T1B

Posted: **Tue Nov 27, 2007 11:58 pm**

Well, allegedly....

According to Michigan's rivals site and from what I heard on the radio today, Ferentz turned Michigan down because they wouldn't pay him more than $2 million and he is making a million bucks a year more than that at Iowa.

There never was an "official" interview, but everything was done in 3rd parties. This is kinda how job searches go in college sports. Michigan's 3rd party people will contact Ferentz' agent and ask them hypothetically if Kirk is interested. If Kirk tells his agent he's interested in hearing from them, Michigan's 3rd party people will inform Kirk's agent about how much they'd be able to pay him and then Kirk decides if it's enough. If not, everyone goes about their business and act like nothing ever happened even though we know from a ton of reliable sources that there was an interest in him. In fact, sounds like Kirk was their #1 target......not Les Miles.

Now, it looks like it's either going to be Miles or Brian Kelly. Kelly is a better hire because I think he's an up and comer. The question is if he is ready for this jump or not. Miles is not a good coach and he's a jagoff. Michigan needs to look elsewhere. Lloyd Carr doesn't like him, that's why they went after Ferentz. He's buddies with Lloyd and he runs a similar system. He's basically a younger Lloyd Carr and we all know that Lloyd is going to have a say in this coaching search.

Like I've been saying on this board for years, Kirk is going nowhere. At least not for a long time. When you have solid tradition and a butt load of money, you can keep any coach. He's turned down many NFL jobs and chances to interview at a lot of major colleges. On top of that, he has lived in Iowa City for 20 years of his life and he's about to have his 2nd son join his football program.

Kirk will never shoot down rumors. That's how he is. That's how he gets leverage with the U of Iowa and that's how he keeps his name out there in case down the road he finds an NFL job he wants (ahem, Cleveland Browns or Pittsburgh Steelers). So he's not going to shoot down the Michigan job. Besides, if the slim chance that Miles and Kelly turn it down, there's a good chance Michigan will come back to him with a much bigger offer, he may consider it.

You guys (ahem, Killian) can continue to call me an Iowa homer, but the fact of the matter is we've got a shit load of money and can compete financially with just about anyone. And on top of that, we've got a pretty solid football program that has a lot of potential.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 12:03 am**

I heard the NFL is considering making the first round of next year's draft 85 picks. That way none of Iowa's players will get screwed out of being drafted in the first round due to some stupid rule.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:11 am**

They do have the money to compete....just not on the field.

I love it that Ferentz never squashes the rumors. The Hawkeyes have recruits leaving faster than Steve Alford did. Smart move in my opinion. Keep everyone in limbo.

Good luck again next year, dumbass.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:15 am**

Dammit, I was hoping they'd hire Ferentz just so Neb could get a clean shot at Kelly. Now I gotta hope Mich goes for Miles or looks elsewhere.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:11 am**

Iowa's potential reminds me of how soccer is going to be the next "big" thing.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:23 am**

TheJON wrote:When you have solid tradition...

Please expound here, I'm not following. Pink locker rooms?

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 4:27 am**

L45B wrote:
TheJON wrote:When you have solid tradition...
Please expound here, I'm not following. Pink locker rooms?

its a tradition of losing. one b10 championship in every 10-15 yrs. hell its better than Indiana. (sorry shine)

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 5:59 am**

JON and Kirk
Sittin' in a tree
K-i-s-s-i-n-g
First comes love
Then comes marriage
Here comes Western Michigan
With an ass kickin' for Lil Herky Kirky.

Not a bad return for Iowa and the 2 million dollar investment.
I'm guessing he ain't going anywhere cuz he's not stupid enough to walk away from suckas that feel great with dealing that much cash to a guy that can't beat Iowa St.!
You'd think after all the abuse they've given him he'd actually tell his team "Hey, lets' pretend, just this once, this game means something to us." But how can you expect a dude that's pulling down 3 mil. with incentives to think of everything. Especially concerning state bragging rights.
How the court proceedings coming?

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:19 am**

Jon,

You may know Iowa football, but you don't know shit.

