'Gotta be yourself': Coach Kirk Ferentz's journey
Big Ten's all-time winning coach, Kirk Ferentz, reflects on his 28 years at Iowa, his leadership style, and what he is looking forward to in 2026.
Video Transcript
All right, so, we gotta start with, Paul Burmeister.
I'm working with him this fall.
You've known him for a long time.
Yeah.
What am I getting myself into here?
Coach me up a little bit.
Paul's first class.
He was a young player when I was leaving Iowa last, my last season was 1989.
And Paul's a, Iowa City native.
His dad was in the university committee, or community, and, just, you know, first class family.
And it's been fun for me to, to get to know Paul and watch his career as it's been, climbing up the ladder a little bit, you know, with each turn.
But, it, it's really one of the cool things about sports is seeing guys in their adult lives, and now he's got kids, kids playing collegiate sports, and just all, all good.
So just nothing but positive things about Paul.
Yeah.
Well, you've seen so many incredibly positive people throughout your career.
I wanna start back in the very beginning 'cause here you are, 28 years as the head coach at I- Iowa.
What do you recall about the first year?
Walking campus, learning about different parts of this campus, the facility that now is world-class that was something else 28 years ago.
Yeah, it was, it was a little different than what I expected or remembered from, the '80s.
Obviously, things had changed a little bit.
But, you know, it was just exciting to come back, to collegiate athletics.
I wasn't necessarily looking to leave the NFL, but this is one opportunity I think, it was a mutual thing.
Knew a little bit about the program, obviously, and felt comfortable coaching here.
Thoroughly enjoyed my nine years in the '80s.
And then the other component was from a family standpoint.
My wife and I were raising at the time, we had five children.
Still do, but had, just had our fifth one.
So to, to get them in an environment that might be a little bit more stable than the NFL where maybe we would have a chance to be somewhere a long time.
Coach Fry had been here 20 years, and well, guys like Barry Alvarez went off and had a stable career at Wisconsin.
Bill Snyder at K State.
So in the back of my mind, I was, you know, we were hoping maybe to have a little family stability, too.
And, you know, I never would've predicted this.
No.
I mean, h- how can you predict the type of tenure that you've had?
Mm-hmm.
So I'm kind of curious, when, when you think about the tenure that you've had, I mean, all-time winningest coach in this historic conference, w- what are you chasing?
Like, what edge might you be chasing when you show up, when you go to work every day?
Yeah, I'm really, honored, and it's kind of surreal that, that, that thing you mentioned, the, the record.
But, yeah, I never got into it for that.
Like, that's not why I became a head coach.
And the irony is I never wanted to be a head coach quite frankly.
Again, this is the only opportunity I probably would've looked into.
And, you know, my attitude back then was we're gonna give it our best.
I had certain things I thought were important, but it was not gonna be my life or death professionally if it didn't work out.
There's no guarantees, obviously.
So just did, what I felt was best and tried to, as much as I could, replicate what I had experienced in the '80s working with great coaches and a bunch of good players, and that's really what we've, been able to, to do over the last 20-plus years.
But it takes the right place, and, Iowa's a really unusual place that way.
We've had two coaches in 47 years.
Fair to say that'll never happen again, but it's, something I really appreciate, just the stability and knowing the landscape has, isn't gonna change, you know, overnight, typically.
So many young coaches, first-year head coaches in this league or just in their careers I'm sure come up to you and ask for some advice.
You've been uncommonly consistent from my purview- and I think a lot of other people that have watched your career flourish over the years.
What do you say to somebody who just enters this league, whether it's Matt Campbell or someone in their first year as a head coach and gets an opportunity to lead a program?
Yeah, I mean, really not that many guys have asked, and that's probably smart.
But, you know, basically, you gotta be yourself.
Yeah.
You gotta be who you are and coach within the framework of your personality.
And, typically, you don't luck into these positions.
You have to at least semi-earn them, you know, have, have some sort of resume or, be far enough down the road where you have some firm beliefs.
