University of Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday that he's as concerned as he's ever been about the path college football is on right now.
"I think we're in a really precarious place," said Ferentz during a Big Ten Conference media day, as reported by ESPN. "There's just a lot of vagueness, a lot of uncertainty. We really don't have a firm structure. We don't have a basic set of operating rules. I don't think anybody right now can really explain the NIL [name, image and likeness policy] in detail, what you can and what you can't do. I know you can't entice recruits, but it sure seems like maybe that's going on a little bit. There's just a lack of overall clarity."
Ferentz, who turns 67 on Aug. 1, is entering his 24th season as Iowa's head coach, making him the longest-tenured head coach in college football. He said the sport desperately needs a single, stabilizing voice.
"We need some intervention, and then my bigger concern is: Who's going to do it, right? Where's it going to come from? Where's that leadership going to come from, because we're all busy?" said Ferentz, who joked that his old counterpart at Wisconsin, Barry Alvarez, was available. Ferentz and Alvarez served together as assistants under Iowa legend Hayden Fry.
Ferentz said frustration is a common theme among his coaching brethren and pointed to the Nick Saban-Jimbo Fisher exchanges in May as evidence. Alabama's Saban, considered one of the greatest coaches of all time, caused the tension by accusing Fisher's SEC rival Texas A&M team of buying the players on its roster.
Related: Saban's A&M Comments Spark Firestorm, Fisher Fires Back
"You've got two head coaches, prominent head coaches and both good coaches, who are bickering in the public forum, and you know, that's not a good look for our sport," Ferentz said. "It's not a good look for the conference, and that makes you wonder, 'So, what are we doing here? How come we can't straighten all this out?' "
Ferentz is supportive of players earning money on their name, image and likeness once they get to campus, but said the idea of schools bidding for players coming out of high school combined with proposed legislation to ensure that players can transfer as many times as they want isn't good for anybody, ESPN reported.
"So you go into the portal, you come back in my office and say, 'I got a deal for, let's say, $250,000,'" Ferentz said. "How do I know that's right? We have no way of knowing. Is that what his adviser is telling him? There's a lot of that going on already, and I don't know where it ends."
Ferentz signed a contract extension this offseason and will earn $7 million annually. He said the best part of coaching for him remains the players, and that's what keeps him coming back.
Asked if his concerns about the direction of the sport had soured him on his coaching future, Ferentz said, "Yes and no. I mean, there are moments where it's like, 'What the hell?' "
