Ferentz wins 2015 Robinson Award

IOWA CITY - When Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz was named Big Ten coach of the year earlier this month, he immediately called it a 'program” award, noting that every coach, player and program had a hand in delivering the Hawkeyes to a 12-0 regular season in 2015.

Wednesday, Ferentz repeated himself and added the word 'national.”

Ferentz has been named the 2015 Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year. The Coach of the Year is voted on by the entire Football Writers Association of America membership. The FWAA has presented a coaching award since 1957. In 1997, the national coach of the year award was named in honor of the late Eddie Robinson, a coaching legend at Grambling State University for 55 seasons.

Ferentz was a finalist for the award in 2002 and 2004.

'It is rewarding to see the hard work of our entire coaching staff and every member of our football program being recognized on the national level,” Ferentz said in a statement. 'I appreciate the acknowledgment of our accomplishments. I am honored to share this recognition with our staff, our players, and our great fans, and I am grateful to the University of Iowa for providing the necessary support for our success.”

Ferentz led the No. 5 Hawkeyes to a school-record 12 wins and their first berth in the Big Ten championship game.

Ferentz's team had a 7-6 record in 2014 and was selected fourth in a preseason 2015 Big Ten West Division media poll. But the Hawkeyes won their first 12 games in 2015 before falling to Michigan State, 16-13, in the Big Ten championship game. For the first time since the 1990 season, the Hawkeyes will play in the Rose Bowl and face Pac-12 champion and No. 6 Stanford.

Ferentz, 60, is in his 17th year at Iowa and has a 127-86 overall record in Iowa City. The dean of the current Big Ten coaches trails only Hayden Fry in terms of longevity as the Iowa head football coach. He has guided Iowa to 13 bowl games in 17 seasons.

Ferentz has twice before been a finalist for the FWAA coaching award, in 2002 and ‘04. But the last Big Ten Conference coach to win it was Ohio State's Jim Tressel in 2002, the year the Buckeyes won the national championship in the Fiesta Bowl with an overtime victory over Miami.

'Kirk Ferentz's Hawkeyes, in a preseason poll of writers compiled by cleveland.com, were picked to finish fourth in the seven-team Big Ten West Division,” said 2015 FWAA President Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald. 'They garnered zero first-place votes. By the end of the regular season, Iowa was 12-0, ranked nationally in the Top 5 and was the undisputed West champion. Ferentz's success in retooling his program after a 7-6 season has earned him the FWAA's national coaching honor.”

The entire FWAA membership had the opportunity to vote on the Coach of the Year Award, which was narrowed to eight finalists earlier this month. The other seven finalists were: Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, Houston's Tom Herman, Notre Dame's Brian Kelly, Temple's Matt Ruhle, Stanford's David Shaw, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops and Clemson's Dabo Swinney.

Ferentz also has been recognized as the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Region 3 Coach of the Year, and is the recipient of the Woody Hayes Coach of the Year, presented by the Touchdown Club of Columbus (Ohio). Ferentz was named both the Dave McClain and Hayes-Schembechler Big Ten Conference Coach of the Year on Dec. 1, marking the fourth season he has earned the league honor.

The Hawkeyes began the season unranked, before moving into the top 25 following a 10-6 win at Wisconsin, Iowa's first appearance in the top 25 since November 2010. Iowa steadily climbed in the rankings and was ranked as high as fourth in the CFP rankings.

Ferentz ranks seventh in Big Ten Conference wins (76) and eighth in total victories (127). He has led Iowa to 13 bowl games in the last 15 seasons, including eight January bowl events. Ferentz has led Iowa to nine first-division finishes in the Big Ten, including winning the conference in both 2002 and 2004.

Iowa has won seven or more games in seven of the last eight seasons, including eight wins in 2010 and 2013, nine wins in 2008, 11 wins in 2009, and a school-record 12 wins in 2015.

Also Wednesday, Ferentz was named a finalist for the 2015 Dodd Trophy, a national coach of the year award from the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Foundation.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com