Iowa to Brian Ferentz: 25 PPG and 7 Wins -- Or Else

Following last week's news conference where Kirk Ferentz announced that he anticipated "no changes" to his Iowa football staff in 2023, some obvious questions were raised about a certain offensive coordinator, a certain offense and a certain 17.8 points per game in 2022.

And while the ensuing week didn't bring that surprise, seismic change to the Hawkeye staff as the more vocal fans had clamored for, it has brought an unusual (and likely controversial) development: the University of Iowa has placed offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz on an amended contract, with a (temporary) salary decrease and performance objectives to be met for the 2023 season.

In other words, the Iowa athletic department has decided that Brian Ferentz must earn his job for 2024 and beyond.

Per the University of Iowa:

"The contract amendments include a salary of $850,000, effective Feb. 1, 2023. The Designated Performance Objectives for the 2023 season include an average of at least 25 points per game and a minimum of seven wins, including regular season and a possible bowl game."

The $850,000 salary is a $50,000 decrease from his previous base salary, though if Brian Ferentz meets objectives, his contract returns to previous terms with a lump sum bonus and base salary adjustment. According to the contract, Ferentz must meet the goals in order to remain employed past June 2024 — though with such easily identifiable targets, his fate should be known by early January at the absolute latest.

Historically, seven wins and 25 points per game are not difficult bars to reach at Iowa in the Kirk Ferentz era. The only serious concern of the two is the scoring, as Iowa has failed to score 25 ppg four times since 2012 (overall PPG: 26.8) — and only cleared the 25-point threshold with the help of defense and special teams scoring twice more.

By contrast, in the last 15 seasons, the Iowa Hawkeyes have reached 7 wins 14 times*, the lone hiccup coming in 2012 when the bottom fell out on a 4-8 season. Additionally, the seven-win standard encompasses the entire season, which would include a bowl game if Iowa exits the regular season at 6-6.

*We're prorating the 6-2 COVID season of 2020 to a 9-3 equivalent.

A seven-win standard, then, would seem like an odd bar to set. But it is consistent, contractually and philosophically, with the Ferentz regime at the University of Iowa.

Although the recent spike in college head coaching contracts has left Kirk Ferentz as one of the more moderately compensated head coaches in the Big Ten at "only" $7 million annually, his recent deals have been noteworthy not only for the price, but for their performance incentives and buyout totals -- and what level of success triggers those terms.

In his 2016 deal, Kirk Ferentz's contract buyouts were listed at 75% of all remaining seasons' salary, with a stipulation that every season with seven wins or more would increase one of those seasons to 100%.

For the deal signed in 2022, while Ferentz's income and buyout terms were simplified, there was still an incentive to increase assistant coach income pools each time the team meets a goal of, yes, seven wins.

Suffice it to say, any coordinator at any Power 5 school needing a higher team win total to keep his job than his head coach needed for performance bonuses would be a total non-starter, and potentially a bigger embarrassment to the university than any ill-timed three-and-out on the field.

And yes, the buyouts make it exceedingly onerous to fire Kirk Ferentz. And he's now the longest-tenured coach in FBS football as a result — fresh off another coach, his mentor, who coached for 20 years in Iowa City himself. As Ferentz noted in last week's news conference, neither he nor Hayden Fry had fired a coordinator in those 44 years. And say what you will about keeping underperforming coordinators, but that culture of stability also includes some over-performing coordinators staying in place too.

Ultimately, the new contract objectives are the most concrete and imperative steps the university has taken to rein in concerns about Brian Ferentz coaching under his father, with none of the ambiguity inherent in simply naming the athletic director his direct supervisor and operating as if state law was the only necessary barrier to propriety.

While disillusioned fans may find the necessary objectives lacking, it's clear that as conditions of continued employment — especially on a contract that pays nearly a million dollars annually — the objectives are where they have to be if they're going to be fair and enforceable. It may not be popular, but it's consistent with how this athletic department and university have done business with the football program.

With that, the good news for Brian Ferentz is that he doesn't have to prove he's a great coach to keep his job at the University of Iowa. Of course, the bad news for fans with high expectations is that Brian Ferentz doesn't have to prove he's a great coach to keep his job at the University of Iowa.

But now he does have something to prove in 2023, and it looks like there's finally some tangible accountability tied to it.