After the 2022 season ends, Iowa Hawkeyes head football coach Kirk Ferentz and South Dakota State head football coach John Stiegelmeier will have a combined 50 years of college head coaching experience between the two of them.
When the Hawkeyes and Jackrabbits get their respective 2022 seasons underway on Saturday at 11 a.m. on FS1 from inside Kinnick Stadium, the two head coaches will boast a combined 363 head coaching wins at Iowa and South Dakota State. The longevity of both is unique to college football.
As the buildup to the game reaches its crescendo, one of the questions posed to Stiegelmeier was if he saw any similarities between the two programs. If you stop and think about it, there are some striking similarities. Tough, hard-nosed programs led by two of the longest-tenured head coaches that like to feature talented tight ends and emphasize physical running games.
“I do. At different levels, but a lot of similarities in terms of coaches’ tenure. We want to be physical on offense. They are very physical on offense. Run the ball, use tight ends. They use a fullback, we use tight ends. Defensively, I think we maybe have a little more variety, but still want to be sound. When you put on the film and you watch how people line up against formations and things like that, you can’t outnumber them. We take pride in doing the same thing, so there’s a lot of similarities. It’s at a different level and more scholarships, but our guys will be ready to play,” Stiegelmeier said.
It’s clear the amount of respect that Stiegelmeier has for Ferentz individually.
“I’m honored. I look forward to meeting him. I look forward to picking his brain. He’s only a couple years older than me, but I’m sure he’s got some really good insight in the success of his program. I respect what he’s done, what the Iowa Hawkeyes have done through the years and, again, it’s going to be an honor to meet him and compete against him,” Stiegelmeier said.
Ferentz echoed many of those sentiments about Stiegelmeier and South Dakota State.
“Yeah, so I think I’m older than him—I figured I was. That’s unusual that somebody is that close and then he’s got more tenure. But I have great admiration for him. He’s done a great job with the program. Not that I know them intimately, but I’ve followed them now the last several years, and I just watch the way they operate. We’ve seen them in crossover tape. You pretty much form opinions about anybody when you watch tape, at least that’s how I form opinions about programs, and every tape I’ve seen going back a couple years with them is really—whenever the tight end that got drafted, I don’t know if he’s in Philly or whatever, you know who I’m talking about, but I remember them playing against somebody there, and they’re a good football team and a good football program.
“The other thing I’m impressed with, they lost four coaches this past offseason, but if you look at the guys they’ve hired, there’s a lot of common DNA in there. So they’re very confident about who they are, what they are and how they do things. That to me is impressive. Like they know who they are, and it’s worked really well for them, and he’s a first-class coach, first-class gentleman,” Ferentz said.
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