Let me play Devil’s Advocate.
I’m not aware of a single committee member that has been willing to go “on the record” or be interviewed. All I’ve seen are some Tweets. I believe Leistikow reported that one committee member who didn’t want to be identied said his understanding was similar to what Ferentz articulated in the letter to the parents and that he wasn’t surprised by the disbanding of the old advisory committee.
The Gazette and others asked Ferentz for an interview. He declined. He refused to answer questions in writing. Instead, his PR rep sent the email to the Gazette.
Call me crazy but it seems to me that the football program was blindsided by this, didn’t anticipate the potential negative feedback and it took more than 24-36 hours for them to get the story they wanted out to the public.
I’m a Hawkeye through and through and support Ferentz and his staff but, man, I’m stunned that they didn’t see this coming. At risk of being overly negative, it would appear to be one of Kirk’s admitted “blind spots.”
If any reporter was on his or her toes yesterday, the natural follow up question would have been “Coach, can you identify who on the committee might be willing to speak with us because, this far, our efforts have been unsuccessful and it hasn’t been for a lack of trying.”