Kirk Ferentz becomes winningest Big Ten coach in history with 47-7 over UMass

IOWA CITY — Kirk Ferentz was drenched in orange Powerade, beaming from ear-to-ear. Beside him, former Hawkeye Anthony Herron. Ferentz’s wife, Mary, with two of his five kids and his grandkids, all watched from the tunnel.

The nearly 70,000 fans and 105 football players inside Kinnick Stadium gave the Iowa head coach a standing ovation on Saturday.

Wearing his usual white, short sleeve Hawkeye polo and khaki pants, Ferentz had his hands on his hips all night. Until, that is, it was finally time to acknowledge the feat.

He’d just become the winningest head coach in Big Ten history.

With his 206th win, Ferentz passed former Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes for the crown in a 47-7 win over Massachusetts at Kinnick Stadium.

“I’m just really thrilled,” Ferentz said. “Can’t believe that my name’s next to that distinction.”

The slam dunk victory over the Minutemen marked the end of Iowa’s nonconference slate on this year’s schedule, but it allowed Ferentz to take the title on his home turf.

In the place he started his run back in 1999.

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Ferentz’s first win as Iowa’s head coach was just days shy of 26 years ago. He led the Hawkeyes to a 24-0 shutout over Northern Illinois in what ended up being a 1-10 season.

Ferentz’s first two years weren’t anything special. He went just 4-19 with three Big Ten wins in two years.

But since then?

He ended up sending 94 players to the NFL.

He won Big Ten titles in 2002 and 2004 and Big Ten West titles in 2015, 2021 and 2023.

He has the second-most conference coach of the year titles in the Big Ten.

He’s still coaching at 70 years old.

Standing in Kinnick Stadium in 2025, Ferentz walked to the center of the field and shook hands with UMass head coach Joe Harasymiak like he’d done hundreds of times before.

This time, after 26 seasons and counting of Iowa football and the highs and lows of it, Ferentz had that new crown on his head.

“You know that's hard to do,” Logan Jones said. “And to break Woody Hayes's record, who's obviously a great head football coach, says a lot about Coach Ferentz.”

And the Hawkeyes made sure put on a show for every bit of that game.

Iowa scored three touchdowns through the first quarter. It tacked on two field goals, plus a Big Ten and school-record 95-yard punt return touchdown and a 20-yard rushing touchdown, both by Kaden Wetjen. That was just through three quarters.

Quarterback Mark Gronowski played his best game of the season. Two passing touchdowns (both to Seth Anderson), with nearly 200 passing yards, and a 13-yard rushing touchdown of his own.

Ferentz knew this record was looming. He even joked postgame he would’ve been glad if it was a record broken five years earlier. There wasn’t enough time to thank every person possible. Over 1,000 players coached over 27 seasons, and thousands more who fell in love with the Hawkeyes on their TV screens.

In one final nonconference game, where Iowa could get one final tuneup before Big Ten play, the record was his.

Hayes. Bo Schembechler. And now, joining them as one of the greats, Ferentz.

“That's going to be a really hard record to break,” Gronowski said. “It was just a really special moment for the team and for him, and I was really happy to be here for it.”

After 27 seasons, Ferentz ended the night doing one thing he’d never done before: leading the swarm off the field at game’s end.

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