Kirk Ferentz still committed to Iowa after watching friends Bill Belichick, Nick Saban move on

INDIANAPOLIS — Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz watched two of his best coaching friends, Bill Belichick and Nick Saban, leave football after last season.

So, naturally, college football’s longest-tenured coach smiles and nods as he reflects on his own potential exit.

“All of us have to do that,” the 68-year-old Ferentz said Wednesday at Big Ten Media Days. “Fifteen years ago, the pause was going to come because I was going to get fired. I’m not saying that’s not a possibility as we move forward, but it’s probably a little less a percentage and more realistic toward retirement. At some point, you retire. It’s up to everybody. Both Bill and coach Saban are older than I am.”

The connection runs deep for Ferentz.

In what seems like a lifetime ago, he and Saban were assistants on Belichick's staff with the NFL's Cleveland Browns coach from 1993-95.

Ferentz enters his 26th season as the Hawkeyes' coach with a 208-140 record and as the school’s career leader in victories. His only Big Ten titles came in 2002 and 2004, and his contract, which pays $7 million per year, runs through 2029.

The Hawkeyes should be strong again this year, returning a veteran group from a squad that went 10-4 in 2023. Ferentz has hired a new offensive coordinator, Tim Lester, to replace his son Brian in hopes of producing more points. Iowa also believes former Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara could be part of the solution after suffering a season-ending knee injury in the Hawkeyes' third game last year.

Meantime, Ferentz has been checking in on his friends.

“He and I have exchanged some notes, but we haven’t had a personal conversation,” Ferentz said when asked about Belichick. “I’m a little lower level than those guys, easily. They’ve got a little seniority on me, but it’s all relative, too. They’re both in good health. I feel good. As long as you feel good and like what you’re doing, you keep doing it.”

Ferentz has been around long enough to see the Big Ten nearly double in size, with 18 members, athletes getting paid and the transfer portal. It's not a world he recognizes.

“I’ll go back to 1990, when I was a head coach at Maine,” Ferentz said. “It was a couple of weeks into the job. I came home one day and I told my wife, ‘If I ever come home and say I’m surprised by anything, just hit me with a baseball bat right in the head.’ One thing I learned real quickly is you never know what’s going to happen.”

Rosy playoff

CFP Executive Director Rich Clark, a retired Air Force lieutenant general, confirmed Wednesday that Rose Bowl officials have requested the game continue to be played around New Year's Day even though it could be out of the national championship game hosting rotation.

Game officials endorsed the new 12-team playoff format earlier this year.

Clark said the playoff committee would consider granting the request, though no other bowl game in the rotation has made a similar request.

Known as “The Granddaddy of Them All,” the Rose Bowl has been played the first week of January every year since 1916. The first Rose Bowl was played in 1902.

Familiar foes

When first-year Michigan State coach Jonathan Smith left his alma mater, Oregon State, after last season, he landed in a league that doesn't feel so new with four of his former Pac-12 foes — Oregon, UCLA, Southern California and Washington — joining the Big Ten.

What does feel different, though, is wearing green — the predominant color of Oregon State's biggest rival.

“I have not worn much green leading into this,” Smith said Wednesday. “But I do have green eyes.”

He'll be seeing plenty of green again on Oct. 4, when the Spartans play at Oregon. By then, he also could be seeing red thanks to a demanding midseason stretch during which the Spartans host Ohio State and Michigan while visiting Oregon and Iowa.

Smith was a four-year starter at Oregon State and turned the program around when he returned as coach. He went 25-13 in three seasons and was named the league's coach of the year in 2022.

Endorsing Leach

Southern California coach Lincoln Riley added his name to the list of advocates for the late Mike Leach to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame despite Leach's 59.6% career win percentage falling short of the 60% minimum.

Riley played quarterback for Leach at Texas Tech in 2002 and then became a Red Raiders assistant through 2009. Leach died in 2002 at age 61 from heart complications.

“Obviously, Mike Leach meant a lot to my career, was instrumental in my upbringing,” Riley said. “I know there’s been a lot of debate and talk about him belonging in the College Football Hall of Fame, and certainly (I) want to voice my support for that happening here on this stage. That’s something that’s very important to me. He changed the game and changed a lot of people’s lives, mine included, in the process of it. I know there’s technicalities and rules that have to happen, but I totally agree that the Hall of Fame is simply not complete without Mike Leach being in it.”

Awkward moment

First-year UCLA coach DeShaun Foster turned heads with the briefest opening statement of the first two media days before saying he'd take questions. The ensuing pause led to an awkward moment on the stadium field, where reporters are working.

The soft-spoken Foster explained later he's an “ask me” kind of guy who doesn't tend to give long opening statements.