3/11/2023 0 Comments Sooey game![]() 'Just gassin'.' As good as it gets, America.) 'I asked him, 'What do you think about this place?' He said, 'If I had to pick an ideal place to end up as a coach, this is it.' 'Kirk and I were out driving around the community, just gassing, father-and-son stuff. 'I said to my wife the other day that I remembered a spring day in 1982,' John said. That's a gift and underappreciated in our business these days.) (Mike is a really great interviewer, by the way. John referred to Kirk's nine seasons as offensive line coach on Hayden Fry's staff (1981 to 1989). He loved it there, from the people in the university to the friends in the community.' 'He never lost the roots he established in Iowa. 'It's a great, great, great place to live, a warm community where people are good to each other. 'Kirk feels about Iowa the way I feel about Pittsburgh,' said Kirk's father, John Ferentz. In a roundabout way, Iowa and Kirk Ferentz were sort of a homecoming. ![]() ![]() So when Kirk first came to Iowa (in 1981, as an assistant to Hayden Fry), it was like going home for me.' 'My grandfather's father homesteaded along the Des Moines River near Keosauqua. 'My grandfather graduated from the University of Iowa in 1885,' said Elsie Mae Ferentz, Kirk's mother. Those who wanted someone with Iowa ties to become the new Hawkeyes' football coach got just that in Kirk Ferentz. I'm not sure there are a lot of interviews out with Ferentz's folks. Gazette columnist Mike Hlas was in the mix. I felt like at one point we both hoped Bob Stoops would end up at Iowa, just to get the thing over with. I had fantastic conversations with Mike Stoops. I was enlisted to help track Iowa's coaching search. I was the rookie of the year, sort of, when Ferentz was hired in 1998. Did I think that would work? Do I have an ounce of situational awareness? Apparently not. I don't know what the heck I was thinking. I think I've called the house like twice. Football is all about logistics.įerentz is intensely private with family stuff. Kirk Ferentz and son Brian, who was a starting offensive lineman for the Hawkeyes in '04, left the team on Tuesday and didn't return until Friday afternoon.ĭeath doesn't care about logistics. What we didn't know at the time was Ferentz's father, John, had died the Sunday before at the age of 84. Iowa started its Big Ten season 2-1 and came off a victory over No. The Hawkeyes readied to head out to Pennsylvania for a grudge-rumble with Penn State.
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