Why is Iowa struggling with 2022 recruiting? Kirk Ferentz’s age (66 as of Aug. 1) is a significant factor.

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Cayman said:
Wisconsin's best years have been under head coach Barry Alvarez, followed up by Bret Bielema, Barry Alvarez's hand-picked successor, working under athletics director Barry Alvarez. Bret Bielema left to Arkansas where he finished with a sub .500 overall record and took last place in his division 3 times in 5 years.

He was replaced at Wisconsin by Gary Andersen for two years, after which it seems many Wisconsin fans were happy to be rid of him because his coaching philosophy differed too much from the style of football that Barry Alvarez established. He went 7-23 in two and a half seasons at Oregon State, far worse results than the 19-7 record he earned while working under Barry Alvarez at Wisconsin.

Barry Alvarez then hired Paul Chryst, the offensive coordinator under Bret Bielema, who at the time was 19-19 overall after 3 years at Pitt. Working under Barry Alvarez, however, he has won 10 games or more 4 times in 6 seasons.

Combined records of Bret Bielema, Gary Andersen, and Paul Chryst as division 1 FBS head coaches:

Working for Barry Alvarez: 143-50 (.741)
Working for Not Barry Alvarez: 88-109 (.447)

The last 30 years of Wisconsin football have been coached by Barry Alvarez or someone that Barry Alvarez hired. It seems to me that Barry Alvarez is a substantial factor in Wisconsin's football success, and he isn't there anymore, granted maybe Chryst is similar enough of a coach to Alvarez to keep the train running awhile longer. Also Wisconsin seems like they recruit better than Iowa most years.
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OK. How are those two teams compared to the Gophs over the same period?
 

PMWinSTP said:
OK. How are those two teams compared to the Gophs over the same period?
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They've had more on-field success than Minnesota over the past few decades. I haven't said otherwise at any point.
 


Cayman said:
I also follow basketball and basketball recruiting much more closely than football, and before looking it up, I'd thought Iowa's recruiting classes were worse than they really were. I thought their classes usually ranked closer to 9th or 10th in the Big Ten, but they seem closer to 7th or 8th.

Wisconsin basketball was also who I was thinking of as a comparison. Wisconsin recruits decently, but not amazingly. Minnesota basketball recruits around the same level that Wisconsin does, and has likely finished ahead of Wisconsin in recruiting a number of years too, yet we haven't finished ahead of them in decades, and they usually end up around the top third of the conference. They seem to follow the same pattern of Wisconsin basketball of turning mid-level recruiting into upper level on-court/field results, which I'm more inclined to attribute to coaching than to just the program and school brand name. High level player development is something that I'd think would be less likely to carry over from one coach to the next, while I would think that Tom Izzo's eventual successor at Michigan State will still be able to get his foot in the door with high level recruits.
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Yes, high level recruiting talent isn't Wisconsin's strength (although Bo did so well he was starting to get higher level talent). Coaching is. Bo Ryan clearly is a Hall of Fame coach. Gard is a protege so I guess that explains the continuity and I would guess some level of player development is part of that. I can't see him doing as well as Bo over the long term but he appears to have continued the same style and he may do well enough to continue there for a long time.
 

The appeal at Iowa is that there are no professional sports in the State.

Iowa is the top draw even though ISU has been on the upswing with Matt Campbell, imo.

It seems like a job where job security is pretty good as long as they can puke out a few 10 win seasons every decade.

To either agree or disagree with others... Brian Ferentz will not be the next head coach.
 


Would love to see Brian take over for daddy! The program would become another NEB/PUR type dumpster fire in the West imo!
 

Interesting that the author cites Ferentz's age (66 doesn't seem that old) and just kind of glosses over the racial issues that have been on the front page of ESPN.com several times in the last calendar year. It's also interesting that Iowa's struggles on the recruiting trail have still resulted in an average commit rating of 86.92 compared to our 85.63. That's advantage is largely based on landing one near top 100 local kid, but it's still there.

Unfortunately Iowa's major successes over the years have come with the kind of under the radar and/or unwanted kids that have become major players in their system. Thinking about guys like Dallas Clark, Bob Sanders, Mitch King, Robert Gallery, etc, etc. More recently they've had a couple corners they took from MAC commitments late and put them in the NFL and Amani Hooker at Safety who we didn't offer that also got drafted. You hope that Doyle was a big part of that developmental success that cannot be replicated, but that's only just hope at this point.
 


I'd like to see Ferentz stay until he was 68 and then condition his retirement upon Iowa's making his son head coach with an expensive, long-term contract. This might do more to give Minnesota a leg up over Iowa than anything we can do in the next few years in recruiting.
 



Gophergrandpa said:
I'd like to see Ferentz stay until he was 68 and then condition his retirement upon Iowa's making his son head coach with an expensive, long-term contract. This might do more to give Minnesota a leg up over Iowa than anything we can do in the next few years in recruiting.
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Any transition is tough on any program.
Look at Michigan post loyd carr
Look at Tennessee post fulmer

Iowa isn’t as good of a program as those two. Iowa has a shot to hire a great coach but even if you hire the “perfect replacement” it might not work out (see Scott frost)
 

Some guy said:
Any transition is tough on any program.
Look at Michigan post loyd carr
Look at Tennessee post fulmer

Iowa isn’t as good of a program as those two. Iowa has a shot to hire a great coach but even if you hire the “perfect replacement” it might not work out (see Scott frost)
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Hopefully Iowa’s next coach is just like Scott Frost, let’s call him Frott Scost.
 


What Iowa's program becomes after KF leaves might largely depend on what shape the program is in when he retires. For anyone that remembers... the last years of Fry were not good and the program was in pretty tough shape in 1997 or whatever year Ferentz arrived.

