Meet the Head Coach who made Saban's arse quit

Kirk fricking Ferentz



He is the longest tenured coach in the FBS being with the Hawkeyes since 1999(oh my). He is one of those coaches that has averaged around 8 wins per season and has 1 year out of 6 where they do something big. In this day and age it is very hard to believe that a coach can stay this long. But he has not really done anything deemed to be a fireable offense.

On New Years Day, 2005. The Hawkeyes defeated Saban 30-25 which was the final blow for Saban at LSU. After being dominated by Georgia and losing a nasty heartbreaker at Auburn(man those games with Saban vs Tuberville were fun). He knew that he could not win consistently at LSU and ran away to the NFL where he decided to make a deal with Louisiana Sports. He would give the New Orleans Saints one of the best QBs of all time in Drew Brees and a Super Bowl in exchange for ruining LSU Football as HC of Alabama. That is what happened.



This will be Kirk's 6th Outback Bowl apperance. He is 2-3 in Outback Bowls with wins over Florida and South Carolina but losses to LSU(LSU's revenge), Florida, and uhh Florida(is the Outback Bowl this unoriginal in matchups?).

Ferentz will be familiar with Mississippi State Head Coach Joe Moorhead, as he faced him as OC of Penn State the last two seasons. Penn State routed Iowa 41-14 in 2016, and squeaked by Iowa 21-19 in 2017 on a last minute drive in Kinnick Stadium.



What do I expect from this Outback Bowl? This one features the #3 and #7 total defenses in the country. While featuring the #66 and #77 total offenses in the country. Iowa has a 30 yard discrepancy in their YPG in their W/L, Mississippi State has a 300 yard discrepancy(yes you read that right).

I expect the SEC to win this game. If you get the bad State offense, you will see a nasty defensive showdown that I could see Iowa winning. But if it is the good State offense, it could get ugly. My guess: it is a 19-15 type game since this is an Iowa game after all....