Mind of Mike: Iowa thrives despite Ferentz’s embarrassing mistakes

Iowa is a solid program we know this. Kirk Ferentz is a very good coach and they could honestly go 10-2 or even 11-1 this season after a Big Ten title game appearance last year. And all of this despite the Hawkeyes continuing to do dumb and embarrassing things.

What am I talking about? Pretend this is your favorite program and tell me how you’d feel and if your coach would survive.

A long tenured head coach hires his under-qualified and grossly overmatched son to be his offensive coordinator. And, after results that make the offense the laughing stock of the entire country, he continues to keep him employed until his boss steps in and makes him fire his kid. The level of nepotism is not only astonishing but also downright disgusting as tax payers help pay the father and son’s salaries as public employees.

During this time, tax payers had to help foot the $4.75 million bill for the settlement of a lawsuit against the head coach and his program accusing him of running a racially discriminatory program.

This head coach and his staff recruited a 5-star in-state prospect and landed a verbal commitment from him. However, at the last minute he changed his mind and flipped to a power program out of state. After some struggles by the player as a freshman, a coach from the staff reached out to him telling him to keep his head up. This is illegal tampering as the player wasn’t in the transfer portal and the program had to self-report this violation after said player admitted the tampering in a TV interview. The good news? The player decided to come home and transfer and was expected to be an immediate starter. However, after taking some NIL money, he decided to go right back to his previous school leaving this coach and his staff with a recruiting violation and egg on their face. Verbal commitment, flip, transfer, transfer back. The player obviously toyed with this program over and over again.

And just recently this coach was suspended for a game (self-imposed as well) for tampering with his current starting QB when he was at another program. Another transfer portal transgression, this time for a horrible QB who was part of the worst offense in the country last season.

So in review, have your program accused of racial discrimination, show obvious nepotism, allow a recruit to toy with and use you and tamper with a QB who helped your offense become a national embarrassment. Would your coach survive?

Kirk Ferentz survives. Maybe a Nick Saban or Kirby Smart survives, but I’m not sure many others would.

Ferentz is 196-119 at Iowa coming off a remarkable 10-4 season with the worst offense I’ve ever seen in college football. And the schedule lays out a potential double digit win season again this year.

How this guy thrives while becoming a national joke in the meantime is astonishing to me. Maybe that’s why he’s considered a great coach and not just a good one?