Kirk Ferentz believes Iowa football ‘can’t change dramatically’ during bye week

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Kirk Ferentz made it clear in his Tuesday news conference that football coaches are no rocket scientists.

“I promise you that,” the 24th-year Iowa head coach said before the Illinois game. “I met one, James Van Allen. We're not in that category.”

Ferentz, again not a rocket scientist, can see the need for offensive improvement after the 9-6 loss to Illinois Saturday night.

“You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand we need to score more points,” Ferentz said.

As for solutions to an offense that began play Saturday ranked 130th out of 131 FBS teams in yards per game and then didn’t score a touchdown against the Illini, Ferentz ruled out any major changes.

“We are who we are right now,” Ferentz said. “We can’t change dramatically, but hopefully we can find some ways to be more effective.”

Ferentz said he and his staff will “talk about everything,” but he didn’t view quarterback Spencer Petras as “the problem tonight.”

“Spencer did some good things,” Ferentz said. “Missed a couple throws, and that’s probably going to be every quarterback, every game.”

Petras suffered from a lack of protection from a young offensive line. Options are limited to accelerate the development of the position group in an important period for rest.

“We’ve got to be careful just about how much we do physically,” Ferentz said. “Love to go five times (in practice). That wouldn’t be smart.”

Ferentz, without hesitation, ruled out any staffing changes during the bye week. When a reporter asked about it, Ferentz quickly brought up Iowa’s 10-win season in 2021.

“I don't know if you're aware of that,” Ferentz said.

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta, technically offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz’s supervisor, already told The Gazette days earlier that he has “full faith” in the head coach’s son.

The circumstances of 2022 are of course different from 2021.

In 2022, Iowa is going into the bye week with a 3-3 record and is not receiving any votes in the Associated Press poll. In 2021, Iowa was 6-1 and the No. 11 team in the country.

In 2022, Iowa has 2.8 yards per carry, a 54 percent completion percentage, a 30 percent third-down conversion rate and a 67 percent red-zone scoring rate. All of those stats were higher in 2021.

“We're not getting better fast enough to achieve the results that we want,” Petras said.

If Iowa doesn’t grow more quickly, the long-term prognosis likely won’t be pretty.

The Hawkeyes’ first game after the bye week is at No. 3 Ohio State. Assuming Iowa can’t pull off the upset — ESPN’s Football Power Index gives the Buckeyes a 95.1 percent chance of winning — Iowa will be 3-4.

Then Iowa would then need to go 3-2 in a five-game stretch against Big Ten West opponents to finish the season to be eligible for a bowl game.

A division title, meanwhile, is presumably out of reach for a three-loss Iowa team that is expected to have four losses after visiting Ohio State.

In the meantime, one doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to predict how Ferentz will approach the bye week.

“We’ll get back to work, as we’ve done 23-plus years,” Ferentz said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com