And, to me, it's like anything.
You know, you try to be as thoughtful as you can in terms of what you deem to be important.
Get input from as many good people as you can, but at some point, you gotta decide, okay, here's the course we're gonna take.
And, so if anybody were to ask me, I would just tell them you've, you've gotta do what you believe in, and, hopefully you're surrounded by people that, you know, where you guys share enough common beliefs to, to maybe get some synergy out of the whole thing.
Synergy's a great word.
Because it seems like in college football, one day there's synergy, the next day maybe there's not.
Mm-hmm.
I look at you and, and I see a guardian of the game, the conscience of the game, if you will.
What do you love about where college football is right now?
What needs to improve about where the game is?
I'll start with the improve part.
I, you know, just in simple terms, I don't, I've never aspired to go back to the NFL, once I left.
But one thing I do miss about the NFL is the, the structure, the salary cap, contracts are contracts, and every, every, all of the 32, every member of the league plays by the same rules, and the enforcement is very equal across team 1 to team 32.
So it really kind of gets down to the playing and the coaching that goes on.
That's how things are decided, and you always have the human aspect.
So who knows how it's gonna go?
They certainly don't.
Everybody's trying to predict it right now, and it's the same way in college football.
But I do worry, as we move forward, just the landscape of college football and, and an imbalance maybe in terms of competition, opportunity to compete fairly.
And give you a quick, cherry-pick one for you.
In '81, my first year as an assistant, we went to the Rose Bowl, first winning season at Iowa in 19 years, and a free trip to the Rose Bowl on top of it.
It was the first time in 13 years it wasn't one of two teams in the league going out to Pasadena.
And I'm not sure the competitive balance in the ni- '70s is what we wanna go back to, but, And I'm not saying it's gonna be exactly the same, but I just, I could see us, if we're not careful in college football, having 8, 10, 12, I don't know what the number's gonna be, of teams that have a real distinct advantage every time they take the field.
And I, I don't think that's necessarily what we It's not good for the entire enterprise.
What about the game right now?
Are you saying, "You know what?
This isn't a really healthy place," or something that you're trying to make healthy within the walls of your facility?
I worry about that and the impact it can have on everybody involved.
Most- most directly the players worry about that.
But the good news is, in talking about the good points as you alluded to, what hasn't changed is, you know, the players we work with are, are f- first class.
They're just great guys to work with.
Most of them wanna get better.
They wanna grow as adults and as people.
Not only in football, but they wanna grow as people and, the other thing, you know, they wanna be the best football players they can be.
And I've never been around a good player that wasn't prideful as, of, of his performance.
And the truly great ones really care about their teammates too, and that's, to me, the beauty of football.
Going back to that word synergy, it's easy to talk about, it's a little tougher to create, but it takes the right people and you've gotta have enough of those people kinda leading the, leading the way.
Synergy's a, a word that I think would describe your program.
A lot of other teams are adding 50, 60 players every year.
It's kind of normal seeing college football.
We're seeing players in their third or fourth year that have never played but have stayed at Iowa, have developed in the shadows and then have become stars on Saturdays.
H- how do you create that?
It takes the right individual.
Yeah.
You know?
We, we try to provide the framework.
I think that we do a decent job of that and, but it, it's, you know, the commonalities in life.
I don't think it's good- easy to be good in anything in life if you're not willing to really, lay it out there.
You have to invest effort-wise, energy-wise, and you gotta be willing to get up.
You can't have a glass jaw 'cause you're gonna get knocked down.
If it's hard to do, certainly playing in our conference, we all get knocked down, coaches, players.
So you, you can't have a glass jaw.
You gotta get back on your feet and figure out a way to make it work better the next time, and that's, that's the challenge of the game.
That's the beauty of the game.
And when you're doing it around enough like-minded people, I think it's, that's the beauty of this whole thing.
I hear you say that and I smirk because I just imagine Joe Moore said a version of that to you.
