Here is the thing. Despite what some think, Ferentz cares about winning. But, he cares about being successful as a Big 10 coach that just happens to be the Hawkeyes. It comes off sounding like he wants to be good and professional at a job, not this particular job.
I wish the head coach at Iowa was succesful and figuratively had the Hawkeye logo tattoo. There is a coach out there that literally has one. I want a coach that wants to win a trophy game more than a game against Purdue or Penn St., not because the fans want it or it is part of the job requirements, but because it personally means more to him as a hawkeye. I want the coach to be invested in Iowa City because he loves being a hawkeye, not because he wants to be a good community citizen.
Some coaches like Dantonio love tweaking their rival and do so publicly and you can tell he does not like Michigan more than other teams. Ferentz's boys in the past have said Iowa State is just another game. Some coaches like Fry put "ANF" on the helmets and there is extra pride for Iowa beyond a football game. Some coaches go viral over their locker room speeches.
It is not about being a fair weather fan of Iowa, it is about whether you can be a fan of a coach that you do not really believe wants to be the coach at Iowa past the paycheck and the personal satisfaction of doing a professional and successful job. Because at the end of the day, once that success has been gone for several years, there is no personal loyalty to that coach because there is no feeling that coach is loyal to your organization past what is required of him as a professional.
Don't get me wrong, I will take a Lute Olsen who is successful and getting a paycheck over a Rhoads who is not successful and loves being at their job over more prestigious and better paying ones. But, you take success out of the equation and people will stick by the guy longer that is there because he loves Iowa more than he loves being a head coach.
Some may point at the opportunity to go to the NFL as some loyalty to Iowa, and I will point out the unprecedented and unmatched since contract that was used to keep him here. Some may cry foul and say he is a success by developing talent in a place hard to recruit, and I will point out many of those are walk-on and low star linemen from Iowa that wanted to be Hawkeyes regardless of the coach.
The bottom line is this: if the coach takes a workman approach to each game and has no investiture to the institution past success, then that is what he is judged on. The only real argument is then what is success, and I hear a lot of excuses why there is none or what "success" is from Ferentz, which shows that arguments for a new coach are not unwarranted.