Make no mistake, if UM (and Coleman) made Kirk an offer, he'd turn maize-n-blue so fast you wouldn't know what to do. Iowa is not a destination job. With the exception of the 20's and the Hayden Frey years, the Hawkeye program has been shit. Without the shallow pockets of the Tom Arnolds of the world noone would even know your pathetic program exists. You've got wrestling, not much of a revenue producer, UM is in the top 5 percent of CFB gigs if not higher. No coach who thinks he is a Big Time winner would turn down UM. No hayseed fuck would be offered the job without Les Miles getting an interview....are you starting to see where your myopia has intervened? The job will be offered to one guy first...Miles. He's got the right of first refusal. After that, up and coming coaches. Well behind will be coleman fall back Ferentz. If that time comes, he will look to the heavens and thank whatever God he prays to, and thank him for a future that he is unworthy of. Ferentz will be at best, a buffer between Lloyd and the guy who takes UM to the pinnacle.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:07 pm**

Jon:

I am happy you are happy. It is good to know that Iowa fans are still happy with him. I have been having nightmares this week imagining Ferentz on our sidelines. What pisses me off is that Michigan may have actually offered a guy who isn't going to a bowl game a job. They offered a job to guy who had over 10% of his team get charged with a crime this year. This is the same guy who's first nine years are worse than Fry's LAST nine years, and that's when Iowa had two or three losing seasons. This is a coach who has only beat Ohio State 1 time and I believe has a losing record to his main rival Iowa State. To be honest I don't know one redeeming quality this guy has a coach.

Steve:
All rumors seem to indicate that Michigan did offer Ferentz the job and that he turned up down. To be honest I don't blame him, he knows he is a fraud and why would he go expose himself for less money? But, Ferentz turning the job down isn't an insult, the insult is that we ever offered the job in the first place.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:02 pm**

Is this a Lock thread? Take Hayden Frycook and the points.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:19 pm**

WolverineSteve wrote:Make no mistake, if UM (and Coleman) made Kirk an offer, he'd turn maize-n-blue so fast you wouldn't know what to do.

As it relates specifically to Ferentz, I don't necessarily agree. Who else could ever make that much money, combined with stable job security at a Big 10 school while running a relatively mediocre program? That just doesn't happen. If Ferentz brings to Michigan what he's currently bringing to Iowa, he'll be canned in 5 years or less, and he knows it. Ferentz has got it made, and would be a fool to leave Iowa.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:28 pm**

BlindRef wrote: Steve:
All rumors seem to indicate that Michigan did offer Ferentz the job and that he turned up down. To be honest I don't blame him, he knows he is a fraud and why would he go expose himself for less money? But, Ferentz turning the job down isn't an insult, the insult is that we ever offered the job in the first place.

I'm not buying it. There is no way that a coaching search of this magnitude would culminate so quickly. I believe you and I read most of the same blogs and I don't see anything concrete. If anything I believe that there were third party preliminary talks, nothing more. Miles, Kelly etc., will get interviews. There is no way that Ferentz was even offered simply because his acceptance would've ended the search right then, and I cannot believe that he was the slam dunk top choice. This is the most important athletic dept. hire in 40 years. There is no way it was going to be over that quickly and with so few interviews or inqueries.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 3:39 pm**

My guess is that Miles is the choice, but that he doesn’t want it announced until after the SEC title game.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:37 pm**

great fan base. ppl within state boundaries root for the state's flagship university. omfg that's so much different than the rest of the country. and there's a difference between has the money to pay and willing to pay. i have trouble believing iowa boosters can outspend michigan's, not to mention our revenues dwarf theirs. michigan, like many other universities, could go alabama if they wanted. their parsimonious reputation is a result of hiring bo when coaches weren't paid like ceo's and subsequently employing men who accepted less than market value to coach where their loyalties lied.

i don't know how involved carr is in the coaching search, but martin will at the very least allow the courtesy of looking into carr's preferred successors. perhaps he looked at ferentz out of respect for carr, which is possible considering he gave courtesy interviews to debord [douche] and english [not a fucking chance]. if michigan really offered $2 million, i'd call it deliberate low-balling just so martin can tell lloyd, well, we tried. do you really think martin would expect ferentz to take a $1 million pay cut?