Like, you can't play this game with a with a glass jaw.
Yeah, you learn that real fast with him.
Yeah, he, he tested you on that one.
It's kind of like a, you mark it on your calendar.
Your offensive line is gonna be up for that award every single year.
Hopefully.
Hopefully, yeah.
What do you take from your relationship?
'Cause I, I know it was so impactful to you from high school to now, that you try to instill into this offensive front that we see each Saturday.
First of all, I mean, so much of my life has been ironic or just coincidental.
They actually fired my high school coach, J- Bill Merritt, who was a very impactful person in my life and, he came out in 1985.
He and his wife Dolores came out for our last game, Minnesota, clinched the Big Ten Championship and went to the Rose Bowl that year and he was here.
Of course, it was a highlight of, that year for me, just having him here.
But they fired Bill M- Bill Merritt in my community, and I was convinced I was never gonna play for anybody else and then Joe Moore came and little did I know how impactful he'd be in my life and, made a great impact as a coach, to player.
But then when I got to work for him in 1980, that was everything, and he was just so giving of everything he had to me.
It was not always smooth or easy, but, but nonetheless, I mean, there was nothing he wouldn't have done for me.
Treated me like a son.
I'm so appreciative.
You know, I think a lot of the things that really to me were important about football started there.
He had a great way of conveying what was important and maybe what wasn't.
And he was a little bit unconventional, a lot of things a lot of people subscribe to.
He was totally different track, but, he was really a commonsensical person and, once you got past his personality- he was just a, a great guy to work with.
I can remember a story you, you shared with me last year.
He came out to visit you your first year as the head coach.
Right?
He says, "Don't win too much or too soon."
And after practice said, "Don't worry, you guys stink anyway."
I, I told him, I tried to hire him in January, and he said he's too old.
And I said, "Hold it timeout."
The, that's when he told me in January, he says, "Don't win too quick."
And he came to spring ball, during practice, came over and said, "Don't worry, you're gonna be okay."
"You don't have to worry about that one."
He was right.
Again.
Again.
I- is there something that, that only you could see that he would also see, that maybe none of us could, that is a constant among the DNA traits of your program?
You know, he just, had a way of bringing things to light.
I, I'm flashing back to a moment.
He was here.
We, we let one m- let, let one off the hook, Michigan 2001.
I don't think they were really serious about us.
We were, you know, trying to climb the ladder, and we jumped on 'em pretty good in the first half.
And right before half, we had a punt block, which as you know, is a kiss of death in football, that all of our momentum, our energy just got deflated.
And they came back in the second half and beat us.
It wasn't by much, but, so we're sitting at the counter at my, in my kitchen four hours later, five hours later and not saying a lot.
And he looked at me, he goes, "What are you gonna say to 'em tomorrow?"
And I'm like, "I don't know.
I haven't thought about that yet."
And I was totally not thinking about it.
And he So I said, "Well, you got any suggestions?"
And he gave me an idea or two, and it was right what the team needed to hear that next day.
But it, it was a great teaching moment for me, just about, like, you better be thinking about everything, and what you say does matter, so anytime you talk.
And Joe didn't talk a lot, but when he talked, there was usually value in what he said.
So it was a great, great life lesson for me right there and, thank God he was sitting at the counter that day.
And after that game, things started to turn.
That's when we started getting traction and started getting somewhere, but I'm not sure if we would've made it.
And then finished that year.
He was at the bowl game.
It was the last game, Iowa game he attended live.
He got cancer that next year and couldn't, couldn't travel.
But, we beat, we beat, Texas Tech in the Alamo Bowl and go back again to the room and, call my parents, come out, and he, he nailed me.
Like, the first thing, four things out of his mouth were things I screwed up during the game.
I was like, "Hold on.
I thought this was gonna be a night of celebration."
And, boy, he had me on the ground kicking me.
But that was his way of letting me know you can always do better.
Yeah.
And then after that, we had a night I'll never forget.
Wow.
