noticed that the strong safety was overcommitting to the run. So on the next play he sent A back Embry Peeples deep, and Nesbitt hit him for an 87-yard touchdown. "There's a misnomer that it's three yards and a cloud of dust," says Johnson. "But we have more plays of 50 yards than anyone else in the league."

Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated thinks the Fiesta Bowl made a great game when it invited TCU and Boise State. Count BYU Coach Bronco Mendenhall among those who wanted to see those two teams play BCS-conference teams, however.

"I would have loved to see both of them play an automatic qualifier," Mendenhall said Sunday. "I think it's the safest thing in terms of those that are proponents of the current system, and you run a lot less risk [than] if TCU were to play a BCS qualifier and win and if Boise State were to play a qualifier and win."

The Wall Street Journal questions if people will watch the Fiesta Bowl given the matchup. Some passages:

In the 11-year, 47-game history of the BCS-the group of major bowls that includes the national-title game-teams from smaller conferences have participated on four occasions. All four of those games were among the 10 lowest-rated BCS bowls ever, according to Nielsen Co.

This Fiesta "will be a real tough sell," says Neal Pilson, president of Pilson Communications and the former head of CBS Sports. "Cinderella teams just don't rate well. There's just no real loyalty factor there."

The game is already sold out from the Fiesta's standpoint, and both TCU, from the Mountain West Conference, and Boise State, of the Western Athletic Conference, asked for additional tickets beyond their required allotment of 17,500, according to the bowl.

There's even a theory floating around that the Fiesta took one for the team by choosing both Boise State and TCU, saving the other major bowls from sullying their hands with them. "That's right up there with guys in black helicopters and little green men," says Mr. (John) Junker of the Fiesta Bowl.

Sure, because everyone knows everything affiliated with the BCS is above board and for the best interests of the human race.

The rumors that had Kansas interested in hiring Tim Brewster away from Minnesota to be the Jayhawks' next coach? Those probably didn't start in Kansas. Ben Ramsden of the St. Paul Pioneer Press' Web site writes about the subject here.

Let's be real. Does anyone think Brewster would be on anyone's list right now to be a head coach? He can't win trophy games. He can't win in November. He talks bigger than he delivers. He has ruined Adam Weber's ability to be a quarterback. He can't keep his promise of keeping in-state recruits (this excludes Seantrel Henderson's decision). He can't keep a coaching staff. He has childish ways of dealing with the media. I could go on and on.

Brewster's time is up. If he isn't fired or leaves on his own terms, he's going to be a lame-duck coach and then be fired. So let's just cut our losses, and move on.

Kansas, you can have him.

Finally, former Iowa basketball player Matt Bullard had a long NBA career. He know does color commentary on Houston Rockets telecasts, and he apparently is quite opinionated. The following clip is proof: