Kirk Ferentz, Gary Barta ‘anticipate no changes’ to Iowa football staff in 2023

IOWA CITY — Kirk Ferentz anticipates “no changes to our staff moving forward” despite the Iowa offense ranking among the worst in the country in 2022.

“We do have a terrific staff, and I thought they did a great job last year in tough circumstances,” said Ferentz, who finished his 24th season as Iowa’s head football coach.

Most notably, that means no plans to part ways with Brian Ferentz, the offensive coordinator and Kirk’s oldest son.

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta, technically Brian Ferentz’s supervisor to comply with university nepotism rules, reaffirmed Kirk Ferentz’s comments Wednesday.

“The plan right now is for all of the staff to be intact,” Barta said at the Hansen Football Performance Center following Kirk Ferentz’s news conference.

Iowa was 130th out of 131 teams in yards per game, 129th in yards per play, 129th in third down offense, 112th in completion percentage and 100th in tackles for loss allowed per game.

It’s not a new problem. Iowa’s offense has ranked no higher than 87th in yards per game during Brian Ferentz’s tenure as offensive coordinator.

Iowa has finished as high as 40th in points per game with Brian Ferentz leading the offense in 2020, but also as low as 123rd in 2022.

Kirk Ferentz’s loyalty to Brian Ferentz does not happen with head coaches and offensive coordinators everywhere in college football.

Clemson and Miami (Fla.) parted ways with their offensive coordinators after just one season. Clemson was 48th in yards per game, and the Hurricanes were 86th.

Iowa State also parted ways with Tom Manning in the offseason after the Cyclones finished 83rd in yards per game. Manning had been on Matt Campbell’s staffs at Toledo and Iowa State and played with Campbell in college.

⧉ Related article: New Iowa State offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase seeks to build ‘physical’ and ‘explosive’ unit

“We’re all products of our upbringing or influences,” Kirk Ferentz said. “There was never a coordinator fired here during my nine years with Coach (Hayden) Fry. … I’m not planning on doing it. I haven’t done it.”

Kirk Ferentz, who grew up in Pittsburgh, referenced the Steelers’ approach to solving problems.

“They fix things,” he said. “They don’t panic.”

Looking ahead, Barta said he has been having “ongoing conversations” with Brian Ferentz about future expectations.

Barta declined to publicly disclose any specifics of his expectations for Brian Ferentz.

Jon Budmayr’s role

Iowa has the expertise on staff of analyst Jon Budmayr, who used to be the offensive coordinator at Colorado State and quarterbacks coach at Wisconsin before that.

But Budmayr’s role “can’t really expand too much,” Kirk Ferentz said, because of NCAA rules regarding what analysts can do.

No spread offense coming

Kirk Ferentz and Barta both acknowledged the need for offensive improvement.

“Offensively, the performance that we had last year is not going to cut it,” Barta said. “It’s not acceptable for anybody involved.”

Ferentz said there are “some things that I’m anxious to talk about and look at” regarding offensive improvements.

“How can we play-action better?” Ferentz said. “Then run the ball better and then build from there. … Get guys in better positions, maybe.”

But Ferentz said the scheme is “not going to look radically different” in 2023.

Ferentz said it is “fairly fair” to say he will not have a spread offense during his tenure at Iowa.

"It’s not who we are,“ Ferentz said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com