What are football-related things we think Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz is thankful for this Thanksgiving? Here are 10 things that he and Hawkeyes’ fans are extra thankful for today.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Iowa football is 9-2 entering the regular season finale against Nebraska on Black Friday.
The Hawkeyes have a chance to win 10 regular season games for the fifth time in the Kirk Ferentz era and continue to ride a winning streak going into the Big Ten Championship game.
That is something to be thankful for.
As we do every year, we take a look at 10 Iowa football-related things that we believe Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz is thankful for this year. There are more important things such as family and health, but here are 10 Hawkeyes-related topics that puts a smile on Ferentz’s face and makes him grateful.
Let’s get into it.
The Iowa offense has not been great this season.
It has been underwhelming for the most part.
The Hawkeyes rank 123rd in the country in scoring offense, 130th in passing offense, and 106th in rushing offense. Iowa also ranks 13th in scoring offense in the Big Ten and last in passing offense.
Simply put, the Hawkeyes’ offense is not where they want to be, but the play of Iowa quarterback Deacon Hill the last couple of weeks has been a pleasant change.
In four games as the starting quarterback before the bye week, Hill completed 33-for-90 (36.7%) for two touchdowns and three interceptions. After the bye week, Hill has completed 49-for-75 (65.3%) for three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Hill had not attempted a collegiate pass before this season, and he was thrown into the fire when Cade McNamara went down with a season-ending injury against Michigan State. Hill struggled out of the gates, but even with the injuries to tight ends Erick All and Luke Lachey, he has shown steady improvement, and that’s all you can ask from him.
“It’s just been a process,” Ferentz said. “We’re not out of the woods yet, certainly. I can’t say enough about his attitude. Easy to get down, and that’s a position where everybody notices. Everybody’s got an opinion. It wasn’t going great. He could have gone south on that one, but he stayed positive and kept working. Just nice to see him get rewarded a little bit, kind of a little bit representative of our whole football team.”
Hill is 5-1 as Iowa’s starting quarterback, and could also be 6-1 considering he played most of the game against Michigan State after McNamara went down.
Throughout the offseason, most of the talk for Iowa at the running back position was Kaleb Johnson.
The Ohio native was coming off a strong freshman campaign where he set the Iowa freshman record for rushing yards in a season. Johnson has battled injuries this season, and hasn’t been his true self since the injury.
Jaziun Patterson had a breakout performance in the win over Iowa State, but he too has battled the injury bug as a sophomore.
Iowa fans and outsiders wanted Johnson to get most of the carries this season and didn’t want to follow Iowa’s running back by committe strategy that it has used in past years.
With Johnson and Patterson battling injuries, the Hawkeyes have leaned heavily on veteran running back Leshon Williams. The Chicagoland native has been involved in Iowa’s running back rotation the last few seasons, but has never been considered the feature back.
Williams leads the Hawkeyes this season with 139 carries for 668 yards and one touchdown, the one touchdown likely being his biggest of the season as it was a 82-yard touchdown against Wisconsin in Madison to help the Hawkeyes take down the Badgers.
You’d like to see the rushing numbers improve, but Williams’ touchdown along with Johnson’s 15-yard game-winning touchdown last week against Illinois showed that timely runs matter a lot, and this running back room has been able to step up.
Iowa has also seen flashes from its true freshmen in the backfield in Kamari Moulton and Terrell Washington Jr., and the future is bright with the 2024 signees, Xavier Williams and Brevin Doll.
Ladell Betts has a lot of talent in the running back room, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down.
The Iowa wide receiver room has received a lot of ridicule over the last couple of seasons.
So many variables go into Iowa’s offense struggling, and the Hawkeyes’ wideout group endured a lot of that from the outside.
There were still concerns for the most part of the season, but this unit has seemed to take a step forward after losing Keagan Johnson and Arland Bruce IV to the transfer portal this past offseason.
Nico Ragaini delivered in a big way last week for Iowa in the win over Illinois with a crucial nine-yard catch on third down late in the fourth quarter to help keep the drive alive to set up the Johnson touchdown run. Ragaini had five catches for 46 yards in the win.
Seth Anderson also had a nice showing with two catches for 26 yards. One of the biggest differences in the room over the last few weeks for Iowa has been the involvement of Kaleb Brown.
The Ohio State transfer and former four-star recruit was a major land for Iowa out of the transfer portal this past offseason. Brown’s usage in Iowa’s offense for most of the season was lower than many expected, and some wondered if he’d ever make an impact.
