The Quickest Slant

Iowa is 2-1 this season. You weren't particularly satisfied with the two. You're really, really not happy with the one.

The 20-17 loss to Iowa State last weekend opened a giant can of 'fire everyone.” This morning, Forbes posted the road map around head coach Kirk Ferentz's massive buyout.

Some of the details are off. Iowa's assistants don't have buyouts. Unless it's changes since 2012, they are at-will employees who have contracts that run from February to June (I'll FOIA and check).

But I'm not here to parse this piece (double entendre alert). Here's a link. Read Chris Smith's post and draw your own conclusions. I think I know where some of you already stand on this, but try to keep an open mind. The timing? The author recently wrote about coach buyouts. Ferentz sort of stands alone in that category. He didn't bring Tony Soprano to the negotiation table (his agent, Neil Cornrich, might, however, be even tougher.*) Ferentz and Iowa and Iowa athletics director Gary Barta took this plunge together with their eyes open. Ferentz has said all along he know questions would come with this contract. He had a vibrant market for his services (the NFL, it still prints money even with all of the off-field grotesquerie). Barta didn't make this move unilaterally. He had support within the department and with donors.

Click the Forbes post, it's worth your time for the mechanics of contracts, specially Ferentz and Iowa.

Here's a paragraph:

'According to data reported to the Department of Education last year, Iowa ranks No. 11 in athletic revenue among all college programs. What's more, its $30 million in profits are second only to Alabama ($34 million), topping even Texas ($27 million) and Notre Dame ($20 million). Those earnings are a bit of an anomaly for Iowa, but it also reported profits over $14 million in two of the previous three years. Even if things fall back to that level, the school's athletic department would be looking at giving up around 25% of its annual earnings to afford the cost of firing Ferentz.”

I don't agree with the premise of jumping to the conclusion of firing a coach who's been at a school for 25 years after a loss in week 3. I might be running into traffic in the cyber world that demands heads on spikes on a daily basis, but no, just no. It's too early to go there. Week 3? Did Iowa suddenly become Pitt (remember, Pitt had four coaches in like 15 minutes before Paul Chryst arrived and got it back on course)?

- Iowa might be able to pull this off financially, but that 25 percent of future earnings is a number that I wouldn't be comfortable with. That's a lot of your future tied up in one stroke of the pen.

- Iowa doesn't have an billionaire oil baron backing its program.

- I talked to Barta for a story on Ferentz's contract in 2012 (you remember 2012, no?): 'Glad I did it and still glad I did it.” The Iowa boss people still see the value.

- You're still going to games. Yes, Iowa has had one sellout in the last season-plus, but capacity-wise, but about 67K is a manageable number.

- Iowa is one bad hire, one rash decision away from being Illinois.

- You notice the revenue number from the italics? A lot of that is football. Is that all Ferentz? No, it's a lot TV. Let's not pretend it wasn't Ferentz, either, just to fuel a dead argument.

I've probably spent too much time on this, but I didn't want to ignore it. This is definitely worth discussion. Click that link. The buyout is a number that I used to track on Twitter, but only to troll. I try not to troll anymore (seriously).

'When I think of Kirk, I think of someone who has a great track record, someone who's proven at Iowa he can win, who's proven he fits the value system and integrity,” Barta said in 2012, you know, when Iowa finished 4-8. 'So, when you sit down with Kirk several years ago, you put down a contract, you factor all those things in, you look at it from a long-term viewpoint - not this week or last week - but bigger picture, fuller body of work.”

Maybe guys are hurt

. . . I always sort see myself as the sensible guy in this discussion. Boy, I sure went off on that lack of WRs Derrick Willies and Damond Powell and just three touches for RB Jordan Canzeri. I didn't even get to no touches for RB LeShun Daniels. Yes, Tevaun Smith had four targets, four catches and one reverse. Is that enough? Probably not.

Anyway, what if all or some of these guys are hurt? We sat through last Tuesday with Ferentz telling us Scherff was day-to-day, and it turned out he was exactly that. Ferentz also dropped in there that he doesn't discuss injuries.

Anyway, something to think about.

Willies missed some time in August with a muscle pull. Powell had the hernia thing and is light years ahead of time. Canzeri had a banged up hip in week 2 and seemed to tweak a heel on a kick return in the second half against Iowa State.

That's sensible guy talking.

Today's schedule

. . . Ferentz on the Big Ten teleconference at 11:40. His main presser is 12:45.

Big Ten teleconference

. . . Here we go.

Opener

- Watched film and moved on. Getting ready for 3-0 Pitt, a very good team.

Run game, what's up? - Still working on that. Two things, we're probably not as productive as we like. We have to improve. Opponents have done a good job taking it away from us. Blocking? -- I don't know. If I knew, we'd be running better. -- QB pull down and take off -- Jake has done a nice job feeling that. Has a good knowledge of where he needs to get to get the first down.

On same page with Greg Davis -- I think we are. We meet every day. I think we have a tremendous coaching staff here. We're going to work our way through it.

Plan at kicker

-- Marshall Koehn is a our kickoff guy. He's the best at that since I've been here. FG kicking was an issue two weeks ago. You're looking at two guys who haven't played. Two we think are capable. We'll use both of them. Hoepfully, what Marshall did will be a shot in the arm in confidence after last week.

