The Monday Kickoff: Ferentz Has The Right Tone After Saturday's Game

Iowa coach was emotional following 23-19 win over Minnesota.

I was around quite a few of those emotional Dick Vermeil moments when he was coaching the St. Louis Rams in the late 1990s.

Few football coaches showed the tears the way Vermeil did during his time as an NFL coach. But the sentiment was genuine.

Kirk Ferentz doesn't go to the Vermeil extreme, but there are times when the Iowa coach shows his emotions.

There have been the moments like after last January's Outback Bowl win, when he wiped away tears in the post-game press conference while wide receiver Nick Easley spoke about how much Ferentz meant to him.

And there's the video after Saturday's 23-19 win over Minnesota at Kinnick Stadium.

That's my Coach | #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/VyTGPgoJX6

— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) November 17, 2019

Saturday's victory came at a crucial point in the season for the Hawkeyes. Their Big Ten West Division hopes were gone, and a loss to the No. 7 Gophers would have marked the second time this season they had lost back-to-back games. And oh, would the Ferentz critics have had their moments had Iowa lost.

Instead, the Hawkeyes struck early, and then held off the constant charges from the Gophers. Minnesota's offense kept pressure on Iowa's defense all game, but the Hawkeyes held the Gophers to just two touchdowns and two field goals.

And when Riley Moss intercepted a desperate fourth-down pass in the closing minute, another top-10 team had fallen at Kinnick in November.

Last week in this space, there was an analysis of all kinds of scenarios for the Hawkeyes in the final three games of the season, even the worst-case ones where the season would fall apart.

Instead, after Saturday's win, the Hawkeyes are looking at a legitimate chance at finishing 9-3.

Ferentz was in a good mood when he met with the media after the game. He noted that he would pass on the chance to say, "That's football," one of his famous lines that was criticized five seasons ago that now he occasionally uses as a punch line.

"I got one for you, too, OK," Ferentz said. "Robert Frost. I was an English major. The only way around things is through things, all that kind of stuff.

"I did a little research on him. He had a good saying, too. After 88 years of life, one observation. He said, 'Life goes on.' Kind of like football. You never know what's going to happen. What you do is you just keep pushing forward."

Ferentz was asked after the game how he can keep his team together in these November situations.

"It takes great leadership internally, from your players. If your players aren't stable, if they're not high-character guys, not guys that really understand how tough it is to compete at this level...

That's part of our job, we got to try to educate them all year long that there's nothing easy about this. Any time you go out there and lay it on the line, it can go either way. Could have gone either way tonight.

You try to educate them. That's going to be part of the deal. That's what makes those lows so low and the highs so high. Comes back to the kind of people that are in your building. We really got a great group of young people.

We're not always the best team at times, but they're a team. They believe in each other, care about each other. Just reference yesterday, talking to the FOX crew that worked the game. A.J. (Epenesa) had just been in with them. They couldn't say enough good things about the kind of kid he is, kind of person he is, how impressed.

These guys, they're national, talking to people from all over the place. I told them, It starts with the mom and dad. If you meet the mom and dad, you understand why A.J. is the kind of guy he is.

My point is those are the kind of guys we work with every day. That's where it all starts. That's why you hurt for them when they lose. I'm happy for them tonight."

The emotion isn't Vermeil-like. But it's as real.

And it's something to appreciate about Ferentz.