Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz recently blasted ESPN for being responsible for getting college football coaches fired and hurting players’ careers. The 68-year-old coach appears to have plenty of job security this season, as his Hawkeyes are 10-2 and will play in the Big Ten Championship next week.
But Ferentz still has complaints.
Ferentz has seen the sport change at the college level during his 24 seasons with the Hawkeyes. In an interview with On3 published this week, Ferentz said he thinks it’s harder to coach in the modern era and blamed cable networks for making it more complicated:
“It’s a little tougher today,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “And with all the ESPN coverage and all that, in fact I was making a comment to a couple guys on the staff this morning, I was looking through there and saw three faces on that little thing on the left of your ESPN site, where they’ve got the videos.
Three guys that are basically coach killers or player killers, you know, that are just like, all they’re trying to do is just stir up controversy. So that’s kind of what’s out there now for people to take in. You wonder why there’s so much negativity.”
Ferentz appears to be still bitter about ESPN’s coverage of Iowa during 2020. Ferentz had to part ways with longtime strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle after reports came out from players on alleged mistreatment. Some of the mistreatment included allegations that Doyle promoted a culture with racial disparity.
Iowa HC Kirk Ferentz needs ESPN
Ferentz might not like all of the coverage the Hawkeyes and other programs enjoy, but he benefits from the publicity. Ferentz earns approximately $7 million a year as the head coach of the Hawkeyes.
Over the previous few decades, the explosion in coach salaries has been due to ESPN promoting the sport. It adds intrigue and drama to the sport and allows television contracts to increase in price.
Coaches and players are under more of a microscope with the coverage. But Ferentz is benefiting from the coverage as long as he can keep winning with a program of integrity.
What’s wrong with that?
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