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:38 pm**

Jon, your rants aren't even entertaining any more. I know you are just trolling but seriously, can you at least include a grain of truth for the sake of argument?

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:46 pm**

great fan base. ppl within state boundaries root for the state's flagship university. omfg that's so much different than the rest of the country.

to clarify this, i mean that ppl often confuse the fact that the local university hasn't evaporated or been blown up with actual tradition. let's go watch the same 4-7 football team my grandaddy rooted for. that's fucking tradition, yo.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:53 pm**

I think JON's "tradition" becomes more solid when he enters the pink locker room.

As for Mace...well, say the words "pink" or "solid", and you're guaranteed an animal reaction.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 6:57 pm**

Steve,

Come on, open your eyes. Sources at Iowa are basically saying Michigan offered him $2 million and that's way less than he's getting at Iowa, so he said no. They think he won't shoot the rumors down because if Miles and Kelly turn Michigan down they may come back to Kirk with a real offer that he may not be able to refuse. Mgoblog.com claims to have sources, your Rivals site has sources, Iowa's Rivals and Scout sites have sources, etc.... Too many sources on both sides mean there's more to this than you think. I don't think this was a quick decision. I'm sure they had Kirk in mind for a while with his connection to Mary Sue Coleman (she hired him at Iowa) and Lloyd Carr. Plus, he runs a similar system and is a similar type of coach to Lloyd Carr.

You guys are dead wrong on Ferentz and my thoughts on him. I like Kirk, but i have no hardon for the guy. I never have. Had he left, I wouldn't have cared one bit. He's a good coach, not a great coach. And he's done nice things at Iowa. I want his coordinators gone. And I'd rather not have Kirk and the coordinators be gone than have Kirk along with the coordinators.

As for his job security......you guys are dead wrong on this too. Trust me, if he goes 6-6 again next year he's out the door most likely. Our AD will most definitely at least make him fire the coordinators he's been way too loyal too and there's a 50/50 chance he'll be canned too. The fans are getting on him a lot right now. We've kinda got a divided fan base. You've got the fans (the realistic ones like myself) that understand that Iowa is not Michigan and we can't expect a 10 win year every season. We're Iowa. It's just the reality of college athletics. If you don't have the great recruiting base, you can't expect to finish in the Top 10 every year. If 6-6 is as bad as it will ever get then that's a credit to Ferentz. I'm realistic. I understand we have a nice program that occasionally jumps up onto the national scene and contends for a conference title, so I don't expect national titles. I just expect consistently making it to a bowl and finishing in the Top 25 maybe 60% of the time and possibly winning a Big-10 title every 6-7 years. If you expect more at Iowa, you're an idiot. You guys that are fans of the elite programs can laugh at that all you want, but I will say this......what we've got sure as heck beats the heck out of what most programs in the country have.

Now, we have our segment of the fan base that thinks we're Michigan and should be winning 10 games every year, but who cares what they say?

I'll say this......there have been some inexcuseable losses the last couple of years. Losing to Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio State, etc.... those are excuseable. But losing to teams like Northwestern, Indiana, Iowa State when they're in a rebuilding year, and Western Michigan should not be happening. And that is why Ferentz is taking a lot of heat from the fans.

I'd rather be realistic than be Husker fan or an Irish fan that just can't grip the concept of "times have changed." Cornhusker and Killian......you guys can take shots at Iowa all you want, but things aren't gonna be turning around for your programs anytime soon. This ain't the 1970's anymore. That'll piss you off to hear that, but your fan bases had better learn that 8-4 seasons are pretty damn good. And they better learn that fast. Because if they don't, fans are gonna be seen jumping off the top of your stadiums at record paces.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:59 pm**

TheJON wrote: Because if they don't, fans are gonna be seen jumping off the top of your stadiums at record paces.

I'm just wondering, because maybe I haven't been paying attention to the current college atmosphere, but is this a common reaction from dissatisfied CFB fans?

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:08 pm**

Wether or not Weis is the answer as coach at ND, they are and will be in a better situation than Iowa. And 8-4 is not a good season, it's average.

