In a recent, wide-ranging interview with the Des Moines Register’s Chad Leistikow, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz discussed some of the Hawkeyes’ approach to name, image and likeness moving forward. While final details from the university haven’t been released yet, Ferentz said to be on the lookout in the coming weeks.
Leistikow put together a really good write up for Des Moines Register and Hawk Central subscribers that shares Ferentz’s full thoughts from their conversation here.
Hawk Central released a portion of Leistikow’s conversation with Ferentz. In this part of their interview, Ferentz detailed how Iowa has won in the past and why it’s not necessarily feasible for the Hawkeyes to try to get in an NIL recruiting war with programs like Ohio State anyways.
Ferentz also outlined the keys of team building, a reminder that Ohio State’s approach is not the rule and guide for success for every team in Division I football.
“I think what you’ve seen is pretty consistent performance if you look at our win totals in our conference and even actually during that last period since 2015 or the last three years. They’re healthy numbers, and not that we don’t want to do better, not that we can’t do better and we’re always looking to do better, but I think you also have to have an appreciation for how those things happen.
“It’s usually not just about one series or one this or one that, it’s a bigger picture. And for us to win—at least in my estimation—for us to win consistently, we’ve got to play good team-concept football. That’s our best opportunity,” Ferentz said.
Again, as Iowa is ironing out its NIL collective and what the plan will be in the future, Ferentz isn’t suddenly under the impression that the Hawkeyes are fighting a losing recruiting battle against a program like Ohio State.
“Ohio State had two first-round draft picks in the (2023 NFL draft), two first-round receivers this past year. You could argue they’ve…