If Hawkeye fans, or the Big Ten viewing public at large, needed more proof that Brian Ferentz is no longer fit to be the offensive coordinator at the University of Iowa, they got it Saturday night. The Hawkeye offense couldn't muster a single point in the Big Ten Championship game, falling to Michigan, 26-0.
Worse, it wasn't the first time they'd been shutout this season, despite holding a Big Ten West leading 10-3 record.
In the 31-0 loss to Penn State on September 23, the Hawkeyes were shutout for the first time since 2000. Thanks to their performance on Saturday night, the Iowa offense was held scoreless twice in the same season since 1978.
"Tonight certainly wasn't our night," Kirk Ferentz said following the loss. "We came in here knowing we pretty much needed to play a flawless game. Obviously, we didn't do that. We didn't do a great job protecting the football, and there were a couple other situations. It was disappointing tonight."
The thing is, these don't have to be such painful, blowout losses. The Hawkeye defense under Phil Parker is continuously elite.
In Saturday night's matchup, Michigan was held to just 213 yards on 64 plays -- 3.3 yards per play -- the worst offensive performance in the Jim Harbaugh era. The last time the Wolverines performed so poorly on offense? October 25, 2014 in a 35-11 loss to Michigan State. Brady Hoke was their head coach at the time.
Parker is a finalist for the Broyles Award -- the honor that goes to the top assistant in the country -- for a reason.
"Coach Parker and Coach (Seth) Wallace prepared us," senior linebacker Jay Higgins said. "We had a lot of tape on these guys. I just felt like my teammates went out there and competed, and that's all I can ask for."
"The guys have been playing great defense all season long," Ferentz added. "Tonight was no exception. Credit to our guys, they really kept us in the game."
Kept them in every game, more like it.
Iowa's offense has averaged 16.6 points in 2023 -- a far cry from the 25 points per game stipulation put into Brian's contract prior to the season. For the entirety of the year, the Hawkeye defense allowed a minuscule 13.2 points per game, good for fourth in the country.
To put it plainly, Beth Goetz made the right decision announcing the plan to move on from Brian as offensive coordinator at the end of October.
Yes, Kirk and the Hawkeyes have repeatedly done enough to win games over his 25 years in Iowa City -- he has nearly reached 200 wins during his time as the head man of the program.
The difference between winning a bunch of regular season games and winning big games like Saturday night for the Hawkeyes is merely an average offense, plain and simple. Accordingly, Auburn -- ranked 65th out of 130 FBS offenses -- averaged 27.2 points per game this season.
Brian hasn't gotten it done. Of course, no one in the Iowa locker room will tell you that.
"I think it's just execution on our part," quarterback Deacon Hill -- who finished the game 18-32 for 120 yards and lost two fumbles -- said following the game. "I felt prepared enough. We had our plan and we stuck to it. I missed on a couple throws that I wish I could've had back, but I felt good with the game plan."
It's often been players shouldering the responsibilities of the offense, like Hill, or Ferentz pointing to problems outside of the team's control. I asked Ferentz about how the Hawkeyes can address their offensive woes going forward.
"I still think we probably would've been a little bit better off this year if we had the quarterback we thought was going to be our starter playing," he said, alluding to former Michigan QB turned Iowa starter Cade McNamara. "He has played in this game before, and he's a winning quarterback. Our two tight ends and our two best offensive players [were out, too]. So, that's a start right there."
"We'll worry about next year, next year. For now, I'm worried about our next game and the next four weeks."
So, no. We won't hear anything from Iowa about how the offense needs to make substantial upgrade. But sooner rather than later, Kirk and Iowa will have to worry about finding their next offensive coordinator and how things can improve on that side of the ball.
On the bright side of it all, chances are -- as it was shown on Saturday night -- it won't be difficult to improve on the output of the Iowa offense under Brian Ferentz.
