By Michael Germanese
On Monday night, the Ohio State Buckeyes were crowned the new king of college football. With the Ohio State win, every team is trying to figure out their path to take the Buckeyes’ top spot next season. Now, with conference realignment, the ability to win the Big Ten or make the college playoff has become that much harder. One team that has seen recent success inside the Big Ten will need to look in the mirror and see if what is looking back is still the look that works in this new age of college football.
When the 2025 season kicks off on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, Kirk Ferentz will be standing on the sideline in his 27th year as the Iowa Hawkeyes head coach. In his time and Iowa brought two Big Ten championships in 2002, and 2004 and three West Division titles in 2015, 2021, and 2023. But can Iowa under Ferentz remain competitive in a Big Ten that has done away with divisions and looks to be even deeper when it comes to top teams?
Much of the success Iowa has seen was due to being in the Big Ten West, which was substantially easier to win than the east. When the two divisions were put together there was a drastic imbalance with the three biggest brands, Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State in the east. Iowa’s biggest contender in the west was the always-consistent Wisconsin Badgers. In 2021 and 202, Iowa played in the Big Ten championship game, however under the new format they would have finished fourth in both 23 and 21.
Now with the elimination of divisions, are the trips to Indy done for Hawkeye fans? Under the old system, you only need to beat the six teams in your conference, now you need to finish on top of 16 other teams to take one of the two top spots. The conference without realignment was hard enough to be in the top two. Now add in Oregon, USC, and Washington and the conference has gotten even that much harder to win.
For Ferentz, if 2025 has the same déjà vu feeling as the previous few years is it time to question whether Ferentz should remain as the head coach. And has Ferentz done enough in recent years to prove he can fix the problems that have plagued Iowa over the last few years?
Iowa’s defense has been consistent year in and year out, you have an idea of what you will get from them. It’s the offensive struggles and what seems like an inability to fix it that should have fans and the administration worried.
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Look no further than this stat: 11 QBs since 2019 have touched the ball. Just this past year 3 different quarterbacks started, and none showed any ability to be a difference maker. The most consistent QB Iowa had since 2018 was Spencer Petras (2018 to 2022). Petras played in 37 games and completed 468 passes for 5199 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 19 interceptions. Since then, it’s been a revolving door of disappointment under center with no fix in sight, or no confidence in Ferentz to fix it.
Iowa’s best offensive year in the last six was 2018 when Iowa ranked 92nd (375) in total yards per game. In passing TDs per game Iowa ranked 33rd (2.1), passing yards a game 73rd (226.6), and points a game at 44 (31.2). The 2023 season was the worst, ranking 132nd (15.4) points a game, 130th (118.6) in passing yards a game, 130th (0.6) in passing TDs a game, and 133th (234.6) in total yards a game. The 2023 season was also his son Brian Ferentz‘s last season after his contract wasn’t renewed after not meeting the mandate to average 25 points a game. The fact a mandate like that must be set out speaks volumes about a coach not wanting to change.
Iowa’s struggles have come from more than offense
Along with the offensive struggles, Ferentz hasn’t recruited at a level to challenge the top teams in the country. The portal helps fill holes while recruiting is the lifeblood of being a sustainable competitive program. Since 2016 the highest-ranked class to come in according to On3 was the 2021 class that ranked 20th. The worst was 2017 which ranked 49th, it was also the year the last time Ferentz was able to get a five-star in A.J. Epenesa.
The Iowa 2025 class comes in at 32th at this point, well behind the Big Ten’s top programs like Oregon (4), Ohio State (5) Michigan (9), USC (14), and Penn State (15). It makes it almost impossible to compete and win on Saturday with top teams if you can’t compete and beat them on the recruiting trail.
For fans, when will lack of interest set in, at some point when you already know the outcome before it starts why pay attention? And because of this new playoff format just making the conference championship and winning it no longer holds the same prestige as it did. What Iowa needs to decide is what they want to be as a program. Do you want to compete at the top of the Big Ten or are you ok just playing in meaningless bowl games each year? And is Ferentz the right man to lead the program to what you want to be?