And you may not have a hard-on for Ferentz now, but on the old boards he was up there with your Abercrombie boy.

Posted: **Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:11 pm**

TheJON wrote:Now, we have our segment of the fan base that thinks we're Michigan and should be winning 10 games every year, but who cares what they say?

probably the ppl who've made the guy the fifth-highest paid coach in america. losses against mich and osu aren't excusable when you're paid not much less than their two coaches combined. a big ten title once over five or six years and no impact on the national scene isn't much return for slightly less investment than usc made in pete carroll. sheat, ferentz probably has more disposable income once you factor in the money he doesn't have to pay to provide shelter for his son.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 2:50 am**

M Club wrote:
TheJON wrote:Now, we have our segment of the fan base that thinks we're Michigan and should be winning 10 games every year, but who cares what they say?
probably the ppl who've made the guy the fifth-highest paid coach in america. losses against mich and osu aren't excusable when you're paid not much less than their two coaches combined. a big ten title once over five or six years and no impact on the national scene isn't much return for slightly less investment than usc made in pete carroll. sheat, ferentz probably has more disposable income once you factor in the money he doesn't have to pay to provide shelter for his son.

Ah yes, the low-income housing situation. That's why Cyclone fans refer to him as Freerentz.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:39 am**

Mace wrote:I don't know if Ferentz was offered the Wolverine job or not....and we will probably never know for sure....but I'm reading this thread and hoping that some of you guys that I thought knew something about the game are just bustin' a cap in JON's ass and not being serious when you call Ferentz a "mediocre" coach. He may or may not be a great coach but there should be no doubt that he is a damn good one. He was national coach of the year in '02 and has been voted the Big Ten Coach of the Year a couple of times as well.....and he did it, not at OSU or Michigan but at Iowa. Without Ferentz, this year's team might have been 2-10, not 6-6, because sometimes a coach does his best job of coaching when his talent level is young or down and the wins are tough to come by (insert all of the excuses about being young, decimated at the wide receiver position by injury and arrests), despite having 85 first rounders on the roster.

The fact is, Ferentz does a damn good job of recruiting and coaching when you consider that he's trying to attract big time players to play in Iowa, where recruiting is just a little bit tougher than at Michigan or OSU, and, like JON said, winning a Big Ten Title every 5-6 years is a pretty reasonable expectation for Hawkeye fans but they should also know that we can only accomplish that with a damn good coach. Iowa's program is about dead even with Wisconsin at this point in time, IMO, and the Hawkeyes have enjoyed more than their share of success against Michigan when compared to most of the other conference schools with the obvious exception of OSU. One cannot compare the "tradition" of Michigan or OSU to Iowa but, despite those who have spewed their ignorance regarding Iowa football history, I am not about to forget the Evasheski years at Iowa. Evy, a Michigan alum and QB/blocking back on the Tom Harmon teams, turned Iowa into a national power in the 50's (not that it's relevant to this current discussion other than to deliver a message to those running their ignorance regarding Iowa football history). Also, it's Hayden FRY, not "Frey".

I could see Ferentz turning down the Michigan job (and it would have had nothing to do with the money) because....get this.....he's happy at Iowa. Iowa is a great place to raise a family and, make no mistake about it, Ferentz is a family man who would consider his family and their well being and happiness above any egotistical urge to coach at Michigan. You see, Ferentz, unlike many of his peers, is not an egotisical maniac (see Alford in the dictionary) and doesn't need to be coaching at a higher profile program to be happy and, IMO, he enjoys the challenge of trying to win at Iowa and building a thriving program. Make no mistake about it, he IS a big time coach, and he's coaching in a conference where he's won titles and enjoyed some national exposure, but he doesn't thrive on that exposure and recognition and will never have an easy time attracting 5 star players to his program. As for coaching ability, he's ten times the coach that Lloyd Carr could EVER be. Carr had the luxory of being connected, and privileged enough to inherit one of the best coaching jobs in the country. That doesn't make him a great coach....and a great many Michigan fans have been cussing Carr for years....but it means that he enjoyed working at a place where it's easier to recruit big time athletes and to win and, even though they'd lose to OSU nearly every year, he'd still be 10-1 or 9-2 and head to a good bowl game.

