Hawkeyes Speak, And Ferentz Says He's Listening
Running back Ivory Kelly-Martin hasn’t been a player of many words during his three previous seasons at Iowa.
That changed in the last couple of weeks, coach Kirk Ferentz said on Friday.
Kelly-Martin was one of the many voices who spoke to Ferentz during a tumultuous week after former players said there were racial disparities within the program.
Ferentz heard from Kelly-Martin one day after social media posts coming from former players indicated there were problems within the program.
The words, telling of internal problems that needed to be solved, echoed with Kelly-Martin, who knew it was time to say something.
“For me, my heart was full of hope at that point,” Kelly-Martin said. “Without facing change, nothing can be changed. With the players able to speak up for us, that just opened a huge window for everything to be able to happen. Now it’s our part as players to voice our opinions internally, so we can make a change internally.”
“It’s probably the most I’ve heard him talk in his career, cumulative,” Ferentz said. “Very well thought-out points.”
Kelly-Martin’s words, and the words with his teammates, have reached Ferentz, who acknowledged during Friday’s press conference that he has had a “blind spot” that must disappear.
“You have to look at things through a new lens, and that’s been part of the process,” Ferentz said. “We’ve talked, we’ve listened, and we’ll continue to do that. There’s been good dialogue. But the bottom line is action. What are we going to do to move forward? That’s our commitment. My commitment has always been what’s best for our program, what’s best for our players, and doing it in a respectful and honorable way to our former players and all of the people that follow our program. It starts with our guys in the room. That’s where it’s most important.”
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz speaks during a Friday news conference at the Hawkeyes' football facility. (Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen for USA Today Sports)
Iowa’s players returned to campus last weekend, with the first voluntary workout set for last Monday. But a meeting that day that Ferentz called “emotional and powerful” led to even more meetings Tuesday, with frustration and anger pouring from everywhere.
“The players did most of the talking,” Ferentz said. “It was raw. It was powerful, and productive. Everything was on the table, and it got somewhat heated and somewhat emotional at times. And I think that’s good.”
Ferentz said after Monday’s meeting, the plan was to begin workouts on Tuesday. But he received a message from the captains of the “Hawkeye Championship” teams from the spring off-campus workout sessions, saying that they wanted to talk with the coaches during their 8:30 a.m. meeting. After listening to the captains, a second team meeting was called for Tuesday.
“There were a lot of things voiced during these meetings,” Kelly-Martin said. “I don’t feel like there was a single person who left those meetings not being able to voice what they had to say.”
“Everything was raw, everything was powerful,” sophomore defensive back Kaevon Merriweather said. “Everybody got what they wanted off their chest. It was definitely a strong step forward for this program. Definitely a strong step forward for this team.”
“Coaches were honest. Players were honest,” kicker Keith Duncan said. “It’s just extremely hard to describe the emotions, the words that happened on Monday, as well as Tuesday. We’re a really tight group — coaches, players. It’s a family. It really is.”
Ferentz was asked if he thought during Monday’s meeting he could lose the team.
“There’s a responsibility when you coach,” he said. “Everything you do, everything we do, is consequential. Everything we do, say, act, etc., is consequential. This is a very critical time for us. This is a very critical time for our country.
“If everybody is not looking through a little different lens, and giving clear thought, that’s an issue. What can we do to help?”
Strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle was mentioned in many of the allegations of racial bias, and he is on administrative leave pending an independent review of the allegations. Ferentz said he would not comment on Doyle during Friday’s press conference “out of respect for the process.” But Ferentz said that last Saturday, after all of the allegations made on social media, he knew he couldn’t have Doyle working in the weight room when the players came back out of fairness to the players and Doyle.
One of the descriptions made by former players said that being in Iowa’s football building meant “walking on eggshells.”
“I’m sure I could speak for a lot of the guys on the team when I say yes, it felt like that,” Kelly-Martin said. “The atmosphere where you had to look out, just watch your back. You always had to be on your toes at times.
“When you heard something, you weren’t able to say (anything), because maybe you would get attacked, too, at times.”
Duncan said the key moving forward is communication — if players see or hear something they think as wrong, they must speak up.
“It’s on us, as players, to make the change. We have the power,” said Duncan, a senior. “The players have the power. But we also love to voice our opinions. This isn’t a one-sided thing. We voiced our opinions on Monday, but so did the coaches. It was a great opportunity to just be candid, get things off our chest. It was a really great experience.
“I think this is the most connected we’ve ever been as a team. And we haven’t been on the field yet. We’ve only been in the facility in a week, and there’s been a change of energy and a change of, just, connectivity. That’s a positive coming out of this.”
“With the players able to speak up in those meetings, and being able to voice everything that we have on our minds, and also coaches being able to speak up about their own opinions, I feel like that was the biggest piece that we have grown as a team,” Kelly-Martin said.
“I feel like I’m closer to every single person on this team,” Merriweather said.
Ferentz said it’s only a start.
“We’ve all done things and said things that maybe, ‘Geez, I wish I hadn’t done that,’” Ferentz said. “When that happens, you have to recognize it, address it. Acknowledge it, and own it. And then you’ve got to work and improve it.
“The bottom line, I’m responsible for anything that happens here. That’s my accountability, that’s my responsibility. I’m the head coach. Anything that happens is a failure that’s on my desk. That’s my issue to deal with. I can’t do anything about what’s happened. I can do a better job of moving forward.”
