Captain Kirk

With the early part of football season only weeks away at this point, I thought I’d better familiarize myself with the main players in the football program. Might as well start at the top with the man himself.

That’s right, the highest paid state employee in Iowa…Kirk Ferentz. From what I’ve seen from a distance over the past 7 years, Ferentz seems like a classy guy. His composure and professionalism have impressed me. I didn’t really know much about the man though.

After digging into some of the details of his situation, it pretty obvious he’s a legit coach. He played his own football career at UConn. He was a captain and was on the All-Yankee Conference academic team.

He got the chance to study coaching from some of the best. He was the O-line coach under the legendary Hayden Fry (the guy they based the 90’s sitcom “Coach” off of – but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post in itself). He also spent some time working under Bill Belichick with the Cleveland Browns. He’s proven himself at every level. It definitely seems like Iowa’s Athletic Director, Gary Barta, is happy with the man he’s got.

So happy in fact, that he recently agreed to extend Ferentz’s contract until 2015. The new contract states that he will earn at least $3.02 MIL per year for the next 7 years. It also includes perks such as 35 hours of usage for a private jet (this does not include recruiting trips) and there are undoubtedly opportunities for endorsements and bonuses to supplement his income (he’s got to feed his family after all) This is all great for Kirk. He’s getting one of the best compensation packages in college football. In fact, last year he was on the top ten list for the highest paid coaches in the nation.

This leaves me asking one question… Really? As a new Hawkeye follower, I gotta ask “How does this stack up against other coaches across the nation?” Relatively speaking, Florida’s head coach, Urban Meyer, just barely made more money that Ferentz last year. Florida, you know, the team that has won two national championships in the last 3 years and is in contention to do it again in 2009. The team that attracts 5 star recruits like nerds to a Star Trek convention.

I don’t blame Kirk for taking it, but I do wonder why the athletic department feels the need to compensate so highly compared to the rest of the college football world. It seems to me that there is a real lack of perspective here. In most jobs, you have to have success first and then the money follows. Iowa’s had some success, but not the kind of dazzling seasons that you would expect for this much money.

Anyway, I look forward to closely watching how the Hawkeyes perform this year. I wanna see if Ferentz is earning every penny or pulling a fast one on “us” hawk fans.