A night we'll never forget is- Yep at times, the rivalry.
Iowa, Iowa State, Cy-Hawk.
Will be there this year, week two on NBC.
How do you put into context that game?
It's really hard for people outside our state to appreciate it.
And I, I can't talk to other There are very few, you know, multi-conference, inter- intrastate rivals.
There are other ones where it happens, but this is really unique and, I learned in 1981, my first year as an assistant, just how, how much people care about it in the state.
It's a kind of a pain to coach in it because, you know, you can't win.
But, but it's a good thing for s- the State of Iowa and football and the State of Iowa.
So, it's been a thrill to coach in it.
They always come sh- ready to go.
I'm sure they will this year, and it'll be a tough game.
What did you learn about it the first time when you walked out on that field?
Our first game, we had beaten Nebraska week one.
This is after, again, 19 straight losing seasons, we beat Nebraska, nationally ranked top 10.
And we didn't know how to win back in 1981, so we're taking bows all week, and really didn't prepare for the game, and they were ready.
And they nailed us up there in, in Ames.
Their fans were ready for us.
And so I just, "Okay, I don't know much about Iowa, but I've learned really quickly that's, that's a dog and cat fight."
And, yeah, so hopefully we'll be ready this time.
But it's, it's a game where a lot of people care about it, and certainly the contestants do.
Yeah, especially after the sun goes down, right?
Yep, absolutely.
That's where dreams go to die.
Just intensifies everything.
W- w- take us inside your, your mind.
When, when you walk out there in a night game in Kinnick, and those fans are on you but supporting your sideline, what can you feel?
Y- you know, Kinnick is so unique.
It's, such a close, tight environment.
And, you know, coming out in the swarm, that's a unique experience.
And then night football is very unique in itself, in my mind.
I love going to high school games and scouting, just to, to, you know, those remembrances of So when you combine Kinnick and, and electricity, it just It's hard to describe.
It's just really special.
And, you know, I mean, whenever I do retire, Lord only knows when I'm gonna do.
But like, you know, I mean, that's, that's something I'll really miss.
It's just a special thing.
So you, you said the word retire.
Yeah.
What keeps you going?
'Cause it doesn't seem like that's coming anytime soon.
Yeah, and I, I, I suspect, like I, I never knew what it felt like to be 70.
It feels fine so far.
You know, I've had some work done, hips and sinus surgery, all that stuff.
But I feel, I feel great physically.
So I assume at some point I'll know when it's time to quit when I probably get, quit getting anxious or nervous.
But, but it's all about the people.
You know, I still, really enjoy the camaraderie and the working together with people, and people that appreciate the value of teamwork.
And there's not a lot of that left in, in our society, not, not at that level.
And, I see so many people that are probably chasing that, chasing that feeling.
And, so I feel fortunate to be on the inside of it and You know, we have good days and bad days, too, just like anybody else.
But, the lows are worth, worth the trade-off for the good things and, and then getting to see One good thing about getting older is getting to see guys turn into adults and raising families and, you know, just doing various things.
It's pretty good stuff.
Sure is.
Let's, let's end some, with some good stuff.
Is it true, ice cream the night before the game?
Love it.
You got a flavor or you got a go-to?
What ice cream you got to- the night before, actually I'll, I'll do about three cookies the night before.
Okay.
And, I save the ice cream for post.
Okay.
Yeah, and to kill two, two pints is easy.
I mean, that's not Same flavor?
I'm not, I'm not, not proud, but yeah, I'll do it.
Ben & Jerry's has been a staple for a long time, the Cherry Garcia.
Although I've got a new, new fondness for the, Hagen-Dazs coffee, which I've always loved, but they got coffee with chips in it.
Okay.
Tough.
I love that.
Tough.
My wife keeps buying it.
Oh, gosh.
We're gonna have to bust that out post game.
Like you, you win a trophy, it's gonna be trophy, interview- Ice cream ice cream.
Yeah.
Somewhere there.
Done
