Iowa's Kirk Ferentz responds to NCAA punishment for tampering

The Iowa Hawkeyes are going to accept the punishment handed down to them by the NCAA for allegedly tampering with quarterback Cade McNamara before he entered the transfer portal in 2022.

That doesn't mean Iowa or head coach Kirk Ferentz is happy about the NCAA's conclusion, though. 

The NCAA has alleged that Ferentz and assistant Jon Budmayr had 13 phone calls with McNamara and also exchanged two text messages with the quarterback, who ultimately transferred from the Michigan Wolverines to the Hawkeyes. 

Those calls happened before McNamara entered the transfer portal, and as such, Iowa is being punished for tampering.

While he accepts the punishment, Ferentz doesn't agree with the NCAA's conclusion in this case.

“Two-plus years to, as you said, investigate this, that’s interesting,” Ferentz said to Danny Kanell and Dusty Dvoracek on SirusXM (h/t On3) . “It was an interesting process, to say the least. Obviously, disappointed. Strongly feel it was overly harsh. It was an overreach, I believe. My frustration would be there were a lot of details involved. I think that, especially given two-plus years, you’d consider the facts, what really took place. I think what we offered up a year and a half ago was more than ample. It is what it is. They made the decision. We’ll live with it."