There's nothing wrong with Kirk Ferentz, and there's certainly nothing wrong with him staying at Iowa....and it will only make the Hawkeyes stronger in the coming years. I, unlike JON and a good many other fans, don't see the need for his coordinators to leave. They were good enough to win in past years and they'll be good enough to win in the future.....when they have the players and the ones on the current roster get a little experience. Also unlike JON, I don't believe another 6-6 season would result in folks calling for Kirk's head but, fortunately, I don't think they'll have another down season next year and we'll see the majority of the naysayers jumping on the Ferentz for Governor bandwagon. You know the type....the one's who are rooting for Iowa's opponent because the Hawks aren't playing a good game :) ........and like the old asshole that sat in front of me at last year's Wisconsin game and was criticizing Ferentz during warmups because, unlike Bielema, Kirk was standing on the Wisconsin sideline visiting with Barry Alvarez instead of walking around and shaking hands with his players during cals.

At any rate, Iowa is better off WITH Ferentz than without him and, I, for one, am damn glad he's staying here.

Oh, and PSUFan..........the visitors' dressing room was painted pink to satisfy JoePa's feminine side when he visits Iowa City. ;)

Sorry for the length of this post.

Mace

P.S. As for Brian Ferentz living in low rent housing and receiving food stamps.........LOTS of college students (not just athletes) have done the same and it was 100% legal for them to do it. Doesn't make it morally right, in my estimation, but it was legal and common practice.

As for the arrests...........name a major college program that doesn't have players arrested from time to time. Go ahead....I'll not hold my breath. I'd only be concerned if Ferentz wasn't dishing out the appropriate discipline so, on that front, there's no concern on my part. Players have been suspended and/or kicked off the team and, given that no coach can control the behavior of their players after they arrive on campus, there's not much else left for him to do. All of the players go through an orientation and ongoing meetings to cover all types of potential problems that they will face as college athletes, so the preventative measures have been taken. The rest is up to the players.

As for Notre Dame......all they've got left is their tradition 'cause they sure as hell don't have a football program. Losing to Navy? For God's sake, the Irish program has waaaay more problems that Iowa. Maybe you should keep Weiss away from the training table so there'll be some food for the players.

Mace

Well......JON....this is a post that any rational individual can understand based on precision and well communicated observation ...and one worthy of....
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Rack It.
Hats off Mace.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:58 am**

Is Western Michigan going to a bowl? You know what they say about those in glass houses...

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 5:09 am**

IMO Ferentz does need to make some staffing-changes. The meh seasons have become a trend. The D is acceptable but the O blows.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:47 am**

Mace, you were 7-5 in '05. That is still meh, for a program that is expected to be good anyway. You have had three meh seasons in a row. That is a trend.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:21 pm**

i don't think ferentz is a shite coach. i just don't want him coaching at michigan unless he's willing to legally change his name to ferentz-carr. if michigan hires ferentz we'll have the same two-, three-, and occasional four-loss seasons that carr gave us. it won't be long before ferentz buys wrap-around oakleys and begins to resemble gargamel. ferentz = status quo. i'm not delusional about michigan's chances to dominate the college football world, but they should be performing much better than they have in my 20s.

He was national coach of the year in '02 and has been voted the Big Ten Coach of the Year a couple of times as well.....and he did it, not at OSU or Michigan but at Iowa.

the coach of the year is generally reserved for the guy who goads his perennial doormat into six or seven wins. it's not that much of an accomplishment considering the coach of the national championship team is rarely mentioned even as a finalist. rich brooks will probably win the meatgrinder's award just b/c kentucky actually fielded a team this year. ron zook will win the big ten's. uh...

the Hawkeyes have enjoyed more than their share of success against Michigan when compared to most of the other conference schools with the obvious exception of OSU.

off the top of my head i believe iowa's beaten michigan 11 times and lost at least 60. i think more than their share < $2.8 million

As for Brian Ferentz living in low rent housing and receiving food stamps.........LOTS of college students (not just athletes) have done the same and it was 100% legal for them to do it. Doesn't make it morally right, in my estimation, but it was legal and common practice.

i'm sure lots of students do the same. i'm sure lots are also the sons of multimillionaires x however many years ferentz has coached at iowa. i don't care what percentage uncle sam has pilched from that poor republican's pockets, he can still afford $500 a month to keep his son away from controversy.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:41 pm**

Mace wrote:
Killian wrote:Is Western Michigan going to a bowl? You know what they say about those in glass houses...
No, they're not....and neither is Notre Dame OR Iowa. YOU were the one running your mouth about Iowa.....glass houses indeed.

