Ferentz tells I-Club his Hawkeye squad “will be much-improved”
By RICK DEINES
POSTED: May 8, 2008
The Marshall County I-Club held its annual spring banquet Wednesday at Elmwood Country Club. Featured speakers were University of Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz and women’s basketball coach Lisa Bluder.
State Senator Larry McKibben was honored as the Hawk of the Year by the Marshall County chapter of the I-Club.
Hawkeye football player Rob Bruggeman was named the 2008 winner of the Ben Trickey Memorial Scholarship.
Long-time WHO and Iowa broadcaster Jim Zabel was the master of ceremonies, who noted that he had done 500 Iowa football games, 1,100 Iowa basketball games and 6,000 play-by-play broadcasts in his career.
Zabel laughed, “I was the host of Bowling for Dollars longer than Bob Barker was the host of The Price is Right.”
Ferentz said the 2006 season was the most disappointing year he has had since coming to Iowa.
“We got off to a great start — 5-1 — and finished 1-5. The most important thing and the simple thing we work for is improvement. Last year, despite the 2-4 start, our staff felt there had been a lot of improvement. We won four of our last five games and were on the right track until we had just an awful performance in the last game (losing to Western Michigan, 28-19).
“To this day it is hard to understand why that would happen.”
Ferentz addressed off-field issues that have plagued the Iowa football program lately.
“The other disappointing thing about last season is the off-the-field conduct issues. We had too many instances of young men making terrible decisions. It is certainly troubling and is not the way any of us want our programs represented and certainly not the way we want our athletes to conduct themselves,” Ferentz said.
“I am positive,” he added, “we will see a much-improved team next year in all regards.”
Bluder, who won the Big Ten coach of the year honors for the second time, said she “will never forget cutting down the net” after winning a share of the Big Ten Conference championship.
“Winning is always enjoyable but it is really enjoyable when no one thinks you can do it,” she added.
Her Hawk women were picked seventh in the conference by the coaches and fifth by the media.
Vall Jordan, an assistant to Iowa head men’s basketball coach Todd Lickliter said, “We know when we get the program to where we want it, there will be unbelievable support; there is already unbelievable support. We are excited about where we are headed.”
Jordan was on Lickliter’s staff at Butler and came to Iowa when Lickliter took the job.
Mike Faust, an assistant on Tom Brands’ national champion Hawkeye wrestling team, said that the low point of the season — a home dual loss to Oklahoma State — was the turning point of the year.
After defeating Iowa State when the Cyclones were ranked No. 1 and winning the Midlands team title, he said, “We started thinking we were pretty good and we found out we weren’t, losing to Oklahoma State. That was the lowlight of the season but it turned it around and we went to work hard.”
Faust, incidentally, neglected to mention that he is competing for a spot on the U. S. Olympic wrestling team for the Bejing Olympics this summer. Lisa Bluder pointed it out to the crowd in attendance.
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Contact Rick Deines at 641-753-6611 or rdeines@timesrepublican.com
