Would Ferentz leave Iowa? 1/1 update

[BidsJr]

Q: If you were asked by an NFL team to interview, would you interview with them?

FERENTZ: The best question I had the other day is if any CFL teams had called for an interview. (laugh) I guess I qualify because I have lived in Maine, Cleveland, and Iowa, so I guess I qualify. I am not even thinking about that right now. What I am excited about is what we have done as a football team and a program and I couldn’t be more excited about looking ahead at what we are going to try to do in terms of building this thing. It has been an awful lot of fun and that is where our thoughts are right now. Myself and Chris Doyle are probably the only two guys that have the luxury to look ahead a little bit and I am real excited about our football team for next year, I hope.





Pick up the phone TD!

[JayWood]

Come on TD want me to get John Stamos to help ya 10-10-987 call KF!!!!

[superbills]

Wow, Bids. You've been all over this Ferentz thing and I just want to say...Thanks! This guy sounds like the real deal and after reading all the links you've posted I'm fully on board. I hope TD courts this guy heavily because, if he's as good as it looks like he is, then other teams will also be going after him like mad dogs.

It's sort of a catch-22 from my perspective, this whole coaching process that is. On one hand, you want someone with coaching experience who is familiar with the intricacies of coaching at the NFL level and, on the other hand, it would be nice to have a smart, on-fire rookie head coach who's not some re-tread that has aleady lost a head coaching job, for one reason or another. It should be interesting. I just hope TD leaves no stone unturned and realizes that this is not the rookie draft. A head coach is not someone you want to "take a chance on". We got burned by going against the obvious last time, and maybe this time Ferentz is the obvious choice. Hopefully TD will realize that he does not have to prove that he has intuition. He has to prove that he can do what's best for this football team.

[BidsJr]

I am a huge Iowa Hawkeye fan but I was born with Bills blood in my veins. I would hate to see him leave the Hawks but if he does I want it to be Buffalo.

Hopefully I can provide some insight on the guy, Ihave been watching his games, following player development, and watching how that team has adapted over the last 5 years and he is top notch.

It was great seeing Trev Alberts begging on air for Nebraska to hire the guy this afternoon! That was classic.

[madness]

I watched the Iowa game and it's just amazing how well coached that team is. Not to mention the offensive playcalling didn't reveal a single flaw. This guy needs to come to Buffalo!

[Tatonka]

i have been on the ferentz wagon for several months now... he was my pick for our head coach when i did my write up on the offseason, but i am not holding my breath.

i agree that he would definately do a good job in buffalo, because of his pound it, field position, defense first mindset.. he is also big on the Oline (as he was an nfl oline coach, and assistant head coach) and special teams. it would be a dream come true if we could pull a guy like this, but the only thing that is gonna pull him away would be money.. he makes about 1mill a year i beleive.. i dont know whether TD would offer him much more than that.. because of lack of experience.. but i wouldnt have a problem tossing 2.5 mill his way to see what he would do on the bills sideline.

i think the fact that he won his bowl game today and his son might be done with college ball could be a big help.

[TKO]

As much as I'd like to see Ferentz on our sidelines in 2004, it seems unlikely, as our interest appears to be one-sided. I sure hope TD & RW will make a strong pitch for Ferentz, but at the moment, IDK where TD's search is headed. We would have to offer around $3 million to make a serious offer to Ferentz (he has the potential to earn up to $1.9 million at Iowa this year).

A Dec. 26th article in the Des Moines Register also reports that Ferentz is happy where he is, meaning TD has to sell the Bills as the best situation for Ferentz. Here's some of what Ferentz said:

Q: Will you coach professionally?
A: Possibly, but I'm not dying to do it; I'm certainly in no hurry. To me, the landscape has changed so much in the National Football League. Maybe 20 years ago it was a pretty attractive opportunity, I'm not sure it's the same now. The salary cap has changed the nature of the game. If you go back to pre-salary cap, there were five or six organizations, and if you were in one of those organizations, you had a chance to have a great job and a great opportunity to win and do it frequently as long as you stayed on top of things.

Q: What were those organizations?
A: San Francisco and Washington, the places where they had the great owners. Pittsburgh found a way to get it done. Miami and Dallas - where there was great support from the ownership on down. Now, even if you have the right ownership, that doesn't guarantee anything. If teams are successful, it's almost guaranteed that within a couple years things are going to change just because of the nature of the system and the salary cap. There's not a lot of loyalty in the National Football League right now - organization to coaches to players.

Q: Describe the perfect pro head coaching job.
A: You have to have ownership that you felt great about, and then I think you have to feel great about the people in the building where you work - the personnel people, the administration and the front office. I think in this day and age, to put a good team together is a great team effort. It's not just one person.

Q: Do you want total control?
A: No way. Mike Sherman's doing that at Green Bay. I don't know what he's doing for the rest of his life because he doesn't have many hours left. I don't know how one person can do that.

Q: You interviewed for the Jacksonville job last winter. Could you have had that position?
A: If we had sat down for the second interview, and I had made up my mind that coaching there was what I wanted to, the chances were better than average that I would have had the job.

Q: Then why did you withdraw from consideration?
A: It wasn't what I wanted to do right now. Discussing that job gave Mary and I a good chance to sit down and talk things out. That's the best thing that came out of this whole thing for us - that we had a chance to sit down and talk about what's important in our lives at this given point.

Q: How significant is it to coach your son, Brian, for his remaining two seasons at Iowa?
A: It'd be great to coach him all the way, but really, all five kids factored into the Jacksonville decision. Brian's old enough that he can handle whatever comes; whatever I did was fine with him. We just didn't think this was the appropriate time to be changing school for the other kids.

Click here for the full article. (http://desmoinesregister.com/sports/stories/c6902851/23108292.html)

I can only hope that Ferentz leaves Iowa, insitutes a power running attack, and bolsters our O-line. :pray: Then perhaps we can start thinking playoffs.

Bottom line, what Ferentz has done at Iowa deserves serious interest from TD.