Iowa's Kirk Ferentz shoots down Mike Stoops rumor

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz met the burgeoning rumor that linked former Arizona Coach Mike Stoops to the Iowa coaching staff with sarcasm.

"Dan McCarney's not available?" Ferentz responded to the question Tuesday afternoon. "We actually have a former receiver, I was thinking about getting him maybe to come back and be a staff member. I hadn't been thinking about that one. I don't respond to that stuff."

Ferentz was referring to a rumor to McCarney, a former Iowa player and assistant, who resigned as Iowa State's head coach in 2006. McCarney later took assistant jobs at South Florida and Florida before landing North Texas' head coaching job this year.

Stoops played at Iowa in 1981, 1983 and 1984.

Tuesday's question wasn't the first time Ferentz had heard or responded to the Stoops rumor, however.

"Somebody said (that) last week, and I said the same thing: 'You mean Dan McCarney's not available?'" Ferentz said. "Wasn't that rumor eight years ago? I lose track of all that stuff."