Mace

Running my mouth? Hardly. Both programs had shit years, I said that ND is in a better position than Iowa even if Weis were to fail.

And Navy is going to a bowl, which was my point.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:42 pm**

Mace,

I don't know how I could have forgotten the Evasheski era, it's virtually household knowledge. As for Hayden's last name, I took a stab and spelled it the way my ex spelled her last name.

It will come out after Miles is hired mid next week, but there was never an offer. Like I said before, there may have been an informal third party exchange of information..."what might KF's potential interest be if and when a potential job gets filled in potentially leaving your current position"...that's it. Wait and see. This was done as a formality to appease Carr and Coleman as part of the due dilligence process.

I'm glad you're happy that KF is at Iowa, so are we, and UMfan would love for it to stay that way. This is not a knock on him as a coach, I think he gets just about all he can with what he has to work with. It's just that the culture of UM football is worlds apart from that of Iowa. I don't know if he could handle this size of stage, and I didn't want to wait 3-5 years to find out. Trust me, Ferentz was never going to be the coach at Michigan.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:48 pm**

Mace wrote:Iowa's program is about dead even with Wisconsin at this point in time, IMO

Huh? You guys are going to 4th consecutive January bowl game this year? Is theJON writing your material?

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 6:57 pm**

Okay, let's not get this into a "you suck more than us" debate! Iowa, Notre Dame, Nebraska.....we all sucked donkey balls this year and who cares who sucked more!!?

I agree with a lot of what Mace said, but a couple things I would dispute...

The coordinators....

You're right, we won with these coaches in the past. But that doesn't mean you will continue to win. Parker has been a damn good coach for a long time and there's absolutely no way of disputing that. But he's getting old. And his schemes are not matching up well with the changing offenses in the country. Our defense struggles against the spread offense and we're doing nothing to change things up because he's stuck in his ways. Maybe he needs better athletes on defense and his system would work against a spread. It's possible. But the thing is he had better athletes and didn't use them. When we had Coleman, Hunter, Ballard, and Clayborn in there are defense played so much better this year. Those guys can cover space much better than the slow white guys we trot out there. And Ken Iwebema might as well be white. My goodness, how on earth was he still playing? Even worse.....how on earth was he playing 80% of the snaps? He made 1 effing play all year. Ballard and Clayborn were beasts when they got the chance to play. They're bigger, they're faster, and they're more athletic. Those 2 hardly played the last 2 games and that's just ridiculous. And Jacody Coleman needed more PT also because he's more athletic than Klink. Klink is a nice MLB. He's tough and plays as hard as anyone, but Coleman needed to get more reps against more athletic offenses.

And then Adam Shada.....

Come on Mace, there is no way that guy should have been playing all these years. I know you've got the standard "we had no one else" response for me. Bullshit. Do we have a guy that can run and chew gum at the same time? If so, they should have been playing over Shada. Heck, Bradley Fletcher is better than him. He's proven it on the field and should have been playing more the last couple of years.

Onto Ken O'Keefe, or should I say Ken Keefe.....

There are 2 years out of 9 we had a good offense. 2001 and 2002. I thought his only good years of offensive playcalling were in 2001 and 2004. I thought he did a marvelous job in 2004 even though our offense wasn't highly ranked. We lost our top 4 RB's for the season with injuries and were down to a white boy walkon and we still managed to have an offense good enough to move the ball a little bit and win 10 games. The playcalling was perfect for Drew Tate. We got him rolling out of the pocket where he was successful and could make plays. But the rest of his tenure has pretty much been horrible. In 2002, yeah, we scored at will. But for crying out loud, look at the talent we had. We could have run the frickin' wishbone and scored at will that year. We had the best offensive line in the country, a dual-threat Heisman runner-up at QB, a speedy RB, a future Pro Bowl TE, and a couple really good WR's. His system was perfect for that team. Heck, any system would have worked. We might have been able to run a fake punt every down and been successful!

