New Kirk, This Brian

IOWA CITY — The 'New Kirk' thing is like a thing now.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz is asked almost weekly now about this offseason dive into the guts of his football program. The answer doesn't move much off script. Everyone Iowa hated the way 2014 ended. Ferentz plugged himself more into football and less into the glad-handing that it took to help build the program's new $55 million facility.

Tuesday had a couple of twists. First, Ferentz introduced us to 'Mrs. Nauber,' who apparently was his 11th grade chemistry teacher. The topic was, coincidentally, team chemistry.

'She watched, she'd stand there and watch everything I did,' Ferentz said. 'I just baffled her. I was the one student who really frustrated her.'

Earlier, Ferentz was asked how much input offensive line coach Brian Ferentz, his son, had in the formation of 'New Kirk.' You know Kirk Ferentz wasn't going to answer this straight up. Still, the answer works on a couple of levels — humorous and functional answer.

First, the funny.

'He's always been opinionated, in case you haven't noticed,' Kirk Ferentz said. 'He gets that from his mother.

'And I was half tempted to call his boss in New England (yeah, Bill Belichick) and just find out, like you know, does this guy do any work, like is he doing anything other than watching our films? He had a lot of opinions about what we were doing. I thought maybe it would be good if he just kind of paid attention to what was going on up there.'

Brian Ferentz, who was an honorable mention all-Big Ten O-lineman during his playing days at Iowa (2002-05), came to Iowa as O-line coach in 2012 after serving as New England's tight ends coach in 2011. During the winter of 2015, he had run game coordinator added to his title.

So, this is where the 'how much input did Brian Ferentz have in New Kirk' question comes along. Kirk Ferentz was adamant Tuesday that the tuneup the program received in the offseason was a total team effort.

'He's had opinions, but this has really been a staff effort,' Kirk Ferentz said. 'I think to me the story is really about the growth of our program and our staff and the cohesion of our staff.

' . . . I really feel like things are meshing. They're gelling, just like a team has to. That's a big thing, but there's really no way to microwave that or speed it up. It's just part of life.'

Several offensive linemen spoke to the media before Kirk Ferentz's news conference. One of the topics was Iowa's pass protection last weekend against Wisconsin, when Iowa allowed three sacks and at least five QB hurries. (By the way, Iowa has allowed nine sacks this season, that's 12th most in the Big Ten.)

Brian Ferentz has opinions and so the question to the O-linemen was about the way instruction was delivered. Was Brian Ferentz opinionated or was he explanatory? As it turned out, there was teaching, problem solving and not so much opinion.

'I think that's probably always easier to do after a win rather than a loss,' center Austin Blythe said. 'At the same time, we are focusing on things we can correct, not necessarily things we've already done well. . . . Brian says 'We're close, we're close, but there's still a lot of work to do.''

Brian Ferentz had already given his opinion, at least as it concerned the 2014 team, which was the impetus for 'New Kirk.'

In this Sports Illustrated 'Campus Rush' post, Ferentz said about 2014 ''We weren't playing Iowa football. We weren't tough and physical. We weren't any of those things. We lost close games. We were sh---- on special teams, got the ball run up our a-- and we didn't run the ball. We just weren't us. There was a lot of disappointment and frustration. I'd go so far as to say embarrassment because that's not who we are.'

Read the post, it's full of candid thoughts from Brian Ferentz. He does also say the Hawkeyes are close, but there remains a lot of work to do.

So maybe the takeaway here is that Kirk Ferentz probably thought that, probably thought it a lot. He probably wanted to say all of what Brian said and more during that January news conference that was totally unprecented (it had never happened in Ferentz's 17 years as head coach). He might've thought it, he didn't say it.

It will probably depend on the audience, but Brian Ferentz says what everyone's thinking. That might be a healthy thing, too.

[AN ASIDE]

So I did the Huddlecast podcast Tuesday night with former Iowa QB Drew Tate and DE Anton Narinskiy (great dudes, listen to their pod, they're hilarious). They said it was cool for me to ask them questions. Hey, I like when that gate opens.

Tate and Narinskiy played alongside Brian Ferentz. I asked if they saw 'future coach' in him and they pointed to a camp huddle during his senior season, which would've been 2005.

Both were impressed with his talk to the team (the whole team) and how he carried himself. Both said to themselves at the time, there's a future head coach.

Listen to the podcast for more. Anton told a story about a fourth down in 2004 or 2005 that center Mike Elgin didn't quite agree with. I'm going to listen and take notes. Drew, by the way, was in Banff, up in Calgary. He still is slinging footballs for the Calgary Stampeders.

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