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Beth Goetz gives Iowa’s community of longtime coaching residents needed new eyes
Longevity is the name of the game for high-profile Hawkeye coaches. Goetz’s tenure as Iowa’s athletics director will be judged on how she replaces them after they have retired.
Jan. 24, 2024 12:24 pm, Updated: Jan. 24, 2024 1:41 pm
IOWA CITY — When it comes to athletics, the University of Iowa has been for homeowners, not renters.
Recently, Beth Goetz became just Iowa’s third athletics director since the women’s and men’s athletics departments were merged in 2000. Her predecessor, Gary Barta, had the job for 17 years. Before Barta, Bob Bowlsby was an Iowa AD from 1990-2006, and Bump Elliott was the men’s AD from 1970-1990.
Women’s AD Christine Grant had her job from 1973-2000.
Iowa’s four highest-profile coaches — Lisa Bluder, Tom Brands, Kirk Ferentz and Fran McCaffery — have a total of 81 seasons at their current jobs and have an average age of 62.
This is very uncommon. It suggests nothing is broken in the department. It also means things could deteriorate if the right replacements aren’t secured when those tenured coaches inevitably retire.
That, more than anything, is how Goetz’s time at Iowa will be judged in 2038 or so. Until one or more of those coaches calls it a career, though, what Goetz needs to be is what she seems to be. That’s a coolheaded, confident and competent leader who focuses on both long-range projects and the day-to-day needs of all her teams and athletes.
In other words, she needs to be an athletics director. At Iowa in 2024, she doesn’t have to be colorful or verbose, a seemingly omnipresent face of her department.
Rather, she needs to be who she is, someone with the presence of a leader without hitting you over the head with it. She needs to be someone who quickly responds to potential public-relations fires with water instead of gasoline, not the strongest suit of Hawkeye athletics in recent times.
Speaking of fire, Goetz’s leadership was tested under it three months ago. Instead of waiting until the season was over, which was clearly what head football coach Kirk Ferentz wanted, she announced offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz would be dismissed at season’s end.
It was an indelicate time for everyone. There could have been a public revolt from the football building. Whatever unhappiness stirred within it was self-contained. Things quickly settled down, and the season played out with even more evidence the offense needed a new guide.
The easier move would have been to wait until season’s end for Brian Ferentz’s firing. The better was to get it out of the way and quit cluttering every reference of Hawkeye football with it.
Kirk Ferentz will soon name his new offensive coordinator, and will pursue more winning this year.
The dozens of Iowa athletes who attended Goetz’s press conference Tuesday, meanwhile, were almost all female. This, it was clear, was their day as much as Goetz’s.
The softball team arrived at Carver-Hawkeye Arena a half-hour before the event started, and posed for photos in front of the video screen in the lobby that showed Goetz’s image.
After the press conference, they and female athletes from other sports posed for photos with Goetz and UI President Barbara Wilson, and those athletes looked happy indeed.
“We grew up with men being in leadership roles and controlling and overseeing sports,” said UI softball player Bridget Stover. “Being a woman who plays sports, it’s very exciting to see a female in a role to control and oversee all the athletic department, because it’s just not something we see every day.”
“I’ve seen her at multiple athletic events and she’s talked to me every time she’s seen me,” said another softball player, Haley Downe. “She’s asked me how she can make our experience better as athletes.”
Said Wilson: “Beth is part of my cabinet. She meets every Monday morning with all the vice presidents. She was in our leadership retreat yesterday with the deans.
“We have a great partnership between athletics and academics, and that’s not true at every institution in the country. … I think (the athletics program) is in great shape. We have incredible teams, we’ve got great coaches, we’re doing it right. Nobody ever questions the integrity of what we’re doing, and I feel really good about that.”
The things Hawkeye athletics needed most is what many organizations need when management hasn’t changed much for a long time: A breath of fresh air. New eyes. A feeling that things are moving forward.
And off we go.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
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