As Kirk Ferentz becomes FBS’ oldest coach, his challenges at Iowa only get tougher

Age is only a number, we’re often told.

I’ll have to remember to ask if that’s true the next time I see a group of seniors at their morning coffee klatch in a McDonald’s or Hy-Vee. Or I’ll ask Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid, who at 66 is the oldest NFL head coach, but is outcoached by no one and has a 10-1 team he is trying to lead to a third-straight Super Bowl win.

Two things happened recently that will make Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz the oldest coach in all of FBS next season at 70.

First, Massachusetts sacked Don Brown last week. He was born one day before Ferentz in 1955.

Then, North Carolina fired 73-year-old Mack Brown on Tuesday, an ignominious parting of the ways considering Brown said Monday he planned to be back in 2025. His Tar Heels are 6-5. A 41-21 loss at Boston College last Saturday apparently was all Brown’s boss could take.

Nick Saban retired at Alabama in January at 72. Many assumed college football’s boss was leaving because he didn’t want to deal with NIL and what goes along with it. Saban said that wasn’t so.

In an interview with Fox News, he said “I just never wanted to see the program go down … I felt whether it was recruiting or hiring coaches and people wanting to know how long you’re going to be there. When you get to 72 years old, it gets harder and harder to promise people you’re gonna be there for four or five more years.”

Ferentz never shows his cards when it comes to how much longer he wants to continue in his job of the last 26 years, but he lives for this stuff. He once told me that if forced to take a one-year sabbatical, he would spend it traveling around the country to observe football practices.

Ferentz absolutely loves what he does, even in its rough-and-tumble new landscape of player free agency. But it’s only going to get harder.

This season probably was Ferentz’s last best chance to take the Hawkeyes to the College Football Playoff. Winning at Ohio State always was a remote possibility at best, but the rest of Iowa’s schedule featured just one other team currently ranked, Iowa State.

The Cyclones took that game from the Hawkeyes in the second half, interesting in hindsight because Iowa has scored two-thirds of its points this season after halftime.

The Hawkeyes’ losses at Michigan State and UCLA are just as haunting if not more so. The Spartans are 5-6 and the Bruins 4-7, yet both shredded Iowa’s defense.

This could have been a 10-1 Iowa team matching resumes with 10-1 Indiana, and SEC teams with multiple defeats. We know, though, this simply isn’t a playoff-caliber squad.

So the Hawkeyes are playing Nebraska on Friday night in what may be a game for a ReliaQuest Bowl berth, with the winner playing in Tampa Dec. 31 against a Mississippi or South Carolina, both in the top 15 of the CFP rankings.

Iowa’s coaches will look beyond their bowl matchup come Saturday morning. Can Ferentz pull another quarterback out of the transfer portal? Someone capable of throwing a pass downfield with accuracy would be a good start.

Cade McNamara, riddled with serious injuries in his two seasons at Iowa, has thrown three touchdown passes and six interceptions against Power Four conference teams as a Hawkeye. The transfer portal makes all the more work for coaches. But you have to do it, and you have to get more solid hits than whiffs.

Ferentz has a heck of a good football program that produces winning seasons year after year after year. There are no crowd-storms here for bowl-eligibility. There is a standard that was set long ago. The Hawkeyes have to beat Nebraska just so they don’t clearly fall short of it this year.

Most people don’t want to work harder than ever when they’re 70. Many couldn’t if they wanted. Some, though, have no problem staying motivated because their work is their essence.

Beating Nebraska and keeping the Huskers below them would make the offseason warmer in Iowa City. However, it wouldn’t change the fact that just keeping the Hawkeyes at as much as an 8-4 level in the future will require the full Ferentz — recruiting, developing and competing against hungry, capable coaching peers.

Like the one 20 years younger at Nebraska.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com