Sometimes the boldest leadership move is to stay the course.
To properly explain the back story around the Iowa Hawkeyes program following
the 2014 season I am going to share a personal story.
Last Christmas Eve, I found myself in the heart of Hawkeye country
as I do every year. The state
of the Hawkeye football program soon became the hot topic. After listening to family pile on, I defended
the Hawkeye coaching staff and found myself in a more-than-lively debate with
my two brothers-in-law. They were
absolutely convinced Ferentz had to go.
With 20 years’ experience coaching college and pro football and
five years competing against the Hawkeyes, I felt qualified to quickly “set them
straight”. After all, how hard could it
be to get two highly-intelligent humans to accept an educated point of view?
In short, I failed miserably. What I thought would be a 30
second discussion turned into an hour-plus long debate. Frustrated that they would not accept my short
explanation (and always one for a good debate) I pressed on deciding to use
logic and reason to win the argument. We
went through every school in the Big 10 ranking each on facilities, access to
talent, tradition, fan support and finances.
With a little debate, we came to an agreement on where Iowa fit in. Next, we used some quick math to estimate the
number of times they Hawkeyes “should” defeat the other Big 10 teams over a ten
year period based on the criteria mentioned above. We applied the same logic and math to a
typical non-conference schedule and we used the agreed upon numbers to come up
with an average win total. I don’t recall exactly what that number was, but I
do remember (even with the early years uder Ferentz included) Iowa was over the agreed
upon number. It had worked...I “won” the
debate...not so fast my friend. They still wanted Kirk gone. They are fans (short for fanatics you know J) and were ultimately not
interested in logic and reason, instead preferring to settle on emotion and sentiment. Fans often fail to realize that for each team
that finishes with a 10-2 record someone else (on average) has to finish 2-10. 50% of the games every Saturday are lost.
I am not saying I saw an undefeated regular season coming
for the Hawks. I did not. That is not
the point of this story. The point is that
following the 2014 season, most in the Hawkeye fan base were beyond reason. They wanted change. My brothers-in-law showed more patience than
most. They at least wanted to have an
intelligent argument.
When the Hawkeyes roll into Indianapolis today the black and
gold will be thick. There may be more
Hawkeye fans than there was at home games to start the 2015 season. Hawkeye fans made their opinion clear this
last year and were “voting with their feet” in record numbers. For the first time in a long time there were
large empty sections in the stadium.
This is where the true leadership of Gary Barta comes
in. He did not do what was popular. Instead, he had the courage to do what he
thought was right. He stayed the course. Make no mistake, if the Hawkeyes had underperformed
this year Barta may have had his house on the market. The pressure from fans and boosters forces
many coaches and AD’s to focus on survival rather than leadership. Faced with
that same situation in today’s college football landscape most AD’s are folding
faster than a garage sale card table. Bold
move Barta!
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