After 27 years, hundreds of games and more wins than any coach in Big Ten history, Iowa’s head coach can still be brought to tears by the fight of his football team. That might tell us more about Kirk Ferentz than any number in the record book.
There were two seconds left.
Iowa had just driven 91 yards in 11 plays, and when Hank Brown found Reece Vander Zee for the touchdown that gave the Hawkeyes a 20-19 win over Michigan in the Big House, the Iowa sideline exploded. More than 110,000 people had just watched Iowa pull off something that, moments earlier, looked nearly impossible.
Then came the image that might stick with us even longer than the touchdown.
Kirk Ferentz was fighting back tears.
“One thing about these guys, though, they don’t quit. They fight.” He paused, his voice cracking. “It wasn’t perfect, but they don’t give up.”
For anyone who has watched Ferentz coach Iowa for the better part of three decades, it was unmistakably Kirk. Not because we see him cry every Saturday, but because we know exactly why he was crying.
This Has Always Been Personal
Ferentz has spent most Saturdays looking almost impossibly composed. Headset. Gum. Arms crossed. Next play.
Iowa can score a touchdown and the television camera cuts to Ferentz looking like somebody just told him his oil change will take another 20 minutes.
That's part of the persona. But don't mistake composure for a lack of emotion.
And Ferentz's connection to Iowa didn't begin when he became head coach. It goes all the way back to 1981, when Hayden Fry hired a 25-year-old Ferentz to coach Iowa's offensive line.
He spent nine seasons on Fry's staff, helping build the Iowa football revival before leaving for Maine and eventually the NFL. Then, after Fry retired following the 1998 season, Iowa brought Ferentz back to succeed his old boss.
When Ferentz addressed the Iowa football team as its new head coach, former athletic director Bob Bowlsby remembers his eyes filling with tears. Bowlsby realized immediately how much this place meant to Ferentz—and how much of himself he was going to give the program.
That was before the championships, bowl wins, NFL Draft picks and walk-ons who became stars. Before Kinnick became the kind of place where highly ranked teams occasionally arrive and discover they're in for a very strange afternoon.
But it wasn't the beginning of Kirk Ferentz's Iowa story. That had started nearly two decades earlier.
There have been other glimpses through the years. After Iowa's 2019 Outback Bowl win, Ferentz wiped away tears while Nick Easley talked about what his coach meant to him. Later that year, after Iowa knocked off undefeated Minnesota at Kinnick, the emotion surfaced again.
After another bowl victory, Ferentz was asked why he'd become so emotional while embracing his players. His answer basically explained the whole thing:
“The single best part about coaching is being with the guys.”
That's Kirk Ferentz.
You can argue about offensive philosophies. You can scream about fourth-and-short. You can debate clock management, recruiting and quarterbacks. We certainly have.
But after all these years, there shouldn't be much debate about whether the man cares.
And maybe that's why players continue buying into a program built around things that aren't particularly glamorous: development, toughness, accountability, special teams, doing your job and staying in the fight.
And Now, Ohio State
Which brings us to Saturday.
Ohio State is coming to Kinnick.
This isn't an article about Ohio State. But you can't tell the story of Kirk Ferentz, Iowa football and Kinnick Stadium without occasionally running into scarlet and gray.
Because every once in a while, something weird happens here.
The last time Ohio State came to Kinnick, the Buckeyes were ranked No. 3 in the country.
Iowa beat them 55-24.
Nate Stanley threw five touchdown passes. Iowa intercepted four passes. Amani Hooker intercepted J.T. Barrett on the first play of the game and returned it 30 yards for a touchdown. The 55 points were the most Iowa had ever scored against Ohio State in a series dating to 1922.
Nine years later, Ohio State returns to Iowa City to face a Ferentz team that just went into the Big House, stared at a five-point deficit in the final two minutes and refused to quit.
Different players. Different season.
Same coach.
Same message.
The Guy Still Loves This
Earlier this season, Ferentz passed Ohio State legend Woody Hayes to become the winningest coach in Big Ten history.
Twenty-seven seasons as Iowa's head coach. But 45 years after Hayden Fry first brought a 25-year-old Ferentz to Iowa City, his connection to this place runs even deeper than the record book.
Think about everything that's happened in between. Practices, recruiting classes, wins, losses, injuries, graduations, criticism and celebration. College football itself has changed almost beyond recognition around him.
And somehow this 70-year-old man can still stand on a football field after one of those wins, look at the players around him and get choked up.
That's not somebody simply hanging around.
That's somebody who still gives a damn.
THE CRYING SHIRT
Some moments become part of the folklore. Some deserve a T-shirt.
SHOP THE CRYING SHIRT →
There will eventually be a last Kirk Ferentz game at Iowa.
We're not interested in rushing toward it.
For now, there's another Saturday. Another packed Kinnick Stadium. Another heavyweight coming to Iowa City.
And 45 years after Hayden Fry first brought a 25-year-old offensive line coach to Iowa City, Kirk Ferentz will still be standing on that sideline.
Headset on. Gum ready. Probably looking completely unfazed.
We know better now.
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