But the fact remains that he does not change things up to match up with his personnel unless all of his players get injured and then he has no other option (ie 2004). His system does not work when he doesn't have great talent or guys that fit his system. Yes, we were very young this year. We had a lot of injuries and suspensions and that's not KOK's fault. But for crying out loud......we had a terrible QB that can't throw to an open receiver, we had nothing but freshman WR's, our starting TE was out, our O-line is 100% underclassmen. The one thing we had going for us was a couple really good SENIOR RB's. So what do we do (even against poor run defenses like Indiana)? Throw the damn ball 30 times. And we had no creativity. Jake does not fit into this system and we'll never be successful with him at QB unless (O')Keefe changes things up a bit to better suit Jake's strengths.

And you're wrong on Ferentz' job security. He's fine now, but another 6-6 season or even 7-5 with the schedule we play next year and changes to his staff at the very minimum will be forced by Barta. He'll have too much pressure to force Ferentz to make changes.

That said....

Here's to a bounce back year in 2008!

Like the saying goes....

In Kirk We Trust!

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:01 pm**

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3132538

I was reading some of the comments on this article, and it seems a fair number of LSU fans are not all that enamored with either Miles or Pellini.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:09 pm**

Steve,

That is the biggest load of crap ever. You’ll never know the entire truth about the Ferentz rumors because nothing will come out. Like I said, both sides are going to pretend nothing happened when anyone with half a brain KNOWS this isn’t true.

And you questioning if Ferentz is ready for that kinda stage? How fukking dumb of a take is that!!??? Les Miles is the type of guy that could ruin your program. You think he’s deserving of that job? He’s a terrible coach and anyone that thinks differently is clueless. Ferentz is more ready for a job like that then anyone you could get. For crying out loud he’s won 2 conference titles in the Big-10 (the conference Michigan plays in). 3 Top 10 finishes. He’s a frickin’ Bill Belichick disciple. He’s been an assistant in the NFL (under Belicheat), a long time assistant at Iowa, a head coach at a 1-AA school, and 9 years as a head coach at a Big-10 school. But you don’t know if he can handle that stage? Seriously, that’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

Open your damn eyes. Everyone at Iowa and everyone at Michigan know Ferentz was “the guy.” It’s not a fukking secret. You’re the only one. Get a frickin’ clue, dumbass!

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 7:48 pm**

Miles is a terrible coach? Give me a fucking break. You don't have a hard-on for Ferentz, but he's a much better coach then Miles? Great call JON.

Ferentz got a call because Carr hates Miles.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:03 pm**

i suppose when the schedule allows michigan to resume their mostly-annual beatdown of iowa their fans will find consolation in beaing able to say, this has happened before, so you didn't take our virginity, but at least you didn't take our coach, either.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:05 pm**

Ferentz sucks...he does more with less than most coaches...

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 9:29 pm**

Ferentz would take a pay cut to go to michigan

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:27 pm**

Just because I think Ferentz is a better coach than Les Miles doesn't mean I have a hard-on for the guy. There are a million better coaches out there than Miles. I suppose I have a hard-on for all of them, right??

M Club,

When you say beatdown you mean beat us by a TD or less like usual, right? We play you guys tough. I know the all-time series is bad, but over the last 25 years or so we've given you everything you could handle. We just usually melt down in the 4th quarter. 1997, 1998, 2001, and 2005 all would have been Iowa wins if not for a late collapse. I know Michigan usually wins, but Michigan hasn't laid a beatdown on Iowa since I believe 1994. That's the last time I remember. Even last year was close up to the end.

Posted: **Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:51 pm**

Obviously that's hyperbole, but could you name 20 better coaches than Miles? 10 coaches?

T1B

Ferentz turns down Michigan

Ferentz turns down Michigan

Re: Ferentz turns down Michigan

Re: Ferentz turns down Michigan