Kirk Ferentz is synonymous with two things. The first is the Iowa Hawkeyes. He has been the face of Iowa since the turn of the century and has been a mighty successful chapter in the program’s history.
The second is hard-nosed football. Built upon winning at the line of scrimmage, field position, and slug fests, Kirk Ferentz doesn’t change his winning style for anyone. It has worked so well that he is among the top 25 coaches in all of college football.
But, enough of discussing Ferentz’s coaching career. What about his playing days? How does he stack up against the rest of the FBS head football coaches?
ESPN tiered every coach in college football into eight categories based on their playing careers. The categories include this with limited production, the small-school grads, transfers, Group of Five contributors, lower-level legends, Power 4 players, the 30 best, and those who did not play college football.
Kirk Ferentz, a graduate and former player at UConn, belongs to the small-school grads group as UConn had not yet made the jump up from Division II at the time. He was no slouch, though. He had a strong career for the Huskies that set him up for coaching success.
Kirk Ferentz, Iowa Hawkeyes: Ferentz played high school football in Pittsburgh, and also was a standout left-handed baseball pitcher. He went on to play linebacker at UConn, then a Division II program, where he was named defensive MVP and served as a team captain in the mid 1970s. – Adam Rittenberg, ESPN
Other notable coaches in Ferentz’s tier that rose from small schools include North Carolina’s Bill Belichick (Wesleyan University), Texas A&M’s Mike Elko (Penn), Baylor’s Dave Aranda (Cal Lutheran), Army’s Jeff Monken (Millikin University), and Boston College’s Bill O’Brien (Brown).
Ferentz was a fullback and linebacker in high school, which lends credence…
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Publish date : 2025-05-28 12:45:00
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