Transcript from Iowa's press conference today discussing the external review from Husch Blackwell.
https://president.uiowa.edu/sites/president.uiowa.edu/files/4816-8136-3909.1 FINAL Iowa Football Overall Climate Report.pdf
GARY BARTA
Thanks for coming on short notice. Back on June 15 we were here and I spoke to you about some racial issues related to our football program. I announced the separation agreement with Chris Doyle, and I also announced that President Harreld had retained the services of an independent third party to do a review of the football program, and so Coach Ferentz and I are here today to respond to the review and then also just provide some updates and some perspective of things that have been going on since then.
We now have several sources of information, if you will, going back to the diversity task force, some very candid and frank conversations with former student-athletes directly and the same from our current student-athletes, and then now the report from the independent review.
For those of you who have gone through it, I'm sure you would understand when I say that getting direct and critical information, criticism, is sometimes difficult to hear. That said, we needed to hear these things, and we need to get better.
We talked a little bit about it in June, and you'll hear some of the same topics today.
I am grateful for every former student-athlete and current student-athlete who came forward. Two important dates related to this situation, June 3, when James Daniels began, the former player process -- and I mention James' name because he's in the report. I'm not going to mention other former players by name, but he spoke up and I'm grateful that he did.
And then on June 8, I referenced when we met the last time about a team meeting where current student-athletes were very candid in expressing their anger and frustration, and these conversations really opened the door to dig deeper.
When you combine those conversations with now this report, it makes it clear where we've fallen short and where we need to get better. It is helpful that all these sources are consistent, that the issues that we've been identifying and had identified going into this review, I certainly feel like there are consistencies in what we knew we had to get better in.
First of all, Kirk and I have had several conversations over the last several weeks, and these are some observations now and thoughts about the review, but they probably spill over into some of the other conversations.
Kirk, first and foremost, is responsible for the football culture. He creates it. He sets the tone for it, and he has to hold people accountable for it, and he's fully accepting of that responsibility, and he's worked hard in recent weeks to help us begin the process to improve the culture.
At one point in the report he acknowledges that he gave too much responsibility, maybe too much unchecked authority to one individual, but beyond that, he acknowledges that it's broader than one person. It's an issue, a cultural issue throughout the program.
That said, on June 15, based on the information I had, based on my 15 years of working with Kirk, I shared that I still had great confidence that Kirk could lead us through this and continue to lead this football program. I take a lot of comfort in the fact that the report, after interviews with former student-athletes and current student-athletes, confirms that they share that confidence in Kirk's ability to move forward and lead this program.
Next observation, the "Iowa way" is described, perceived by many, especially our African-American student-athletes, as the white way. Some of the comments, and by now hopefully you've had a chance to read it, don't feel supported, don't feel welcome, can't be my authentic self, harder to succeed as a black player versus a white player. In the report is also a reiteration of Kirk's desired definition for the Iowa way: Earn a degree, maximize football success and have a fulfilling college experience.
Clearly there's a disconnect between the vision that Kirk has for the Iowa way and what he wants it to mean and the way it was being experienced by some of our student-athletes, and in particular our black student-athletes. That's an area where we need to focus. How do we get the vision that Kirk has for the Iowa way and have it be experienced the way he envisions, and that will be an important thing going forward.
Our student-athletes don't feel, haven't felt and need to feel that they have a place where they can be heard and where they can be listened to. Within the football program, there have been numerous individual conversations, position meetings, team meetings. I'll let Kirk describe those more since I have not been involved. I've been involved in a couple of team meetings. Historically Kirk has relied on a leadership group, and he'll continue to do that, but he's expanded that group and made some changes.
And then specifically one of the things we have to do a better job in as an athlete department is make sure that there are places, outside outlets for football student-athletes who have issues and concerns. They don't feel comfortable expressing them within football, that they have a place to go, and I'll talk about that here in a moment.
Recruiting, making sure that or in this case expressing concern that there's a disconnect between a message that we send in recruiting versus what some student-athletes experienced when they got here, particularly or specifically I think it was mentioned creating a family atmosphere versus then when I arrived not understanding that the Iowa way and the expectations that were connected to that. So a disconnect in that recruiting message.
There are several areas pointed out where we need to improve from these student-athletes, and I won't go into all of them. Again, Kirk will be able to more specifically speak to some of these. Appearance expectations, whether it's hairstyle, clothing, jewelry, tattoos, sleep bands, weight management, and then a reference to rules, and the number of rules, the way that they felt they're being held accountable to these rules or being called out if they weren't following these rules. As it pertains to rules, I don't think it'll come as a surprise, when you run an organization, when you have a team, you have to have rules. And so having rules isn't the challenge. The challenge is and my expectation is for football and for all of our teams, make sure the rules are fair, and in this case make sure that without any kind of racial bias, make sure that the expectations are well-known in terms of any rules, and then make sure that the follow-through, the carrying out of those rules or any discipline related to those rules is fair and consistent.
So that certainly came out in this report.
Strength and conditioning expectations and treatment. Kirk has already talked about some changes there in terms of job responsibilities, and drug testing was also mentioned and I'll talk about that in a moment.
Among this report or within this report, there's some good news, and again, I'm not downplaying the fact that this is very critical of some of the things we have to get better in, but what I say is good news and what I was grateful to hear is that -- and this is from the report -- there was uniformity from the current student-athletes that things have significantly improved since June. Now, understandably there are also some student-athletes in the group who are taking a wait-and-see attitude. They want to make sure that these improvements are long-term and not just a short-term reaction.
I'm going to move on to moving forward, and then several things that I'm going to mention moving forward, and then I'll let Kirk come up and say a few things. First of all, moving forward, I have great confidence in Kirk, and it all starts with him. His willingness to improve the culture in the areas that have been identified. He sets the tone, the expectations, and then needs to hold everybody accountable. I have been grateful and not surprised but impressed with the amount of energy and passion and work he's put into this going back to June, and we all agree that this is just the beginning.
A few things moving forward specifically: Strength and conditioning, Kirk can talk about it more if you have questions, but an acknowledgment that maybe some of those job responsibilities need to be spread out a little bit among the staff. From a reporting standpoint, the head strength coach for football does report to the head football coach. It also has a reporting line to assistant athletic director for sport performance Terry Noonan. One of the things we have to do -- and we have that throughout the athletic department. We have several dual reporting lines, either in athletics or then to areas on campus. In this case we just have to reinforce that reporting line and that relationship.
All of the strength coaches, the athletic trainers, the sports medicine team, the sports psychology and nutrition are all reporting through that sport performance group, and moving forward just making sure that those reporting lines are reinforced and carried through.
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