Over the last three weeks, Brown has 11 catches for 121 yards, and a touchdown. It all started when he caught a 23-yard pass on Iowa’s final drive against Northwestern to help set up the Drew Stevens’ walk-off field goal.
He got his first touchdown catch the next week against Rutgers, and then had seven catches for 71 yards in the win over Illinois.
Diante Vines has battled injuries recently, but he has had his bright spots, too. Jacob Bostick is also a talented young wide receiver that has seen snaps the last couple of games. Iowa also has two true freshmen it is really high on in Jarriett Buie and Dayton Howard.
Iowa will likely have to go to the transfer portal again to land a wide receiver for next year’s team, but the improved play of the wide receivers and Hill go hand in hand.
Losing your two top tight ends for the remainder of the season is never ideal, but when you’re Iowa, it could be catastrophic.
Luke Lachey is hopeful he can return for the bowl game. Iowa has been without him for most of the season, and the Hawkeyes also lost Erick All to a torn ACL against Wisconsin in mid-October.
Iowa was down to its fourth and fifth-string tight ends when Addison Ostrenga was also out due to injury, but since his return, he has proven how effective he can be for the Iowa offense and he looks to be up next in the pipeline of Iowa’s strong tight end tradition.
Ostrenga, a native of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, was originally committed to Iowa for baseball until the Iowa football staff saw his junior season football film, decided to invite him for camp, and offered him.
Iowa was the only known FBS offer for Ostrenga coming out of high school, so there were question marks with what impact he could have in college. Ostrenga proved as soon as he arrived at Iowa in the summer of 2022 that he could play, and he was one of the two true freshmen on offense last season to burn his redshirt.
Ostrenga was Iowa’s third tight end coming into the year behind All and Lachey, but when those two went down, he was called upon to step up, and he has done just that.
As a sophomore, Ostrenga has been targeted 25 times and has caught 19 of those passes for 116 yards and two touchdowns. Ostrenga has also improved as a blocker, and has set the tone for Iowa’s tight end room alongside reserves Steven Stilianos, Johnny Pascuzzi, and Zach Ortwerth.
Ostrenga has proven he has what it takes to be a productive primary tight end for Iowa and the future is bright for him.
Iowa’s offensive line has taken a lot of heat over the last couple of years due to its uncharacteristic inconsistency.
The Hawkeyes went through an offensive line coaching change, a total change in philosophy, and injuries, among other things, and the offensive line play has been on an upward trend over the last couple of weeks.
There were some rough patches this year, but things are trending upward for this room, especially in pass protection, and there is a lot to work with over the next couple of years with George Barnett leading the charge.
Gennings Dunker has been very good at right tackle, while Mason Richman has shown growth on the left side. The interior of the line has improved, and Logan Jones has taken a step forward at center, while Tyler Elsbury, the backup center, has been solid in place of Jones over the last few weeks.
There is a lot of young talent in the offensive line room, too, as the scout team and a couple of the reserves have been very impressive early in their careers. Iowa also has a talented 2024 offensive line class coming in next year, featuring two four-star additions in Will Nolan and Cody Fox, along with high-floor linemen Bodey McCaslin and Josh Janowski.
There is still room to grow, but things have been better upfront for Iowa as of late.
Many thought Iowa’s defense would take a step back this season after losing four starters to the NFL and others to graduation.
That hasn’t been the case.
Iowa ranks third nationally in scoring defense, allowing 12.5 points per game, is 20th in rushing defense, and has allowed only two rushing touchdowns this season, 10th in passing defense, and seventh in overall defense in terms of yards allowed per game.
Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker is a semifinalist for the Broyles Award, which goes to the best assistant coach in college football. Iowa linebackers coach Seth Wallace and defensive line coach Kelvin Bell also deserve a lot of praise for how their units have performed this season.
The defensive line may not have the sack numbers that it has had in recent years, but they’ve been key in stopping the run and applying pressure, even without Noah Shannon, who was suspended for this season because of his involvement in gambling. Iowa also lost Lukas Van Ness after last season to the NFL, and replacing a top-15 draft pick is no easy task.
We’ll dive into the linebackers next, but man, who would’ve thought Nick Jackson and Jay Higgins would be this good?
Iowa was spoiled the last couple of seasons at the linebacker position.
Jack Campbell and Seth Benson were arguably the most productive linebacker duo in the Kirk Ferentz era since Chad Greenway and Abdul Hodge in 2002.
Iowa had to go about replacing them this season while also losing Jestin Jacobs to Oregon via the transfer portal.
