Media day No. 17: Full Ferentz ahead

IOWA CITY - This has been the off-season of assaults on the castle. The contract, the program's style of play, a season-ticket sales decline, an expected $3 million decline in football revenue, it's all been thoroughly munched on during the longest winter in recent Iowa football history.

The ticket sales and the finances are immutable fact. That will happen unless, of course, the Hawkeyes blast out of the gates and show up in Kinnick Stadium against Illinois on Oct. 10 with a 5-0 record. You will be there, Kinnick will sell out and Iowa will count money.

The rest of the general criticism and dissatisfaction? Head coach Kirk Ferentz will cordially answer those questions during Iowa's media day Saturday, but thereafter, he'll be locked into the sideline submarine that is the season.

The noise will be there, but there is a job to do. Ferentz began his 17th season as Iowa's head coach when Iowa opened camp on Thursday. This happened, no unless. The Hawkeyes will face Illinois State on Sept. 5 and you will pay attention. You might not be there, because you're still looking for a reason to buy in and that's understandable.

Everyone has made their point. Iowa is stuck in a relative rut, with five years of water treading. It's been 10-plus years since the last Big Ten championship. During this five-year stretch, some of the ground the Hawkeyes claimed has receded. In the mid-2000s, Iowa traded punches with Wisconsin and Michigan State. In the last five seasons, Iowa is 34-30, Wisconsin is 50-18 (with three 11-win seasons) and the Spartans are 53-14 (with three 11-win seasons and a 13-win Rose Bowl victory season).

Yes, Ferentz said last week, it is personal.

'You take everything personally, that's my job,” Ferentz said. 'What I do for a job is who I am. It doesn't define me totally, but certainly it's personal. I think all of us take pride in what we do. We want to do quality work. For us the product is out there on the field.

'Good, bad or indifferent, there's always reflection. The point I want to make clear is all of us didn't feel good about the way it ended. Whether it be the last game in Kinnick (a 37-34 overtime loss to Nebraska) or the bowl game (a 45-28 loss to Tennessee), there really wasn't a lot to feel good about coming out of those two games. It's like losing any ballgame. You go through that period of not feeling very good and then at some point you have to kick into ‘OK, what are we going to do to correct this? What are we going to do to get better and get back to where we want to be?'”

Coolly, calmly, Ferentz answered questions during Big Ten media days about his contract and the future. Just as he controls his emotions on the sidelines, Ferentz didn't go into 'forehead vein” mode in front of the cameras.

The environment around Iowa football is, however, swirling, and we're not just talking angry emails. The University of Iowa is looking for a new president to replace Sally Mason, who retired last month. The Board of Regents has agreed on nine candidates. 'Airport interviews” will take place early next week. Three or four top candidates will be on campus in early September.

The ball is rolling. The person rolling the ball very well might be Bruce Rastetter, the president of the Board. He also happens to be a large contributor to the Iowa football program, donating $5 million in 2008. From the UI news services release, here's a quote from Rastetter, a UI alumnus, 'I am so proud of the University of Iowa, its football program and the leadership of Kirk Ferentz. I am excited to help ensure the program continues to grow and has first-class facilities in order to compete with any other program in the nation,” he continued.

Wednesday, Rastetter did more than ensure. In the first Regents meeting since Mason retired, it approved a plan for the UI to spend $150 million on a dormitory that will offer housing for athletes on the west side of campus (and other students, a 50/50 mix is required by NCAA rules), a renovation of Kinnick Stadium's north end zone (which will include more luxury seating options) and an indoor track.

With football's new indoor practice facility and operations and weightroom building, Hawkeye football soon will have stunning curb appeal and an enclave, with everything tucked within walking distance of Kinnick.

As the president of the Regents, Rastetter will have a voice in the UI presidential search. How will new university leadership view leadership in athletics?

Athletics director Gary Barta's department has thrived in areas and has collected a share of searing headlines, mainly stemming from the downturn in football and last August's dismissal of field hockey coach Tracy Griesbaum. The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights is investigating the UI's handling of gender bias complaints against Barta involving his treatment of female coaches and athletes. Griesbaum filed a civil rights suit with the state last week, the first step in filing a lawsuit. Iowa's senior associate athletics director Jane Meyer, Griesbaum's partner, was reassigned from athletics to UI's facilities department and also could sue the UI.

Yes, the new UI president will have a check list that will have a mile of things to engage before athletics, but let's face it. Federal investigations and lawsuits tend to jump off the page.

So many questions. How will Rastetter and the new UI president view Iowa athletics? Will they be in concert or at odds? Clearly, Rastetter cares how Iowa football performs. Barta? Beyond the optics, the investigation and lawsuits could go Iowa's way. That's best-case thinking, yes.

Ferentz? He does have that contract, which will pay him $4 million a year through the 2019 season (it also carries a buyout that will be in the $9 million range at the end of this season).

Ferentz already said it's personal. He wants to leave Iowa, whenever that happens, on his terms and he wants to be remembered as the football coach and not the banker. So, climb into that sideline submarine, win eight games (or more) and see what happens in the offices, where the games seem bloodier and less predictable.

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