Hawkeye Apparel Is on Clearance at Paul's

Hawkeye apparel is on clearance today at Paul’s on Highway 1 West in Iowa City. It’s not hard to guess why after the Hawkeye football program’s 7-6 season, including an embarrassing loss to the Tennessee Volunteers in the TaxSlayer Bowl.

University of Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz makes millions of dollars to put in an average performance. However, he signed a contract that’s good through 2020, so we’re stuck with him unless he decides to leave. Ticket sales are down and will probably continue to be down if the magic is really gone for fans.

My husband Jim and I disagree over whether the Hawkeye football program’s problem is mainly coaching or mainly a lack of talent. I would have preferred to see quarterback C. J. Beathard get more playing time than he did before the TaxSlayer Bowl. That’s coaching. Beathard has been thinking about leaving the program to get more playing time. It was interesting to see that Beathard left the field in Tennessee with a police escort and didn’t talk to any reporters after the bowl game. Neither did Jake Rudock, the quarterback who usually gets a lot of playing time.

What Jim and I do agree on is that part of coaching is recruiting talent, so in that sense the Hawkeyes’ football problems are all the fault of the coaches, especially the top coach, Kirk Ferentz. That would make me right. However, I still think that good coaching can bring out the best in players, and Ferentz has been too rigid, too determined to stick with his starting quarterback, regardless of performance. Fairness is key, and Ferentz didn’t decide to shake up his starting line-up at quarterback until too late in the season.