There had been a lot of positive talk about Jay Higgins the last couple of years with his play on special teams and as a role player on defense, but no one really knew what to expect with him in an increased role on defense.
Iowa also went to the transfer portal this offseason to bring in a plug-and-play linebacker in Virginia transfer Nick Jackson, who picked the Hawkeyes over Oklahoma and LSU, among others.
There were early-season growing pains for these two, but they have started to settle in, and have been a staple of Iowa’s defense this fall.
Higgins is fourth in the nation in total tackles with 133, while Jackson has seen steady improvement each week, and is playing like the All-ACC player that he was at Virginia.
Per Pro Football Focus, Higgins and Jackson are two of Iowa’s four highest-graded starters in terms of overall defense, along with defensive backs Xavier Nwankpa and Sebastian Castro.
These two have embodied what it means to be a linebacker at Iowa, and it’s amazing to see how they have picked up where Campbell and Benson left off.
We should also praise Iowa’s secondary for their play this season. The team of Cooper DeJean, Jermari Harris, DeShaun Lee, Castro, Nwankpa, and Quinn Schulte, among others, have been very solid this year.
Kirk Ferentz is not ready to call it a career as he has said he wants to continue coaching as long as he can.
However, when he’s done, groups of Iowa fans have asked for the decision makers to look hard at Iowa special teams coordinator LeVar Woods as the next head coach in Iowa City.
Woods doesn’t have any head coaching experience at the college level, but he has consistently churned out one of the best special teams units in college football over the last couple of seasons.
The STATS UPS Team Performance Index tabs Iowa as the seventh-best special teams unit in the country this season. The Hawkeyes have arguably the top punter in the land in Tory Taylor and also have a clutch field goal kicker in Drew Stevens.
Cooper DeJean was as electric as they come, returning punts before he went down with an injury. A good punter is nothing without his punt coverage team and Iowa has a chance to pin its opponents deep in their own territory every time Taylor comes out on the field because of how fundamentally sound and solid they are.
They also don’t get much credit, but long snapper Luke Elkin has been nearly perfect this season with clean snaps, and he is one of the first guys down the field in punt coverage.
No one appreciates special teams more than Iowa and the Hawkeyes have shown how important it can be to winning football games.
Going into last week, Iowa had to win at least one of its two final regular season games to clinch the Big Ten West title.
Illinois had a lead late in the fourth quarter last Saturday, and it looked as if the Illini were going to come away with a win in Iowa City, forcing Iowa to have to beat Nebraska to win the Big Ten West outright.
Well, clutch play after clutch play led to a Johnson touchdown, and the Hawkeyes secured the win to take home the Big Ten West title for the second time in three seasons.
Nebraska is 5-6 on the season and would’ve loved nothing more than to keep Iowa from winning the Big Ten West, while also securing bowl eligibility in Lincoln. The Huskers did that last year in Iowa City and could’ve done it again had the Hawkeyes not taken care of business last week.
The Huskers and Hawkeyes have played each other very closely the last couple of seasons, and in rivalry games, weird things always happen. The gap in records may be notable, but I would anticipate the Black Friday matchup between these two teams being within single digits, and while Iowa wants to win to accomplish the feat of winning ten regular season games, a trip to Indianapolis is not on the line as the Hawkeyes have already punched their ticket to Lucas Oil Stadium.
Earlier this season, Iowa interim athletic director Beth Goetz announced that Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz would not be retained after the 2023 season.
Ferentz, who was not on pace to meet the goals put into his contract last offseason for 2023, will finish out the season with the Hawkeyes, but then move on to another job after this year.
Iowa’s offense has not been where it needs to be under Ferentz and those inside the program are well-aware of the offensive struggles. The last couple of weeks, it feels like this Iowa team has made it a point to prove a lot of people wrong who have dogged them in the last couple of years.
Kirk Ferentz was not happy when this decision was made and announced in the middle of a successful season in the win-loss column, and that has seemed to add a chip on the shoulders of these coaches and players.
Brian Ferentz has had a lot of fingers pointed at him for Iowa’s offensive struggles. On the flip side, you have to acknowledge that Ferentz is a Hawkeye through and through. While things didn’t work out in Iowa City, you have started to see a lot of emotion out of Ferentz the last couple of weeks, proving how bad he wants to win despite the circumstances.
Kirk and Brian Ferentz were very emotional after last week’s Big Ten West clinching win and the opportunity to coach with your son is not an opportunity a lot of people get.
The on-field production has not been there the last couple of seasons, but Kirk knows that he has only so many games left to coach with his son, and he’s going to savor every second of it.
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