Aftermath

When Iowa was down 21-0 at the end of the first quarter yesterday, I was shocked and dismayed. This article doesn't begin to summarize how hot Kirk Ferentz's seat is following the debacle that was yesterday.

The restless natives are out in full force, including Fire Kirk Ferentz on Facebook and articles like this one and this one which has this awesome line "Just when it can't get any worse, it somehow gets much, much worse." In addition to those articles, the http://www.firekirk.com/ website presents horrifying statistics about the Iowa Hawkeyes during his tenure as head coach. I really like this paragraph, especially the bold/italic text.
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For years, Kirk Ferentz has served as a top ambassador of the University of Iowa.  The intent of this webpage is not an attack on his character, but rather a strict focus on the record of Kirk Ferentz as a coach.  As one of the highest paid coaches in the country, we seek to ponder if the performance of his administration fairly reflects the lofty investment of $3.65 million per season excluding bonuses.
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I don't know what the answer is. I don't know whether the thesis of this article is correct - that Iowa should fire Kirk and replace him with someone else. I don't know what the answer is. I will say that there will be a lot of questions asked between now and the spring game about:

1. the coaching staff, 
2. the players. There's the quarterback "controversy" of playing both C.J. Beathard & Jake Rudock in the game and having neither put up enough good numbers to win the game. There's the Iowa player who was going out of bounds and threw the ball in bounds so that it could be recovered by TN, having that play reviewed and during the review, having a penalty assessed that it was a forward pass. There's the unnecessary roughing the passer when the TN QB had released the ball and the Iowa player grounded the QB anyway. There's the total lack of basic tackling skills where Iowa players missed tackles that allowed TN to do whatever the hell they wanted to do on the field. There's the inability for Iowa players to run without tripping, such as the Iowa player in a wide open field tripping on his own feet and falling down. There was the total breakdown of pass defense when the TN QB tossed the ball to a running back and he threw a bomb pass to a wide open receiver and an easy touchdown.
3. Gary Barta's leadership and what he can do to make the Iowa fans believe in the program again when he says he hears the discontent among the fans.

As I said, I don't know the answer - whether to dismiss Ferentz or not. I only hope that the football team honestly finds the answers and has a better season next year.