Coaching Staff continuity in the Big Ten

There are few programs that have had long-tenured coaches in our conference, and Iowa is one of them. Kirk Ferentz has been at Iowa since 1999, and IIRC his staff hasn't turned over much.

IIRC, Ferentz hasn't had many changes on his staff. Ken O’Keefe was the OC for a long time, went to the Miami Dolphins, and is now the Iowa QB coach. Norm Parker was Ferentz’s original DC, and then Phil Parker (not related) took over. Phil was also an original member of the staff, was the secondary coach from ‘98 until he took over as DC in 2012. There probably have been other changes too, and you can tell us in the comments.

Iowa fans, are there any changes you'd like to make to the Hawkeyes’ coaching staff? And fans of other teams, what changes would you like to make to your team’s coaching staff?

JWS: I would bring back Luke Fickell. He was a great defensive coordinator and player for the Buckeyes. It just seems weird to me that he is working for another team. While this probably isn’t the most popular opinion in Columbus, I also think he was a solid candidate for coach-in-waiting for when Meyer moves on. I know he went 6-7 at the helm, but he lost Pryor for the season. He also had 5 of the team’s best players sitting for 4 or more games. Other than that, I can’t complain.

Candystripes: I would love to have a year where we don’t have to make changes to our coaching staff. I don’t think that’s likely to happen any time soon (or possibly ever), but I would like to have some continuity while we have a decent product on the field.

Aaron: I would bring back John Donovan as offensive coordinator to prove that the change in quarterback was the key to the Penn State offense’s revival in 2016 and not the change in coordinator.

WSR: I’d probably wish that there wasn’t a bit of history between P.J. Fleck and Jay Sawvel and that they were able to get along and play nice and decide to work together to combine their powers to wreak havoc on the lackwits that are coaching the rest of the B1G West.

Stew: Seeing as there’s was just a pretty big shakeup this last season, I’d like to see how things playout before making any drastic changes. Mostly I really like the defensive side of the ball (in particular, I think Phil Parker is one of the best DCs in the conference, if not country). On the offense, it’s too early to say. There’s a new WR, QB, and OL coach. The old OL coach is now the RB coach and OC. I guess I’d like to see better recruiting.

MNW: At Northwestern? No, can’t think of any. All is well. Move on, nothing to see here.

Townie: Read my lips - no more changes. No seriously, Penn State embraced the coaching carousel since IT. Head coaches, assistant coaches, hell I needed cliff notes to figure out who was on the sidelines.

I like where we are right now. I’d like to keep this group together.

Sadly, that ain’t happening. My prediction for PSU is kinda grim. I think we do really well this season. Moorhead leaves for a big-time HC coaching gig, maybe before the bowl game. We replace him with someone else, which means no Moorhead.

And nobody wants less head...period.