‘I don’t believe it’s going to go down the drain’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., - The air continues to seep out of the balloon.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz sat and answered for the Hawkeyes' 45-28 defeat in Friday's TaxSlayer Bowl. Iowa athletics director Gary Barta repeated that 7-5 (now 7-6, emphatically, because of Tennessee) didn't meet expectations. You skipped out on this one. Barta said there were about 5,000 Iowa fans among the 56,310 fans at EverBank Stadium.

The place was a giant orange full of loud Tennessee love. There was a lot for orange to love, too.

'Disappointed in how things turned out, but as Kirk said, we'll get up tomorrow and start preparing for 2015,” Barta said.

What does that mean exactly?

Does Ferentz flip his staff? Again? Since 2012, seven of the nine assistants on staff are new hires, including offensive coordinator Greg Davis and Phil Parker assuming defensive coordinator and re-assuming secondary coach.

'As he always does, he's been evaluating and now that we're finally over with the season, he'll go through his process for what needs to happen so we can meet expectations in 2015,” Barta said. 'We talked after the regular season and we'll talk more in earnest as we go from here.”

Barta was asked if he believed changes could be coming within the staff and declined to speculate. Ferentz was asked the question in early December and said he evaluates daily.

The next question is is this the end of Ferentz? Or maybe the end is near and when do you recognize it? What comes with that is Ferentz's contract and a $13.3 million buyout, which includes a longevity incentive of $525,000 due on Jan. 31.

Ferentz's contract has become fodder for national media that covers college football. It's vacuum-sealed, bullet-proof. A buyout is feasible, but is it realistic?

'I've been doing this a long time,” Barta told Gazette sports columnist Mike Hlas in December. 'I've never in the past given a coach a 10-year contract and I don't know that I ever will again. Not because of a good or bad experience with it.

Will the contract dictate Ferentz's future?

'I made the decision [on the deal] based on results, based on marketplace, and based on my comfort that Kirk would continue to lead us toward expectations,” Barta said. 'And some years we do, and some years we don't, and I understand there's angst right now. But at the end of the day I'm still going to make the decision whether or not Kirk's ability to lead the program back is strong or not regardless of the contract.”

Barta said he doesn't see a program on the crumble.

'I do see student-athletes who are 100 percent behind their coach,” Barta said. 'I see a group of coaches who are 100 percent behind each other. That's important, because I've been around programs where a coach loses a team and that's not the case at Iowa.”

Barring something not on the radar, Ferentz will be back for 2015, presumably with a vengeance. Ferentz and several players gave glowing reports on the tenor of the Hawkeyes' bowl practices.

'You would never know it based on what you saw at 3:25 [p.m.],” Ferentz said. 'That's about as good a month as we've had since I've been here 16 years. For whatever reason, it did not show today. That was obvious.

'I'm also confident that it's going to show in time, but we improved on a lot of different levels, older guys, younger guys. That's all we can worry about is doing our best each and every day, trying to push forward. This team, like I said, they practiced and prepared as well as any team I've been around. We just weren't good enough today.

'I don't believe it's going to go down the drain. That's what I believe and how I live. It's how I look at the world.”

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