As national spotlight shines on Phil Parker’s success, his focus remains on helping players reach ‘fullest, best potential’

IOWA CITY — A few days after Iowa’s 26-0 loss to Michigan in the Big Ten championship game, Phil Parker was not so eager to jump on a plane to Little Rock, Ark., to celebrate his own individual accomplishment.

“To be truthful, I almost stayed home,” Parker said last month. “I was forced to get on the plane. … It was hard after the game you just went through.”

While in Little Rock, he was named the recipient of the Broyles Award, which goes to the best assistant coach in college football.

Parker’s national honor — and the reluctance to even make the trip to receive the honor — was symbolic of the national spotlight that has shined on Iowa’s defensive coordinator. It’s a spotlight that has not shined on Parker to this extent previously in his career and one he certainly does not seek.

“Why you got into coaching was to help young kids,” the longtime football assistant said before the team’s bowl trip and after winning the award. “It’s more about them. Really what I do is try to help kids to play at the fullest, best potential they have. Hopefully, I can get them there. If I don’t, it’s kind of like a failure of mine. …

“But I never got into it for awards or anything like that. I’d just rather coach my guys, leave me alone.”

Parker has not quite been left alone, though. The American Football Coaches Association also named Parker its Assistant FBS Coach of the Year. Football Scoop and 247Sports have been among the other organizations to recognize Parker with their own honors as well.

Former college football coach Urban Meyer, a three-time national champion, said earlier this year Parker “is the best in the business.”

The abundance of accolades and praise is no surprise after the Hawkeyes led the country for a second consecutive season with the fewest yards allowed per play. Their 14.8 points allowed per game was fourth-best in college football.

The Iowa secondary allowed only 5.06 yards per passing attempt — barely behind Ohio State’s FBS-best 5.05 yards allowed — despite losing two starting defensive backs from the previous season who are now playing on NFL teams.

While the degree of national attention shining on Parker has increased, Iowa’s defensive success was nothing new. Parker’s defenses have ranked 20th or better nationally in points allowed per game in nine consecutive seasons. His defenses have been in the top 10 in five consecutive seasons.

Parker, head coach Kirk Ferentz said, is “unequivocally the best secondary coach I have ever, ever been with.”

“And I have been around some pretty good ones,” Ferentz said during his pre-Citrus Bowl news conference in Orlando.

Cornerback Jermari Harris said Parker is “one of one.” Defensive end Joe Evans has learned “lifelong lessons” from Parker, including “how to carry yourself every single day.”

“Every single day, you have to be on your ‘A’ game to play for his defense,” Evans said.

The intensity of Parker’s coaching style is no secret.

“He is half-crazy,” Ferentz said. “I think you have noticed that. He has a little different personality. I do not want to call him an acquired taste.”

Sebastian Castro, who has had five years to acquire that taste, said Parker is an “intense coach.”

“He’s an old-school coach, you could say,” Castro said. “His style just works. I’ve seen it myself time and time again. There’s a lot of pressure he puts on you, but that’s because he wants you to do good.”

Former Iowa cornerback Riley Moss, who now is in the NFL with the Denver Broncos after arriving at Iowa as a two-star recruit, described how Parker is a “yeller” in a 2022 episode of former player Max Cooper’s Men on Melrose podcast.

“If you mess up, you’ll hear about it for sure, but there’s a reason behind it,” Moss said on podcast. “He’s a tough-love kind of person, but he loves everyone that he coaches.”

Moss also said Parker is a “really smart dude” who excels at “teaching little things.”

The way Parker coaches bears some resemblance to the way he played as a defensive back at Michigan State in the 1980s.

“He's not very big, and he wasn't that fast, but he was just really smart and tough,” said Ferentz, who was on Hayden Fry’s Iowa staff while Parker was playing in the conference. “I always felt like he could be in the Stoops family.”

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Parker’s unique time in the national spotlight follows what has been a unique coaching career in some regards. After serving as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 1987, Parker has only coached at two schools — Toledo from 1988-98 and Iowa for the 25 seasons since then.

“He has had two jobs in his whole career,” Ferentz said. “That is kind of unusual for a guy his age. That is just who he is. He wants to coach football. He is all about the players and all about trying to get better.”

Parker, who is the only coach from Ferentz’s 1999 staff to still be at Iowa in 2023, does not even have an agent.

“I didn’t get into this business to jump around and all that,” Parker said. “I really like what I’m doing. … Why would I want to leave as long as I’m sitting there doing what I like to do.”

Parker does not “ever rule out anything,” including being a head coach.

“If it happens, it happens,” Parker said.

But Parker, 60, is cognizant of what head coaches “have to do and the things we are dealing with right now.”

“It’s not exactly what it was 30 years ago when I was back in school or 40 years — I can’t even remember how long ago it was,” Parker said. “You’re playing the game because of the love of the game. Now it’s kind of a little bit like the NFL. … It’s an entertainment business now.”

The many changes in college football aside, it is “neat” to see the national landscape recognizing what Ferentz and others at Iowa have long known about Parker.

“We normally do not get those kinds of things, but it is so deserved,” Ferentz said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com