Barta Quotebook: Eventually, He'll Have To Find A Successor For Ferentz
Gary Barta realizes there will be a day when he has to find a new football coach.
Right now, though, the Iowa athletics director isn’t expecting to make a decision any time soon on Kirk Ferentz’s replacement.
Ferentz will turn 65 on August 1. He is entering his 22nd season with the Hawkeyes, and is coming off a 10-3 season that included a win over USC in the Holiday Bowl.
So, no, it doesn’t appear like his exit is imminent.
That said, Barta is prepared.
“Right now, he’s enjoying himself,” Barta said. “He’s had a wonderful run, especially over the last five years. His health is good.
“You hear this story that athletic directors have these lists of people in their back pocket. I don’t keep lists, but I’m constantly evaluating.”
Barta and Ferentz meet after the season every year, but the discussion is more about immediate needs.
“What we’re looking at is over the next five years, what are we looking at to continue to have this success,” Barta said. “One of the reasons Kirk has been successful has been continuity with himself, continuity with his assistants, his strength team.”
Barta said thinking about the future isn’t unique.
“We talk about the succession plan within the whole department,” he said. “‘If so-and-so leaves, do we have anybody (internally) who can fill that (position). Does that person need to be prepared?’”
Barta’s work on the College Football Playoff committee — he moves into the chairman’s role this season — has allowed him to view games from around the nation, which has allowed him to see different coaches and different styles of coaching.
And he’s evaluating Ferentz’s current staff — Barta doesn’t foresee any changes there heading into the upcoming season.
All that does, though, is fill a notebook for an open mind that could need to make a decision at some point.
“When the day comes when he retires, I want to be as ready as possible,” Barta said.
Honoring Fry
Barta said the athletic department will do something to honor former football coach Hayden Fry, who died in December.
What Iowa will do, and when will it happen, is still up in the air.
Barta attended the memorial service in Dallas a couple of weeks ago, and has been in touch with Fry’s family.
“They asked, out of respect to them, to let them catch their breath,” Barta said. “I don’t know what the exact amount of time is before they are ready. When they’re ready, we absolutely plan to do something to honor Hayden.
“I want to make sure the family, whatever we do, endorses it. We don’t have a hard date set.”
Fry died on Dec. 17, 10 days after the death of former Iowa athletics director Bump Elliott.
“To lose Bump Elliott and Hayden Fry within weeks of each other was really an amazing loss for this program,” Barta said. “To have them both pass at similar times was quite a jolt.”
Another sport?
The Iowa Board of Regents this week will consider a plan to build a new wrestling facility that will attach to the south end of Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Planning for the facility is in its early stages.
Could such a facility signal an eventual addition of a women’s wrestling program?
“The care I take in adding a sport is we have to come up with additional revenue, because I don’t want take money from our existing sports that we’ve worked so hard to build up,” Barta said. “The one thing I will tell you is any time we build a facility, including a wrestling training facility, we probably should build it with the potential for growth in the facility in the future. So I’ll just leave it at that.”
