Kirk Ferentz? Recruiting violation? Add it to list of strange gaps in stable Iowa program

IOWA CITY — How can Iowa’s stable and self-restrained football program sometimes be so screwy?

It’s like someone who is a model of composure 99.8 percent of the time, but yields to a wild hair every blue moon.

In 2011, rhabdomyolysis put 13 Hawkeye football players in the hospital following intense January workouts involving squat-lifting and sled-pushing. The strength and conditioning coach at the time, Chris Doyle, was honored as Iowa’s assistant coach of the year three months later by head coach Kirk Ferentz.

It was the only time such an award was given.

In 2020, former Hawkeye player James Daniels tweeted "There are too many racial disparities in the Iowa football program. Black players have been treated unfairly for far too long."

Several other former Black Iowa players immediately responded with insights and opinions supporting Daniels’ statement. A day later, Doyle was placed on administrative leave, and a separation contract between the university and Doyle was announced the following week.

Last summer, players from Iowa (and Iowa State) were charged with record tampering — concealing their identities to place sports wagers on betting sites before being of legal age to do so. It was a dubious sting operation at best, and nothing similar occurred at any college athletics program outside Iowa.

Last October, offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz was dismissed by UI administration but allowed to stay on staff through end of the season. As opposed to almost nearly all other midseason coaching firings, where “fired” means “now.”

Finally, Kirk Ferentz announced Thursday that he has agreed to a self-imposed one-game suspension for himself and wide receivers coach Jon Budmayr, saying “I did not” abide by an NCAA recruiting rule.

Ferentz will stay away from his team from midnight to midnight on the day of the Aug. 31 Illinois State-Iowa season-opener in Iowa City.

It turns out Ferentz and Budmayr communicated with a player and his family prior to the player entering the NCAA’s transfer portal. That reportedly is quarterback Cade McNamara, formerly of Michigan. He committed to Iowa on Dec. 1, 2022, just days after the portal was open.

Three questions leapt to mind Thursday morning. One, who gets popped for a recruiting violation in the NIL age? Two, why is this happening now when McNamara transferred over 20 months ago?

The third is the goodie. Who ratted out Iowa?

Ferentz and Iowa athletics director Beth Goetz surely know, but weren’t about to light that fire at their Thursday press conference. The NCAA’s investigation of the matter didn’t start until over a year after McNamara transferred. Yes, it’s a redundancy, but that’s pretty screwy.

The NCAA gave former Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh a four-year, show-cause order on Aug. 7 for impermissible contact with players and recruits during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Los Angeles Chargers coach Harbaugh has the NCAA in his rearview mirror. He was suspended for three games last season for impermissible in-person scouting and sign-stealing allegations. New Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore is facing allegations he violated rules related to that.

Did someone at Michigan ask the NCAA “Why haven’t you checked out School A with Player Y, or School B with Player Z, or Iowa with Cade McNamara?”

It’s possible, but don’t assume it. You always like to have as many good quarterbacks as you can keep in stock, but Michiganders weren’t wailing in the streets when McNamara left. By then, the team had found an even better QB1 in J.J. McCarthy, though McNamara started for its 2021 Big Ten champs.

Ferentz said Thursday that sixth-year senior McNamara is Iowa’s No. 1 quarterback. It may not have been, however, the automatic decision it appeared to be not long ago.

We’ll start seeing if McNamara is Iowa’s 2024 answer next Saturday against the Redbirds of Illinois State.

“I’ll probably be at home, watching quietly,” said Ferentz, a 69-year-old football lifer who has never before been in a spot like this.

“It won’t happen again,” he said, and it won’t.

This too shall pass. But it’s kind of, you know, screwy.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com