Offense has been difficult to come by for Iowa for a few seasons now, and things appear to be coming to a head in 2022. The Hawkeyes (1–1) have combined for a grand total of 14 points in their two games to start the season, and just one offensive touchdown. At the center of frustrations surrounding Iowa’s offense is coordinator Brian Ferentz, the team’s OC since 2017 and son of longtime head coach Kirk Ferentz.
After sneaking out a 7–3 Week 1 win over South Dakota State behind a safety and a pair of field goals, the team fell 10–7 to rival Iowa State Saturday, with only a single Leshon Williams touchdown on the day. Through two games, the team has a woeful 316 total offensive yards, the worst total at the FBS level by 149 yards.
Evidently, an Iowa fan with some cash to burn decided to take matters into their own hands. If Kirk Ferentz won’t replace his son, whose offenses have never matched the program’s defensive dominance, perhaps some other notable Iowa coaching figures could convince him to step aside.
Enter: Iowa defensive back-turned-Oklahoma coaching legend Bob Stoops, Hawkeyes men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery and the website Cameo.
Stoops and McCaffery are both available to hire on Cameo, a site where fans can pay celebrities for customized video messages. Both coaches were given prompts that point directly to the Brian Ferentz situation, without giving it away. The videos made their way around Twitter on Monday night.
“Hello there Brian, Bob Stoops here saying hi,” Stoops says to open his video. “Listen, I know you’ve had a tough couple of … two, three years there. But the good news is your family still supports you, buddy, especially your dad. He wants you to know that.
“And even though everybody else seems to be against you, sometimes the best advice is to break free from the family business, man. Go do what you gotta do.”
McCaffery, whose own Hawkeye teams are a bit more prodigious on the offensive end in their sport, also recorded a video, with an accidental nod to Ferentz’s previous experience on Bill Belichick’s Patriots staff.
“I wanted to reach out and let you know all of us in the Hawkeye family are thinking about you. Your family loves you. Your dad loves you. The Hawkeyes love you,” he said. “Maybe think about making a move back to New England. But wherever you go, wherever you are, the Hawkeye family will always be with you. Go Hawks.”
Both coaches appear to have taken down the videos from those publicly available on their profiles, so evidently, the word has gotten back to them, but not before this expensive prank was pulled off.
Videos from Stoops start at $250, while McCaffery’s start at $50 on the website.
McCaffery later released a statement about the video.
“I agreed to do Cameo on a regular basis to raise money for Coaches vs. Cancer,” McCaffery said, per the Des Moines Register‘s Chad Leistikow. “I would never do anything to disparage any Hawkeye program and fully support Kirk, Brian and our football team.”
Ferentz and Iowa will try to right the ship against Nevada at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
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For more Iowa coverage, go to Inside The Hawkeyes.
