Iowa's Ferentz on steady ground despite turmoil

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Two straight years of disappointing results, star running backs leaving under amid controversy and the loss of two top coordinators would land many coaches on the hot seat.

Not Iowa's Kirk Ferentz. He's not going anywhere.

Ferentz, who at 13 years and counting is the Big Ten's longest-tenured coach, has the unwavering support of athletic director Gary Barta despite the turmoil that has engulfed the program over the past 18 months.

The Hawkeyes followed an underwhelming 8-5 season with a 7-6 finish in 2011. And the losses of assistants Norm Parker and Ken O'Keefe were piled on the abrupt departure of standout running back Marcus Coker.

But for Ferentz, a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year with a 96-66 career record, the seat may not even be warm.

"What Kirk has done for the University of Iowa, for the state of Iowa, is he's run a program that not only has been extremely successful on the field, beyond that we have one of the highest graduation rates in the country. We have in Kirk a value system that's shared by the people of Iowa," Barta told The Associated Press.

Of course, Ferentz's job is so safe at least in part because firing him would be prohibitively expensive.

The 10-year contract worth nearly $40 million that Ferentz signed on the eve of the 2010 season includes a buyout that would cost Iowa roughly $2.6 million a year through 2020 if they fired him without cause.

Not much has gone right since Ferentz signed that deal.

The Hawkeyes, who won the Orange Bowl after the 2009 season and finished ranked seventh, were picked at No. 9 before 2010 and were even considered by some a dark horse contender for the national title. Iowa instead stumbled through a string of agonizingly close losses, and starting running back Adam Robinson was booted off the team for disciplinary reasons.

Last year, an offseason workout sent 13 players to the hospital and brought negative publicity to Ferentz and the program. Once play began, the inexperienced bunch barely cracked .500, and Coker was investigated for sexual assault. He was never charged, but he was frustrated enough about the incident to depart for FCS school Stony Brook.

"Clearly, our goal is not to win seven games. Our goal is to compete for championships. But that said, if seven games is our low point, I feel very confident that we can come from there and get back to that level of competing for championships," Barta said.