Kirk Ferentz enjoys ‘a lot more good days than bad’ ahead of 25th season as Iowa head coach

WEST DES MOINES — As Kirk Ferentz spoke to the Polk County I-Club Wednesday evening in a packed convention ballroom in West Des Moines, he did what he has done many times before.

The longtime Iowa head football coach ate dinner with donors, spoke about his team, took questions from radio broadcaster Gary Dolphin and stayed afterward to fulfill every autograph or picture request from fans.

The event was at a different hotel than usual — the Sheraton a couple miles to the east was already booked — but the gist of it was the same with “so many familiar faces.”

It wasn’t even his first one of the week. He was in an American Legion Hall the night before in Arcadia and will be at the Cedar Rapids Hilton Garden Inn Thursday night.

But many other aspects of Ferentz’s job leading a Power Five college football program have changed, especially with name, image and likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal.

“Our world just keeps changing so much in sports, especially collegiate sports,” Ferentz said afterward in a one-on-one interview with The Gazette.

So it’s no surprise as he approaches a milestone in 2023 few Power Five coaches reach — it’ll be his 25th season as head coach at Iowa — he has not been dwelling on the feat.

“You don’t have a lot of time to sit around thinking about how many years you’ve done it,” Ferentz said. “There’s always something to do other than really reflect on those kinds of things.”

Ferentz is the longest-tenured head coach in the FBS and has held that title for almost a decade. The next-longest-tenured coaches are Utah’s Kyle Whittingham and Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, who will be in their 19th season in 2023.

“A lot of it’s just good fortune,” Ferentz told The Gazette. “Right place, right time and right people.”

Ferentz will turn 68 a month before the 2023 season.

Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer, the previous longest-tenured FBS coach, retired at age 69. North Carolina’s Mack Brown and Alabama’s Nick Saban, however, have been coaching in their 70s.

The question of how much longer Ferentz wants to coach has “not really” crossed his mind, he said Wednesday.

“So long as you love doing what you’re doing, I don’t know why you’d stop,” Ferentz said. “That’s kind of the plan right now.”

Ferentz is under contract through the 2029 season with a buyout of $6 million per year.

The COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020 gave him more clarity on his future, which was “one good thing about the pandemic.”

“I was home enough where Mary said, ‘You’re not ready to be home,’“ Kirk Ferentz said, referencing his wife.

“He is a very lucky man,” Mary Ferentz told The Gazette last year. “Football is his job, football is his hobby and football is his R&R.”

Kirk Ferentz also said his why for continuing to coach “came home loud and clear to me last December.”

“What you really enjoy are the people you work with every day,” Ferentz said Wednesday. “Whether it’s my nine years as an assistant here or 20-plus back (as head coach), the quality of the guys we get to work with has really been spectacular.”

That extends from players “first and foremost” to the coaching and support staffs, Ferentz said.

“There’s a lot more good days than bad,” Ferentz said. “That’s what you enjoy, and I don’t know what else I’d do quite frankly.”

Health also is a “big part” of why Ferentz has been able to continue coaching.

“You got to stay healthy,” Ferentz said. “I’ve been lucky that way, and hopefully that’ll continue.”

As for the changing nature of the job, the transfer portal is the “next chapter,” Ferentz said.

The Hawkeyes have taken a more aggressive approach in the transfer portal than in past years, adding eight scholarship players. It’s been partially out of necessity after losing 10 scholarship players to the portal.

⧉ Related article: Iowa football finds what it needs in second transfer portal window

“We identified strategically where our needs might be,” Ferentz said. “We also tried to be as thorough as we possibly could about getting guys that would, when they came in, would be a seamless transition — as seamless as possible.”

Ferentz cannot publicly comment on the addition of ex-Ohio State wide receiver Kaleb Brown yet, but the portal additions already in Iowa City have “really all fit in beautifully.”

“It’s made our team healthier, and it’s created a little bit more competition,” Ferentz said. “So far, so good, but we still got a lot of work ahead of us.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com