Ferentz withstands the test of time

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz watched two of his best coaching friends, Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, leave football after last season.

So, naturally, college football’s longest-tenured coach smiles and nods as he reflects on his own potential exit.

“All of us have to do that,” the 68-year-old Ferentz said at Big Ten Media Days. “Fifteen years ago, the pause was going to come because I was going to get fired. I’m not saying that’s not a possibility as we move forward, but it’s probably a little less a percentage and more realistic toward retirement. At some point, you retire. It’s up to everybody. Both Bill and coach Saban are older than I am.”

The connection runs deep for Ferentz.

In what seems like a lifetime ago, he and Saban were assistants on Belichick’s staff with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns coach from 1993-95.

Ferentz enters his 26th season as the Hawkeyes’ coach with a 208-140 record and as the school’s career leader in victories. His only Big Ten titles came in 2002 and 2004, and his contract, which pays $7 million per year, runs through 2029.

The Hawkeyes should be strong again this year, returning a veteran group from a squad that went 10-4 in 2023. Ferentz has hired a new offensive coordinator, Tim Lester, to replace his son Brian in hopes of producing more points. Iowa also believes former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara could be part of the solution after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the Hawkeyes’ third game last year.

Meantime, Ferentz has been checking in on his friends.

“He and I have exchanged some notes, but we haven’t had a personal conversation,” Ferentz said when asked about Belichick. “I’m a little lower level than those guys, easily. They’ve got a little seniority on me, but it’s all relative, too. They’re both in good health. I feel good. As long as you feel good and like what you’re doing, you keep doing it.”

Ferentz has been around long enough to see the Big Ten nearly double in size, with 18 members, athletes getting paid and the transfer portal. It’s not a world he recognizes.

“I’ll go back to 1990, when I was a head coach at Maine,” Ferentz said. “It was a couple of weeks into the job. I came home one day and I told my wife, ‘If I ever come home and say I’m surprised by anything, just hit me with a baseball bat right in the head.’ One thing I learned real quickly is you never know what’s going to happen.”