One could argue that Brian Ferentz's position as Iowa's offensive coordinator was among the most criticized in all of college football last year.
Five days ago, Kirk Ferentz noted that he anticipated no changes to his staff, and that sent Hawkeye fans into a tizzy.
The Hawkeyes struggled mightily on offense last season, ranking 123rd nationally in scoring at under 18 points per game, putting Brian Ferentz in the crosshairs of plenty of criticism throughout the season, as well as after with folks wondering why changes weren't being made on staff.
Well, today, Iowa announced that they had reworked the contract of their offensive coordinator to be more incentive driven, with some rather interesting benchmarks.
To put part of this in perspective, a total of 85 teams in college football averaged at least 25 points per game last season.
Iowa is essentially setting the bar at averaging one more touchdown per game in 2023 to deem the offense successful, at least by this amended contract's standards.
An Iowa spokesperson shares with Sports Illustrated's Richard Johnson that the points per game benchmark includes "any points scored," and isn't restricted to just the offense.
Last year's Hawkeye defense scored six defensive touchdowns and recorded two safeties to help inflate the points per game numbers from 2022.
The other performance objective is winning a minimum of seven games, which would include a postseason win.
Ferentz will make $850k this season, instead of $900k, and if he's able to lead the offense to the aforementioned objectives his salary will increase to $925k on February 1, 2024, and he'd receive a $112,500 one-time bonus.
This fall, Brian will enter his seventh season on staff running the offense for his dad.
In those seven seasons, the highest scoring offense the Hawkeyes have had ranked 40th nationally in scoring at just under 32 points per game. During that span they've also had offense that rank 99th (2021), 87th (2019), and 66th (2017).
Ralph Russo notes this part of the contract that states if Brian does not meet the designated performance objectives...
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