By Blake Dowson
A rosy 2015 campaign for the Hawkeye football team has the program energized once again and for good reason.
There is a buzz around the program now, a buzz that has been missing since Ricky Stanzi was winning bowl game after bowl game for the Hawkeyes. Twelve wins and a trip to both the Big Ten Championship and Rose Bowl will make fans’ memories pretty much exactly one year long; we seem to already have completely forgotten the majorly disappointing 2014 season in which Iowa went 7-6 (4-4 Big Ten) while dropping four of its final six conference games and getting blown out by Tennessee in the TaxSlayer Bowl.
For seemingly the first time during his tenure at Iowa, head coach Kirk Ferentz’s seat wasn’t all that comfortable. It wasn’t just that Iowa went 7-6; the Hawkeyes had gone 4-8 just two years before that and 8-5 in 2013. But how they lost games had Iowa fans eventually questioning Ferentz.
The offense was horizontal in 2014, and the staff never seemed to make adjustments. Quarterback Jake Rudock played about as conservatively as a signal caller ever has, and the constant dump-downs made the Hawkeye faithful restless.
Fans have blocked all of that from their memories but now remember how queasy the 2014 season made them feel because I brought it up. (I apologize, it had to be done. Please keep reading.)
Alas, after the beat-down at the hands of the Vols, a new Ferentz was born. “New Kirk” made his first order of business naming C.J. Beathard the starting quarterback over Rudock, leading to Rudock jumping ship.
The rest is history, right? The quarterback who emerges as a star, the 12-consecutive wins, a trip to Indianapolis and Pasadena — it was a magical year.
Now, Ferentz and Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta are discussing a contract extension that would more than likely let Ferentz retire as the head coach of the Hawkeyes. He has officially thrown out that hot seat he was sitting on after 2014 and dusted off the throne he received after Iowa won the Orange Bowl in 2010.
Should we be so quick to give Ferentz a lifetime contract, though?
No. The answer is no. Any talk of an extension or a new contract for the 17-year head coach should come after the 2016 campaign to see if the Hawkeyes can follow up a successful 2015 season with another one — something they haven’t done recently.
Throwing away the 2015 season for a minute (because we don’t know how Iowa will do this season), the Hawkeyes have had two double-digit win seasons since 2004. The 2004 team — led by Drew Tate and ended with the most iconic play in recent Hawkeye history — was followed by a 2005 squad that ended 7-5. The 2009 Hawkeyes started 9-0 and ended the year with a win in the Orange Bowl. Next season, the Hawks went 7-5 again, though they did salvage a win in the Insight Bowl.
Another statistic to consider: Iowa has not won a bowl game that wasn’t quarterbacked by Stanzi since the 2004 season. And although we all vividly remember the Stanzi era, that was already five seasons ago. So, there are still a few concerns I have.
Sure, Iowa fans were convinced that the team was the real deal last season even though the rest of the country questioned it because of its schedule. But the Hawkeyes didn’t do much out in Pasadena to help disprove the outside haters, and the close game versus Michigan State was watered down when the Spartans got blanked by Alabama in the College Football Playoff.
This is by no means a call for Ferentz’s head. Last year was incredible. And with new facilities and a big-time 2017 recruiting class, it seems the program is heading in the right direction. So yes, New Kirk seems to be a big success. But let’s let one more season play out to make sure 2015 is the start of a trend, not an outlier.
