Nightmare Scenario
- Thread starter IChawkeye45
- Start date
I feel like you keep saying this with a noticeable degree of confidence. You have intel? 😀
Well, Fran said he is not leaving and I seriously doubt Beth is going to fire him, so…….
Unfortunately, this may be the case. My guess, Beth is aware of the apathy that the fan base has. She has had to see the empty seats and knows why. Ya snooze ya lose.
I will just say - I feel very confident … 😛
Being as objective as I absolutely can, terminating FM looks like the easiest decision an AD will ever have to make. There literally does not exist another coach at the Div 1 level who has 15 seasons of tenure with zero conference championships, zero Sweet 16 appearances and whose team has gotten progressively worse for the past 5 seasons, with attendance dropping to less than half of what has been the norm.
Thanks to Barta, the buyout could be the only barrier (BBB?), but schools pay out (and frequently renegotiate) buyouts all the time that are a lot larger than the $4M that FM would be due, and I wouldn't describe Iowa's athletic department as strapped for cash.
My apologies as I read that wrong on your post from page one but you are incorrect. Chuck Long even believed KF did a disservice to the program by promoting BF as QB coach to go along with being the OC when he shouldn’t have been QB coach for sure, even talks about the nepotism side of it.
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Oh, I don’t disagree. But this is the University of Iowa we’re talking about.
Yea. But Barta was always a lost cause. Kirk was untouchable before Brian and Barta somehow allowed it.
I know what you are saying, and I agree he said what any other coach would say. I just believe Fran isn’t leaving on his own and that Beth won’t fire him.
I could be wrong and probably am. But that’s just the feeling I have.
So how does any of that prove that KF put his family ahead of Iowa football?
Wow! The topic of Fran’s future with the program has been exhausted on this board. It seems like posters start threads just to regurgitate what’s already been discussed a million times. Someone please start an ***official Fire Fran thread*** so we don't have to read the same stuff over and over
You don’t have to read anything, but thank goodness we have the message board police here to set everyone straight.
Yeah, Rutgers would have beaten K State 334 times out of 1000, or something like that. Of course, that all started when Rutgers held a big lead in one of those 666 losses.
You don't think wanting to keep Brian after 3 consecutive years of the worst offenses in the history of Iowa football were an indicator that Kirk might have been a little conflicted?
Has gotten 15 years. That is more than a fair shake and large enough sample size of what he can do. 3 NCAA tournament wins in 15 years. Empty arena. Fans have spoken. He’s in his mid 60’s and team is trending down.
No you wouldn't. It would ruin your ridiculous narrative that rivals TDS, only in your case it's KFDS.
We have to give Barta some credit. He was so clueless and gutless with the Brian Ferentz situation that he came up with this 25 point thing a game. And that was so embarrassing for our football brand that it brought national attention and probably helped us get rid of Brian.
If you don’t think he was a better OC and QB coach than BF, I can’t help you.
I thought it wasn’t her call, so how could she have f-ed up? Shouldn’t you be blaming the non-DEI behind the curtain? LOL
Why do you guys keep saying the same thing?
AGAIN, responses for this have already been given in the thread.
I guess I'll spell it out one more time for you guys.
1. KF knew the main reasons the offense was broken for a couple seasons had very little to do with BF.
2. In the 3 seasons I assume you are referring to, Iowa averaged 9.33 wins. Yes, the offense didn't contribute much to those wins. But it's completely understandable for a coach to not want to make significant changes in the midst of a winning dynamic.
It may not be how some of you would have gone about the situation, but it's completely understandable, nonetheless. People in every industry, especially coaching, just aren't in a hurry to change much when things are going well.
And this is where respect should come into play. To say KF put his family ahead of Iowa football is a very serious accusation. You better be slam dunk sure to say that about somebody, and even then it's a questionable thing to say, as it's something that can never actually be proven.
It's not provable that at some point in KF's mind he estimated Iowa football would be better if his son had a different coaching role.
Could it be that KF simply felt he was hiring a good football coach, in BF, as his OC? And that it would be a good fit?
The "nepotism" outcry was barely even audible before the offense was broken.
Once it was broken, could it be KF understood it to be for reasons that had almost nothing to do with BF? A confluence of bad luck factors decimated Iowa's O-line to the core. The effects started to surface with injuries in late '21. '22 was the worst O-line I've ever seen at Iowa. That offense was not going to do a whole lot no matter who the OC was. The O-line had marginal improvements in '23, but still needed much development, which was stunted by most of the season having been played with an emergency QB that was the worst QB I've ever seen play significant snaps at Iowa.
I'm not going into it all, this post is already way too long, but KF knew those contributors to the broken offense to have very little to do with BF. So why would he fire him?
I'm not sure KF even had the authority to fire BF, if I understand correctly, so there's that.
It should also be said that it's not a given that KF wouldn't have made a change on his own, after the '23 season, had BG not stepped in. Perhaps at least at QB coach? We'll never know.
There is certainly logical reasoning as to why KF kept BF. KF more than deserves the benefit of the doubt from us.
And that's why it's bullshit to say KF put his family ahead of the Hawks. People are going to be saying that about this man in 50 years, and it's bullshit. He deserves better. People actually still talk about how Dr. Tom sat on the ball vs UNLV in '87 and there isn't a shred of truth to that narrative. KF deserves better.
But what this has all been made into by the fans the past few years has been really sad. Turning KF into some villain for hiring his son. All because fans who didn't get their pacifier (offense) had to act like some little bitches. There's no denying it. They bitched after wins. They bitched after great seasons.
Where's all the complaining that PP just wasted a 28ppg season? Where's the outcry for PP's hiring at DC having been, by definition, "nepotism", as a "previous relationship" had existed by way of PP having been KF's DB coach?
Sometimes you just miss. It doesn't mean you put your family ahead of your job. For example, from my limited perspective it seems that having BF coach the QB's might have been a miss. But KF had the calculated football logic to make his OC and QB coaches one in the same to help streamline efficient pre-snap communication. But for some reason fans have to make it into a nepotism thing.
Again, the reason is they didn't have their precious little offense. Again, you barely heard anything about "nepotism" while BF's offense was serviceable
I'm sure you wouldn't have viewed BG firing Brian outright midseason, or at any time, as a major fock up.
I didn’t read any of this diatribe. Kirk put his family interests ahead of the football team. Anyone who doesn’t agree, well they are too far gone anyways.
I think Fran's ~29 career head coaching record without a Sweet16 is the most special of Fran's accomplishments. He wasn't exactly knocking it out of the park before he got to Iowa.
“Yes, the offense didn't contribute much to those wins. But it's completely understandable for a coach to not want to make significant changes in the midst of a winning dynamic.”
I’ve read a lot of dumb takes but this may top the list. Any competent coach or leader tries to improve the weakest part of their operation. It’s like a ceo at a major corporation overseeing a record profit. Seeing the weakest division was in the red but having the mindset I’m not going to do anything with them because business is booming. Your logic is so completely flawed it’s laughable.
You are an idiot. Keep doubling down on stupid.
New coach for next year bumps up attendant by 4000 fans/game and that is only around $1.2 million if season tickets are $300 each.
Firing Fran costs at least $4.5 million buyout and the new coach likely makes more than Fran because Fran was getting around $3.3 million which is on low end of current salaries.
TV money is same whether Iowa is last or middle of the pack.
The financial numbers say it is cheaper to keep Fran another year.
I had hoped FRan himself was ready to get out of Iowa City, but he's perfectly happy doing an easy job and getting $3.3 million. He'll never make that kind of money at his next stop, which would be mid major if he still wants to coach.