I imagine there's a fair amount of negative recruiting going on against Iowa when the HC is in his late 60s. No Minnesota kids are committed to Iowa for 2022. Maybe that's something Fleck can benefit from going forward.
 



There are about 32 kids on their roster from Iowa, Minnesota has about 25 from Minnesota, of the 25 only a hand full are starters a few lineman. Iowa has 2-3 kids from Minnesota, not to mention a bunch from the surrounding states.
 


If Iowa suffers in recruiting, especially Midwest, that can only help Minnesota. Because I think Bielema at Illinois is going to be a factor in that State... a State that has recently been a fertile recruiting area for Fleck.
 

Tommyboy said:
There are about 32 kids on their roster from Iowa, Minnesota has about 25 from Minnesota, of the 25 only a hand full are starters a few lineman. Iowa has 2-3 kids from Minnesota, not to mention a bunch from the surrounding states.
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Good stats, but what are you trying to say?
 


Getting back to the age question, here are two factoids to ponder regarding age, head coaches and one particular college football team:

Fact 1) Nick Saban is 69 years old.

Fact 2) In 2003, Alabama hired Mike Shula as head coach. He was 38 years old at the time of his hiring.

Let's ruminate on that.

Hmmmm... maybe age is less important than we thought when it comes to running a major college football program.
 

RememberMurray said:
Getting back to the age question, here are two factoids to ponder regarding age, head coaches and one particular college football team:

Fact 1) Nick Saban is 69 years old.

Fact 2) In 2003, Alabama hired Mike Shula as head coach. He was 38 years old at the time of his hiring.

Let's ruminate on that.

Hmmmm... maybe age is less important than we thought when it comes to running a major college football program.
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Mac Brown too.
 

RememberMurray said:
Getting back to the age question, here are two factoids to ponder regarding age, head coaches and one particular college football team:

Fact 1) Nick Saban is 69 years old.

Fact 2) In 2003, Alabama hired Mike Shula as head coach. He was 38 years old at the time of his hiring.

Let's ruminate on that.

Hmmmm... maybe age is less important than we thought when it comes to running a major college football program.
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Yeah it's hard to imagine it's just "age".

That not sense.

Recruiting is nebulous but just HC age... doesn't seem to be a real factor.
 

Iowa is obviously doomed
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Yeah it's hard to imagine it's just "age".

That not sense.

Recruiting is nebulous but just HC age... doesn't seem to be a real factor.
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I don't think its complete nonsense. I can see a recruit worrying a HC may retire before their 4 years of eligibility is up, and cause the whole coaching staff to be replaced. Is it a huge worry, probably not, but I can see the thought crossing their mind.

The difference between Saban and Ferentz is that it's Alabama and Iowa. A recruit is probably more willing to risk a coaching staff change happening at Alabama than they would be at Iowa.
 

Taji34 said:
I don't think its complete nonsense. I can see a recruit worrying a HC may retire before their 4 years of eligibility is up, and cause the whole coaching staff to be replaced. Is it a huge worry, probably not, but I can see the thought crossing their mind.

The difference between Saban and Ferentz is that it's Alabama and Iowa. A recruit is probably more willing to risk a coaching staff change happening at Alabama than they would be at Iowa.
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Also Saban is an old coach winning championships

ferentz is an old coach with a borderline scandal
 

Taji34 said:
I don't think its complete nonsense. I can see a recruit worrying a HC may retire before their 4 years of eligibility is up, and cause the whole coaching staff to be replaced. Is it a huge worry, probably not, but I can see the thought crossing their mind.

The difference between Saban and Ferentz is that it's Alabama and Iowa. A recruit is probably more willing to risk a coaching staff change happening at Alabama than they would be at Iowa.
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So it's wins really ;)
 

Boomtime said:
If Iowa suffers in recruiting, especially Midwest, that can only help Minnesota. Because I think Bielema at Illinois is going to be a factor in that State... a State that has recently been a fertile recruiting area for Fleck.
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I hadn't thought of that. Illinois has been a pretty fair recruiting turf for Gopher football so I hope that doesn't diminish too much with Bielema's arrival.
 

Some guy said:
ferentz is an old coach with a borderline scandal
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Well, maybe, but he is also an old coach with an impressive record of sending players to the NFL, at least for the level of his program. According to a fall 2020 study, Iowa is tied for 12th (with Florida State and Washington) for the number of active players in the NFL (28); that is fourth in the Big Ten behind OSU, Michigan, and Penn State but Iowa was only 4 players behind Penn State and 5 behind Michigan.
 
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cjbfbp said:
I hadn't thought of that. Illinois has been a pretty fair recruiting turf for Gopher football so I hope that doesn't diminish too much with Bielema's arrival.
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Bielema didn't get much this year because he had a late start. But I think he's a decent recruiter that can sell playing football within a certain radius of the Illinois campus to high schoolers in State.

Time will tell.
 

salzie said:
Iowa is obviously doomed
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Iowa took a deep, deep dive at the end of Hayden Fry's regime. I think several assts bailed as the end approached. A key to what lies ahead for Iowa may be watching how many assts leave in the next 2-3 years.

I think it took 3-4 years for Ferentz to recover in the late 90s? He certainly didn't inherit a team coming off a 9 win season like PJ did.
 

Boomtime said:
Iowa took a deep, deep dive at the end of Hayden Fry's regime. I think several assts bailed as the end approached. A key to what lies ahead for Iowa may be watching how many assts leave in the next 2-3 years.

I think it took 3-4 years for Ferentz to recover in the late 90s? He certainly didn't inherit a team coming off a 9 win season like PJ did.
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Stupid take
 

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