Though it’s been more than a month, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz still isn’t over the way the Hawkeyes’ 12-10 loss to Minnesota ended. It makes sense. Neither is anyone that supports the Hawkeyes either.
In that loss versus the Gophers, junior star defensive back Cooper DeJean’s potential go-ahead 54-yard punt return touchdown with 1:21 remaining was nullified upon review due to an invalid fair catch signal.
The Iowa contingent felt they were robbed in the moment, and now their head coach is speaking up about it.
After the Hawkeyes snagged another dramatic win over Nebraska, Ferentz was asked what it means to him and the program to have captured a 10th win.
“Twelve would’ve been better. We’ve only done that once and that’s hard I can tell you. But, yeah, it means a lot because it’s the best we could do after losing to (Minnesota). Yeah, I won’t go down that road,” Ferentz said.
Then, suddenly, Ferentz decided differently.
“We got screwed. OK, I’m just gonna tell you, we got screwed in that one by a special, the replay system. I’m still not happy about that quite frankly. That’s a different discussion for a different day. Nonetheless, it was a good season and just, yeah, it’s special, really special.
“And I don’t ever play that card, but I’m playing it right now. That’s still the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in the last, what’s it, a quarter century? Take that replay stuff and blow it up, start over again. I mean, we’re trying to make this stuff rocket science and it isn’t. It’s football,” Ferentz said.
Here's the full Kirk tangent on the Cooper no-fair catch call pic.twitter.com/jYJm9IP2m7
— Blake Hornstein (@BlakeHornTV) November 24, 2023
Ferentz mentioned it immediately following the Minnesota loss, but said it again after the win over Nebraska. During his pregame conversation with the various officiating crews, he and Iowa haven’t been told that what DeJean did at the end of the Minnesota game would be ruled as an invalid fair catch.
“Here’s the other point. Talked about the officials pregame, right? Since that game, still nobody has told us you can’t do this. That’s a fair catch. Over the head, two waves. It’s just, you know, it’s like, oh yeah, that happens all the time. That’s a bunch of (expletive). I gotta tell you. Unbelievable, OK,” Ferentz said.
Ferentz wasn’t finished. He had one final thought on the matter.
“And how do you defend that? That’s my question. That’s what really kind of ticks me off. How do you defend something like that? Anyway, I get it. It’s history, too. It ain’t coming back, so I get that, too. I’m old enough to know that.
“And I’m old enough to remember when replay got started. The whole context was if an official got screened, there’s an obvious mistake, correct it, let’s move on. Now, we’re making it like a five-minute dissertation every time they go to replay. I’m scared to death every time they go over, and it’s not the guys’ on the fields fault. It’s not their fault. I want to be clear on that, too,” Ferentz said.
It makes sense why Ferentz would be peeved. It robbed DeJean of a historic moment inside Kinnick Stadium on a call that rarely gets enforced and during a review that was initially to see whether or not DeJean stayed in bounds.
As Ferentz touched on as well, it’s tough enough to win 10 games. With the Nebraska win, Iowa won 10 or more games in a season for the 11th time in program history. It was the eighth time they’ve won 10 or more games in a season under Kirk Ferentz and just the seventh time in program history that Iowa has won 10 or more games in the regular season alone.
Tracking down 11 wins in a regular season would have been an even rarer milestone. Iowa has only captured 11 or more wins in a season three times in program history. They have only won 11 or more in a regular season twice in program history.
Each of those occasions have come under Ferentz’s direction in the 2002, 2009 and 2015 college football seasons.
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