Hlas: Hawkeyes’ best trade was one Gary Barta didn’t make

IOWA CITY — A year ago this week, Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta offered himself as a phone-interview subject to The Gazette and the Des Moines Register.

That never happens. Not that Barta is inaccessible. Call or email him, he gets back to you. Ask him a question, he answers. But this was different.

It was a week after Iowa's football team's loss to Nebraska for a disappointing 7-5 regular-season record. The natives were restless. Well, it wasn't restless as much as exasperated, agitated and angry.

Many said they'd had their fill of Kirk Ferentz as Iowa's coach after 16 years, and either wanted him dismissed or craved assurance the coach's feet were being held to the fire.

After a week of getting that kind of feedback, Barta sought what was left of the state's so-called mainstream media. I interviewed him for 25 minutes. He didn't seem to like all the questions, but never flinched. (The entire Q&A is here) Among his responses:

'I'm convinced that moving to 2015, (Ferentz) is going to go through the process of making adjustments to offense and defense and special teams. Because he doesn't believe we met expectations, either. I believe 100 percent that he can make those types of adjustments and get us back to where we want to be.'

And: 'The reason that I'm going to be optimistic is that Kirk's leadership has shown he can rebound to bring a team back to win. I know that the fundamentals will be there. I know the environment will be there. The foundation is still strong. We have a lot of returning starters. And the schedule, like this year, the schedule sets up that there are games we can win. We just have to get over the hump, whatever that means.'

And: 'I know that some of our fans, I don't know how many, some of the advice, some of the feedback is 'Well, other programs are pulling the trigger and they must care more.' That's not how I look at it. I care deeply.

'I've made an evaluation that we're not where we want to be right now expectation-wise, but I still believe the foundation is still strong enough to focus with Kirk.'

Those and other of Barta's comments didn't appease those who were convinced it was change-or-die for Hawkeye football. But a year later, with Iowa 12-0 and headed to Saturday's Big Ten championship game, Barta could do a mic drop were he inclined.

'I didn't have a football crystal ball,' Barta said Tuesday in the Iowa football building after Ferentz's press conference. 'But I've been around a lot of football coaches.

'I remember talking about a strong foundation. Kirk had proved he could win at Iowa over the years. His players were behind him and the coaches were behind him. Even though we had a lot of near-misses (last season) and there was some mood outside the athletic department that was negative, I believed and said the foundation was strong.'

In the months after Iowa got thumped by Tennessee in the TaxSlayer Bowl. Barta stayed on message. In Kirk he trusted.

'In leadership positions you're either all behind somebody or it's time to make a change,' Barta said. 'I wanted to make sure throughout the year after the season that people knew I was 100 percent behind Kirk and his staff.'

Tuesday, Ferentz quipped 'I preferred that answer to the alternative, without a doubt.

'But I'm very appreciative of that, and again, that's kind of what I referenced about coaching at Iowa. This is a unique place. I always go back to where I grew up. The Pittsburgh Steelers, they've had highs, they've had lows, they've had Super Bowl seasons and they've had seasons where they don't make the playoffs. But as an organization they don't panic and they've had great stability there. I think in a lot of ways we resemble that here at Iowa with our athletic leadership.'

In 1948, Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck said 'Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make.' He was referring to not trading shortstop Lou Boudreau the previous winter. The Indians won the World Series in '48 and Boudreau was the American League's MVP.

Ferentz might be the national Coach of the Year in 2015. Barta made a great non-trade.