What’s next for Iowa football and head coach Kirk Ferentz?

Amid a report that Kirk Ferentz knew about racial disparities within the Iowa football program, should he keep his job?

In college football, this is usually a dead period for news. Everyone is gearing up for season previews, and hope springs eternal for many college football fans. This summer has been anything but a dead period. First, college football administrators are attempting to put on a season amid a pandemic.

The murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police was the tipping point of racial unrest that had been bubbling. That unrest made it to college campuses with many athletes, including football players using their platform to speak about the racial inequities in their football programs.

Mike Gundy, Pat Narduzzi, Morgan Scalley and Kirk Ferentz are among the coaches accused of perpetuating a system of racial bias and double standards on their respective campuses. According to a document obtained by Hawkeye Nation, Ferentz and the athletic department knew about these inequities over a year ago.

This begs the question, “How far back does this go?” Ferentz admitted to having a blind spot regarding racial issues. Was this blind spot because the Hawkeyes were able to recruit African-American players to keep the Hawkeyes competitive despite being in one of the worst recruiting footprints in the country?

There was a head coach in 2018 who had a blind spot for something nefarious going on with one of his coaches in his program. That blind spot almost cost Urban Meyer his job. The allegations in Iowa are worse, to some degree, because they reveal an institutional and systemic issue within the program with Ferentz as the perpetrator.

Can Iowa football be serious about change with Kirk Ferentz as the coach?

This report could not come at a worse time for Iowa football and Ferentz. The optics look horrendous. It makes now-former strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle look like a sacrificial lamb, so Ferentz and Athletic Director Gary Barta could keep their jobs. (Although, Doyle technically wasn’t fired but bought out of his contract.)

This report also makes the apology he and the athletic department put out Twitter and across other social media platforms look like self-preservation.

The report — done by the University of Iowa Athletic Diversity Task Force revealed white coaches did not communicate as well with black players as they did white players. There was a double standard in disciplinary measures, and recruiters feigned inclusiveness during the recruiting process.

So, what now? Barta is confident Ferentz is the right man to lead the program. How can the man who established the current culture of the program be the right man to drive it if anything is going to change? Doyle’s indiscretions were enough to warrant a question of his job status. Those things happened on his watch and are a manifestation of the toxicity in Iowa’s culture.

Consider this; Maryland fired coach DJ Durkin after Jordan McNair passed away due to complications from heatstroke. Durkin was not present at that practice and did not run that practice. However, it happened on his watch, and anyone who is a fan or follower of college football knows, the strength coach is the offseason voice of the head coach. Though what happened at Maryland was exponentially more tragic than what is happening at Iowa, both are manifestations of a deep-rooted toxic culture.

Everyone knows what Ferentz means to both the Iowa football program and the state of Iowa. He took what Hayden Fry built and expanded the program. He’s had six 10-win seasons during his time at Iowa City and is the Hawkeyes all-time winningest coach.

He’s an institution at the University of Iowa. However, if the Hawkeyes want real institutional and systematic change, they need a change of leadership. Ferentz’s resume should not give him a pass here.

Joe Paterno’s resume did not give him a pass at Penn State, and Penn State survived the scandal with new leadership. Perpetuating a culture that included racial bias and double-standards based on race is as toxic as any scandal for a college football program and Ferentz should not get away with a simple slap on the wrist, especially since he knew.