Brian Ferentz: "I Did The Best I Could..."

Iowa Offensive Coordinator Wishes It Resulted in More Wins

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Iowa athletics director Gary Barta said the evaluation of the Hawkeyes’ football coaching staff will come after Saturday’s Music City Bowl against Kentucky.

Offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz offered his own evaluation of his performance after a question during Friday’s press conference.

“I would say I did the best I could this year with the pieces we had to try to put the team in position to win,” Ferentz said. “Was I successful every week? No. Was I successful enough? I wish we would have won every game we played. That's the bottom line to me.

“My evaluation is simple: Are we doing what we need to do to help us win football games? I think the record speaks for itself. We are who our record says we are.”

The Hawkeyes (7-5) rank 130th in total offense, 122nd in passing offense and scoring offense, and 123rd in rushing offense.

Ferentz understands there has been criticism of his job performance.

“My focus is on doing my job every day,” he said. “Does criticism make it to me? Of course it does. My wife has criticism for me on a daily basis. All of this gets back to me in some form or fashion.

“None of it matters. My job is every day to wake up, try to put our players in position to be successful. That's it. Whatever my reaction is to it has no bearing on my ability to do my job. I keep my focus on that.”

Barta is Brian Ferentz’s supervisor since Kirk Ferentz, Iowa’s head coach, is Brian’s father. Any discussion about the coaching staff, Barta said on Friday, will come later.

“Those of you who have been around for a long time have heard me say, observe first and evaluate (at the end of the season),” Barta said. “That's exactly what Kirk has done in the past. It's what he's doing this year. The last month has been focused on recruiting, recruiting, recruiting, then most recently, get ready for this bowl game. When the season is over, he’ll go through the same process he always does. He’ll sit down and figure out what do we need heading into 2023.

“Because of Brian's relationship to Kirk, I'll be more involved than I otherwise would. But the process used will be exactly the same.”

Asked if there would be any situation where Barta would overrule Ferentz on a coach’s evaluation, Barta said, “I'm going to wait till Kirk is done with his evaluation. Again, because Brian is his son, I will be more involved than normal, but we'll wait and see where he gets in his planning process.”

Barta said there are metrics used in the evaluation process, but didn’t specify them, saying only Ferentz uses the same metrics.

“He'll go through that process when the season's over, like he always does,” Barta said. “And he and I always sit down and we talk about … I listen to what his ideas are, what his plans are. And the only unique situation here is I'm going to be more involved just in that one situation, but he'll use he'll set up the metrics like he always does. He'll go through his process like he always does and when he has something to report about 2023, he'll come out with it.”