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The Kirk Ferentz Coaching Tree

punk1980

Team MVP
Sep 22, 2018
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Is it just me, or has anyone else realized that Kirk has no coaching tree in the nfl or college. If you look at Fry's coaching tree, you have a bunch of successors Alvarez, Snyder, Ferentz just to name a couple. Anyone tenured as long as Kirk has should have at least 1 successor by now. The fact that he doesn't is an indictment of his system and another example of how the game has passed him by.
 
I would say that all the OCs were either over the hill or not exactly sought after and the DCs never left. So the other prominent assistant turnover was usually due to retirement. Probably because of the job security aspect that is not found anywhere in college football except maybe the d3 level
 
Let's go back to 2002 staff

O'keefe - still here - after a stint in the NFL
Norm Parker - coached here til he died
Ron Aiken - lifelong DL including 5 year stint in NFL, probably retired
Lester Erb - ?
Carl Jackson - long time Fry assistant, had stint in NFL, I believe retired from Iowa
Rees Morgan - retired from Iowa
Phil Parker - still here
Joe Philbin - went to NFL, had HC stint, still in NFL
Darrell Wagner - still coaching after 11 years at Iowa

Long coaching careers, not everybody aspires to be the HC. It's not like there's been constant turnover and the guys that leave are desired elsewhere
 
Bielema is the one that stands out.
For sure. Definitely not a vintage 1980s Fry coaching tree, but KF's have been good, just different. Reese Morgan was a great hire, but he was never going to be a college head coach. Shored up Iowa HS recruiting and was a great position coach. Norm Parker was also a great hire, but he was never going to be a head coach.

In addition to Bielema, Chuck Long was also on KF's first staff. Didn't last long. Chuck was co-coordinator for Stoops at Oklahoma before bombing at San Diego State and in subsequent OC job at Kansas.

Of the many things to criticize KF for, this seems odd. The coaching ranks for assistants is different today. They can make a lot of money for being an assistant. If you go down the list of the coaches on the Iowa staff who would seem like future head coaches (Woods, Wallace, Betts, Copeland, K. Bell) a lot of them have some family ties with Iowa so there is probably some pressure to stay in a job that pays them very well and keeps them in proximity to family. But those people I mentioned are going to need to coach elsewhere if they want to be head coaches someday.
 
I feel lime its one thing to celebrate stability… but at what point is it masquerading in place stagnancy
 
Let's go back to 2002 staff

O'keefe - still here - after a stint in the NFL
Norm Parker - coached here til he died
Ron Aiken - lifelong DL including 5 year stint in NFL, probably retired
Lester Erb - ?
Carl Jackson - long time Fry assistant, had stint in NFL, I believe retired from Iowa
Rees Morgan - retired from Iowa
Phil Parker - still here
Joe Philbin - went to NFL, had HC stint, still in NFL
Darrell Wagner - still coaching after 11 years at Iowa

Long coaching careers, not everybody aspires to be the HC. It's not like there's been constant turnover and the guys that leave are desired elsewhere
Norm Parker retired two years before he died.
 
Here’s the Ferentz coaching tree:
christmas-tree-charlie-brown.gif
 
Fry was quoted a number of times as saying he wanted assistants who wanted to be head coaches as it indicated their desire to continuously get better.
Not saying Kirk has done right or wrong, but just done it differently.
 
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