Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz apologized to media members earlier this week after he was critical of the profession during a postgame press conference where he was questioned about his son’s performance as the team’s offensive coordinator. Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel told 92.3 The Fan’s Ken Carman part of Ferentz’s reaction to strong questioning is he doesn’t ever see that from the Iowa media.
“Kirk Ferentz — I don’t know if I should be impressed or frightened — because they guy’s been a head coach since 1999 and apparently he’s never been asked questions that are tough at all. The guy was still in his feelings as of Wednesday about what Doug Lesmerises asked, which I thought were fair questions. Listen, it’s a job. It’s not Doug’s fault that (Ferentz) hired his son for his offensive coordinator, which is maybe the worst offense I’ve seen over the last 20 years. What did you think about the questions Doug Lesmerises asked, what do you think of the offense, and what did you make of Kirk Ferentz’s elongated reaction to those questions?”
“The questions were fine,” Wetzel responded. “I listened to the tape. Completely respectful. This is what the fans wanna know. Doug’s not an Iowa fan. He works for Cleveland.com. He’s asking questions about how the hell you have a team in the Big Ten with an offense that bad. In that game, they ran a fake punt. They ran four yards, got tackled, it was failed. Ran four yards. Those four yards on that failed fake punt run represented half of their total offense.
“They are absolutely awful, and you have your son,” Wetzel continued. “(Lesmerises) questions were exactly what every single Iowa fan, or every person stunned watching Iowa this year going what the heck is this, this is the worst offense I’ve ever seen. How — this many years in — do you have this much dysfunction? And oh my, your son is the coach. He doesn’t have the qualifications to be a Big Ten offensive coordinator. It’s his last name.”
Wetzel then discussed nepotism in football coaches, pointing out sons and son-in-laws of football coaches are generally in higher positions they aren’t qualified for, before saying the lack of media coverage in Iowa could be to blame for Ferentz’s reaction.
“I don’t think he’s ever been asked a tough question, right? It’s just like ‘Ok’. He lives in Iowa,”
Wetzel said. “There’s barely any media, and this is the only team so no one really challenges him. So good for him for getting challenged.”
