the official report can't come soon enough; its too bad Howe & Rittenberg tried to beat the law firm to the punch
For the most part, there's nothing wrong with what they are doing. Howe definitely has an agenda, but he did nothing wrong in filing a FOIA request and looking at what Iowa has been doing the last few years. Iowa realized it had a problem the last few years, and yet for whatever reason couldn't get to the root of the problem as it appeared to be -- that Doyle was allowed to create his own little fiefdom in the weight room that no one could question. The only person in a position to do something about it -- Ferentz -- either wasn't paying attention to what was really happening or wasn't being told everything. It's likely a combination of the two.
Rittenberg has guys on the record talking about their experiences. Including McNutt, who is one of the most successful players at Iowa. If he indeed did point out problems directly to KF earlier in the decade and was specific in what the problem was, then KF deserves whatever happens. It's the leader's job if things are pointed out to actually go and become informed on them.
Lomax in the story in Hawk Central today said he came and talked to the team in 2017 but didn't bring up Doyle to Ferentz. He says he regrets that now. I get now why KF said in his first press conference on this in June that he didn't do a good enough job of listening. What he's getting at there is he didn't get to the point where he was making guys feel comfortable enough telling him what the real problem was. So Iowa was working on fringe things like clothes, hats, earrings, music, etc. Those are good improvements, but they dance around the real issue. We won't ever know how KF would have reacted if a guy like Lomax or Daniels had said in private that Doyle was a problem. But once Daniels went public on Twitter and the other guys (who were well respected and in the NFL) agreed too, things reached a critical mass.
My own personal opinion in all this is that KF allowed Doyle to operate with far too little oversight. Any leader/manager can fall into that trap where a high performer is given autonomy and allowed to do as they please. After all, you as the leader have other things to worry about/take up your time. Combine that with the fact the S&C staff does operate a bit separately from the coaching staff. The S&C staff are the ones that get the most time with the players out of season. It was obvious that Doyle's voice mattered a lot in how a player was viewed throughout the entire program, and likely too much so.
Is that enough to show KF the door? Maybe. The head coach is ultimately responsible for everything that goes on in the program. That's why they pay him the large salary. Yes, he can't know every interaction that goes on in the building. But he's responsible for hiring all those people. He's responsible for creating an environment where problems can be addressed in a way that gets to the root of the problem. The fact that so many players are adamant that KF is not the problem speaks well for his character and how he personally treated players. I don't know what the answer is here, as none of us have all the facts or the information.