Nebraska Football team won’t get to face off against Brian Ferentz’s anemic offense anymore as the offensive coordinator stepped down on Monday.
Editors Note: Iowa has clarified things and Brian Ferentz will now coach out the remainder of the season. Meaning that the Nebraska Football team will get to play him one more time.
While there is likely much rejoicing in Iowa City, there should be much weeping among Nebraska Football fans this Monday afternoon. It turns out one of the worst coordinators in college football is on out.
Just after a report from 247Sports claimed that Iowa Hawkeyes offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz was not expected to return for the 2024 season, the Iowa Hawkeyes made it official.
The school released a brief statement saying that Ferentz had resigned and that wide receivers coach Welton Copeland will step into an interim-OC job.
From the University of Iowa Athletics Department, regarding Brian Ferentz. pic.twitter.com/GyPGMkhHd3
— Beau Fadeesnuts (@bofayungsavage) October 30, 2023
Rumors started first swirling about this potential shift in the Hawkeyes on Sunday afternoon. 247Sports was then able to confirm through numerous sources that the offensive coordinator was not expected to return.
It appears that once reports were published on Monday, Iowa decided to get ahead of questions. That means a longtime foil of Nebraska football is moving on. It’s just too bad the Huskers didn’t get one more shot at him, especially since NU might be trying to get its 6th win when they face off this season.
Ferentz loss is Iowa’s gain and Nebraska Football’s problem
The change at OC certainly makes sense.
The Hawkeyes have had among the worst offenses in the country for the past three seasons. Because of that, Brian Ferentz’s contract was revised so that he took a $50,000 pay cut.
More importantly, Iowa brass mandated that his team needed to average 25 points per game (including a bowl game) He was let off the hook a little by the fact that the mandate did not say the offense had to score all of those points.
Had that happened, Ferentz would return to his rollover two-year contract. After scoring just 10 points against Minnesota on Saturday, the Hawkeyes are only averaging 19.5 points per game. Which would mean they would have needed an offensive explosion in their last five games in order to hit the mark.
Nebraska Football has played a part in Brian Ferentz struggling. Last year, a Huskers team that was 3-8 going into the Black Friday game was able to upset Iowa and hold them to 17 points.
While Ferentz has been hampered the last few weeks by having to play a backup quarterback, it’s worth pointing out however, that he’s at least partly responsible for the backup being as ineffective as he’s been.
The blame game doesn’t really matter at this point. Iowa’s offensive coordinator and Hawkeyes fans whipping boy for quite a while now is gone.
Here’s hoping that Iowa doesn’t go out and hire a competent OC next year. I’d like for Nebraska Football to get a winning streak going on Black Fridays.