The Iowa Hawkeyes football program will be making no changes to its coaching staff under Kirk Ferentz, and with details of his son and offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz's contract with the team coming out, college football media has been screaming nepotism.
Brian Ferentz's contract is amended for the 2023 season to be more incentive-based, Iowa announced. The new salary is $850,000, a $50,000 pay cut, but the incentives could play Brian Ferentz's favor.
“So basically, Brian Ferentz gets a $50,000 pay cut, and his contract is 1 year instead of its usual 2,” Steward Mandel, editor in chief for college football at The Athletic said. “But if Iowa averages 25 mpg and goes 7-6, he'll get a $112,500 bonus, a new 2-year contract and a raise. Nepotism FTW.”
Mandel also noted that 85 FBS teams scored at least 25 points per game last season, and he was not the only one to bring up that it is not a very ambitious benchmark.
“It is extremely funny that Iowa has designated 25 points a game as the benchmark that gets the offensive coordinator a raise,” Dan Wolken of USA Today Sports said.
There were some who had questions about what counts toward the incentive.
“Do defensive points count toward the 25????” Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic said.
That does raise a good question, if it is just raw points per game, Brian Ferentz could benefit from any defensive score that Iowa has in 2023.
So while on the surface of Brian Ferentz's amended contract, it looks like he will be getting a pay cut, he will actually be getting a raise if he reaches some very achievable incentives.
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