National kicker problem -- Wasn't aware. It's harder to find punters. It's a dying art, if you will. In recruiting, you have more placekickers. Punters and deep snappers are tougher to find. Only time will tell. We had a good guy in Nate Kaeding. He had his ups and downs in his first year. Left guard or DT, you don't see their warts. If placekicker has issue, who doesn't know it, unless your sleeping.

Scherff and Plewa

-- Wait and see with Macon. He's day-to-day. Brandon is less sore than he was last week. Not a lot of highlights from last week, but Scherff and Ott played. That shows a lot of their determination. Could be a good example for a lot of guys on the team.

On Dillon Kidd

- Recruited Kidd during the holidays. Even competition with Connor Kornbrath. Both were less consistent in spring. Both were better in August. At the end of the camp, decided Dillon was slightly ahead of Connor. Doing it in live competition and in front of crowds. He punted well Saturday. Plus 50, inside 10. He did his part to give us a chance to win.

What surprised you most about the last three weeks - Surprise is your word. We had a lot of players coming back. We're clearly not there. I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm surprised. -- Putting pieces together -- You expect

10 Takeaways . . . 1) Derrick Willies and Damond Powell are healthy. Why are they not playing?

KF: 'They're young guys. Derrick is young chronologically. DP, as you remember, he's been here for a year basically. He missed the entire pre-season with a hernia surgery. He's working his way back in. We love the guy. He's a really talented player, high-energy guy. We'll work him in. Nothing against either of those guys. It's just where they're at right now. They've got growth to make.”

2) Some players are frustrated.

'I was a bit frustrated during the game,” wide receiver Tevaun Smith said.

3) Some players are fighting back frustration.

'It's one game,” QB Jake Rudock said.

4) Just checking again, no Willies and Powell?

KF: 'We're trying to bring Derrick along. It's got to happen. The other part about it, he's playing right behind our best receiver right now. Tevaun has grown into a pretty good receiver. It's a little bit more complex than that.”

5) So, Smith and Willies both can't play at the same time? Does that versatility exist?

KF: 'At this point not a lot [of versatility]. But at some point that may have. Yeah, this is probably not the week or time for that.”

6) KF on offensive coordinator Greg Davis

: 'Greg is stellar. Unbelievable.”

7) Yes, a few of the Iowa players saw the ISU O-line shirtless pic in their end zone

. They did not take it with the humor that I did.

8) KF on RB LeShun Daniels and whether or not his tryout in the rotation is over:

'We'll see how this week goes. We're not ruling anything out. Again, we haven't found the right rhythm, right tempo. We'll just keep working at it.”

9) KF on RB Jordan Canzeri

: He did hurt himself a little on kick return in the second half. He's expected to be ready for practice today. (I expect him to be a featured back this week if he's healthy.)

10) Would C.J. Beathard be more than a quick brush-off answer if he would've completed that TD pass to Damond Powell?

That's what the CJB question got today. KF: 'We'll keep talking about it, yeah. We'll see.”

Video yet to come.

Ferentz video Part 1

Intro (injuries and captains and such)

1:32 -- On RB Jordan Canzeri

1:54 -- On RB LeShun Daniels

2:20 -- On the freeze kick timeout

3:05 -- Starting in with the offense

3:44 -- Lack of long pass plays

4:12 -- Check downs (I think it's 4:12, can't read my writing)

4:38 -- Zone read of doom

5:32 -- How offense is an intricate deal and how one little detail can screw up the works

5:57 -- No Derrick Willies or Damond Powell?

6:12 -- Pitt rush attack

7:15 -- Again ice the kicker

8:05 -- Loosening some things up in the offense

8:20 -- It's not that simple

9:12 -- Willies and Powell revisited Part 1

9:39 -- FS Anthony Gair

9:39 -- Willies and Powell revisited Part 2 (explaining roles in this one)

10:09 -- What happened to Iowa's pass rush?

10:57 -- Paul Chryst Pitt = Paul Chryst Sconnie

11:17 -- Pitt RB James Conner (Almost wrote John Conner, like from the Terminator)

Ferentz video Part 2

How the series with Pitt came about and, no, as you might've expected, Iowa will never again under KF play another west coast non-conference game (again, as you expected or really already knew)

1:17 -- Crootin Pennsylvania (KF lost the taste for it after Sean Lee jilted Iowa, they don't really go there anymore)

1:45 -- The offense's identity and how it's changed under Greg Davis

3:10 -- On how it all started for KF at Iowa

4:56 -- On Lomax's targeting call

5:30 -- On Jake Rudock

6:02 -- More targeting

7:05 -- Timeout after the ISU's first TD review

7:24 -- The weekly CJB blow-by

7:49 -- The kicker thing

8:26 -- On the negativity creeping in

9:23 -- Fans and players and stuff

9:37 -- Greg Davis is awesome

10:00 -- More awesome

10:43 -- More awesomer (really, you guys aren't going to rattle Davis. Texas took its best run at him! He's the Terminator!)

12:20 -- Greg Davis and the game plan

12:42 -- Memories of Iowa's last meeting with Pitt, which was only the largest deficit Iowa has ever come back from in program history

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@sourcemedia.net