Kirk Ferentz Part I

IOWA CITY -- The season and the grind and the tension and all of it, it knocks on Kirk Ferentz's office door.

That's just fine. Ferentz's life is in rhythm. This is the calm before the two-a-days.

Ferentz will begin his 11th season as Iowa's head coach with a newly signed contract, paying him $3.02 million through the 2015 season. He knows he has it good in Iowa City, a place his family has called home for 20 years.

Still, he's a million miles from complacent.

In a 45-minute conversation Thursday, Ferentz discussed the NFL question, his contract, Twitter and discipline.

ME: In your 11 years, your personal life and your kids' lives, you've had some big changes.

KF: It's scary. Stephen was 4 when we came back. Ken and I met with Joe Philbin a few weeks ago. His oldest son is going to be a senior at West Point. Whoa! He was a little kid when he came here. It's just amazing.

ME: Does it change things for you?

KF:  A little bit. The one that got me the most was Bruce Kittle (1977-81). We took a group of players out for a community service project and Bruce was the guest speaker that night. He mentioned that he had just turned 50. I was like, 'Holy crap, you can't be 50. I coached you.' That was my first year, 1981. I thought that's not possible. You can't be 50.

ME: New contract, does family growth change ambition, your vision for yourself?

KF: Nothing's really changed on that front. It makes you realize how quickly the time goes. It grabs you that way. I had that moment when Bruce said he just turned 50.

When you sit back and reflect a little bit, yeah, Brian was in 10th grade going into 11th when we showed up. Now, he's married and up and running a little bit. One thing, not a prominent goal, but one of the things Mary and I were hopeful of, was getting five kids through one high school. I've said that before. We're three years away from that now. That's a tough accomplishment if you're in coaching. That doesn't happen a lot. We feel lucky and fortunate that we've been able to let our kids know where home is and still have the best of everything else too. It's been pretty good that way.

ME: The new contract, do you look at that as a lifetime contract? If you look at the numbers, you'd be 61 or so . . .

KF: Yeah, that would put me in my 60s. But I think you know I've taken pretty much every year, just go year by year. Just hope I can make it through one more and worry about the next one afterwards. I learned at the University of Maine. I was up there three months and they were talking about dropping the program. It was the first time I understood and appreciated and valued what a contract is. You at least had some security that way. I wouldn't have been doing what I wanted to be doing necessarily, but at least, you know you weren't going to be put out on the street. That part's nice and it's good not to have to worry about those kinds of things. But at the end of the day, you approach your job the same way you always have. That hasn't changed since I got going back in the late '70s.

ME: Was there a time where you saw yourself coaching in the NFL?

KF: I've thought about it. Nobody brings this up, but I may end up going back to high school, too. I could go that way, too. To me, it's always been about the people you're with. Maybe not always, but I think you learn that over time. It's the most important thing, the people you're around on a day-to-day basis. One of my mentors gave me that advice back in the late '80s and I thought it was really good advice and it's probably meant more to me each year going through things.

I'm not saying  I would never go to the NFL, but if I ever did, it would be more because of the people more than because it's the NFL. That's one thing, there's always been a perception by a lot of folks, not all but a lot, that bigger is better. The NFL is the highest level, which it is, arguably it is, and there are some inherent challenges that come with that as well. Contracts and trying to get an entire organization on the same page. That's a massive challenge, or it can be a massive challenge if you're not in the right organization.

As an outsider looking in, I got six years of inside experience, there are some real challenges there. Basically, for me, if I ever went that route, it'd be driven by the people involved than it would be to go to the NFL. It's not like I've got to go there. I've never had that feeling, since I've been out of it. Maybe if I had never been in it, it'd be different. I enjoyed every minute of it, almost every minute of it, but I've enjoyed this job an awful lot too. The fact that I'm allowed to stay is one thing. The fact that I've choosen to stay is because I really enjoy this job.

ME: You've seen the highs and lows here, you have a high level of security here, does that factor?

KF: A couple things. My time in sports has taught me that you can never get too attached. I don't mean that in a negative way. I go back, and it's like when it comes up in recruiting, I've been here 20 years and I'm going into my 11th in my second span. You can put that up against most people in college sports. I think there are three. I read this in the winter, I still get the Connecticut newsletter, and right now Randy Edsall, Bob Stoops and myself are the only ones remaining from our class (of coaches who were hired in 1998). That's a little scary. The reality of what we do is that it could come to an end at any point. Not always, but I've come to understand that over the last 15 years. I've never let that affect me. But that being said, I've always felt that if I was going to leave here, I'd need a compelling reason to leave. Certainly I've not had any reason for that.

Iowa has its challenges, but it also has so many positives. That's the obvious reason why we've enjoyed it here in our first stint and now our second. Our perspective has been different both times, but it's been equally as good and rewarding. I appreciate the fact that we have a unique situation. Growing up in Pittsburgh, the comparison I always make is the Steelers organization. Not only from a coaching standpoint -- we've had two coaches here in 30 years -- but also from an administrative standpoint. Three ADs, I don't know when Bump started, late '60s or '70s. Roughly when Chuck Noll started in Pittsburgh, they've had three head coaches. We've had three athletics director. I don't think people in Iowa understand how unique that is. I can't imagine many schools can say that. As a coach, you really appreciate that, too. There's a certain level of expectation in our state and that's something I'm comfortable with.

ME: The continuity . . . Michigan and Ohio State have continuity and they are what they are. Iowa is starting to have that kind of continuity and it seems as though it's starting to pay off.

KF: I spent a lot of time when I was away from here, after the nine years, looking back at what made us successful in my first nine years. In some ways, we're a little bit of a small market. We're the Cardinals, we're the Brewers.

ME: Twins, I wrote Twins earlier this summer.

KF: Twins would be a better example. Cardinals are where they are because they've had the continuity with Tony LaRussa. The Twins, I think they've had two managers, I don't know when (Tom) Kelly started (the Twins have had two managers in 24 years). Probably with any business or any organization, stability is a good thing. Everybody can come to grips with what the expectations are and there is some consistency there. The part of having stability is people have to understand there are going to be highs and lows, and certainly in sports there are going to be. I don't know much about our economy, but I guess it's true in the business world, too. You have to be able to weather those lows and weather the highs, too, and realize that everyday isn't going to be like that. That gets down to the decision makers. The decision makers need to understand those kinds of things. They've got to be able to be realistic. I go back to the Steelers. The Rooney family has always understood that they can't panic. Cowher had a great run, but there were a couple years where they didn't go to the playoffs. They just went to work. They didn't panic. They didn't start executing, throwing people off the ship. They just went to work and fixed it.

I know it helped us in the '80s. We went seven straight years before Barry left. We all knew each others' moves. I think we operated efficiently as a staff instead of wasting a lot of time. You want to spend your time on things that are going to help you win.

ME: The economy . . . I got a call after the contract story about the plane and that kind of thing. I know you've answered this question before about the money and perks. This is what the going rate is anymore.

KF: It's the market. It's what's been established. You can argue the rights and wrongs about it, but it's just reality. Boy, I acknowledge we're in tough times. We always try to find ways to give back and we plan on doing in the future. We'll do more. We're going to do more. But the facts of the matter are, too, but what you do in coaching isn't related to the economy. We could be in a bad economy and if we well, that's a great thing. We could be in a great economy and if we're not winning, the reality is we're not going to be around long. It's kind of a separate entity, if you will. But I understand it's a sensitive issue, too. I understand that, totally.