ORLANDO, FL – On Friday, Dec. 29, Iowa football’s offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz talked to the media in person for the first time since August. All Hawkeye assistant coaches have usually been available for interviews during the bye week, but that traditional custom was scratched this season.
The last of the assistant coaches to speak this season, Ferentz fielded questions from the podium ahead of Iowa’s Citrus Bowl matchup against Tennessee, addressing his eventual firing this offseason and the narrative of the contest against the Volunteers being his last as a Hawkeye.
On the official Citrus Bowl media itinerary, Iowa tight ends coach Abdul Hodge was slated to speak, but Ferentz decided to fill in as of yesterday, per sources. The first questions asked of the offensive coordinator revolved around the October 31st announcement, made by Iowa interim athletic director Beth Goetz, that Ferentz would not be returning to the Hawkeyes next season.
When asked what the months following that decision have been like, Ferentz echoed similar verbiage from his statement given to ESPN after Goetz’s statement.
Statement from Brian Ferentz to ESPN's @PeteThamel pic.twitter.com/1TuOoHJJMO
— Go Iowa Awesome (@IowaAwesome) October 31, 2023
“I think the answer is pretty simple, right?” he told reporters. “I made a commitment to this football team and this football program. Like I said in my statement, I intended to honor that commitment and I feel like I’ve done that. And I’m going to spend the next three to four days and then cross the bridge when I get there … It’s important that I finish the right way and do my job.”
Ferentz did not provide much detail regarding the dialogue of his conversations with Goetz, saying that those questions should be directed toward her and that his focus since October has solely been on the team.
Throughout the closing games of the regular season as Iowa defeated Illinois to clinch the Big Ten West and then Nebraska the following week to earn its seventh 10-win regular season, many have taken note of the emotion of Ferentz and his father, head coach Kirk Ferentz, on the sidelines.
Brian Ferentz coached his final game inside Kinnick Stadium today.
Here, he embraces his head coach, but more importantly, his father, Kirk.
All of the emotions in Iowa City as the Hawkeyes claim the Big Ten West title. pic.twitter.com/d6jxjTX5Jd
— Ben Stevens (@BenScottStevens) November 19, 2023
Brian Ferentz didn’t deny the vitality of such emotion but maintained those feelings were directed towards the team’s accomplishments and not any personal gains. He added that the added interest in his future was an unnecessary but uncontrollable distraction.
“I think the emotion you saw with everyone on the sideline was, you saw a bunch of players that have worked really hard to accomplish their goals,” he explained. “And quite frankly, probably what I resent the most about this situation is that the focus has come off our football players who have really accomplished tremendous things this year. and it’s gone on things that don’t matter, that are trivial and silly, in my opinion.”
On Thursday, Iowa senior left tackle Mason Richman said during post-practice media availability that winning the bowl game to add to his offensive coordinator’s legacy was a “smaller vision” of the many goals the Hawkeyes had laid out for this season. On Friday, Brian Ferentz rebuked the ‘win for Brian” incentive.
“That narrative is ridiculous,” he said. “If I’ve shared one thing with these players in my time here, I think that this program is not about one person and never has been. So I just feel fortunate that I’ve been a part of this place and I’ve been around the people I’ve been around.”
One of these surrounding people is Iowa junior center Logan Jones, who sat beside Brian Ferentz at the podium. Jones was complimentary of his coach during the four years they spent together, detailing how Brian Ferentz often took the time to talk with mom throughout the season.
“She’ll come up to me after the game and say how much that means to her,” the lineman said of his mom. “You have a guy like Coach Brian who comes in and does that, just the type of man he is. It means a lot to me … And he does it with every player … it just says a lot about him. I think [the Citrus Bowl] is going to be a very emotional game for us.”
A former Hawkeye offensive lineman from 2001-05, Brian Ferentz joined the Iowa football staff in 2012 and has served as the offensive coordinator since 2017. During that decade-plus run with his father, Brian Ferentz said he “enjoyed every minute” of the experience, as it allowed him to see Kirk in a different, more nuanced light.
“Growing up, you see your parents as … they’re your parents. They’re not real people. They don’t have emotions. They don’t have feelings. They don’t have good days or bad days. They don’t have hopes and dreams. They just have you.
“As you get older, you meet your parents as people … sometimes what you find is, maybe it doesn’t live up to your idea of what your parents were, right? Because you see them as actual human beings, and we’re all flawed. But I had a chance to know my father professionally, which I don’t know that every son does. And that’s been pretty special, you know, he’s lived up to be everything I imagined him to be.”