As the most-tenured active coach in major college football, Iowa's Kirk Ferentz carries the role of dean in his profession, occasionally offering thoughtful comments on newsmaking developments involving the sport.
On Monday in Iowa City, Ferentz filled that role again, giving his thoughts on what happened a day earlier and 175 miles to the northeast.
"Disappointed but not surprised,'' Ferentz told reporters, reacting to Wisconsin firing coach Paul Chryst after the Badgers dropped to 2-3 with a 34-10 home loss to Illinois. "I think it's the fifth one this season, right? The toll has mounted.''
Chryst joined, in order, Nebraska's Scott Frost, Arizona State's Herm Edwards, Georgia Tech's Geoff Collins and Colorado's Karl Dorrell as coaches being shown the door with the season barely a month old. The quintet was a combined 6-15 at the time of their firings, and only the move on Chryst can be considered a surprise.
"Ball kind of got rolling last year,'' Ferentz said. "The one big one I remember was USC the second week of the year, and my question would be: If it's that bad, why didn't you do it a year ago or a half-year ago? But that's the world we're living in right now.''
Those five coaches will receive a combined $53.5 million in buyouts, so money won't be a concern. To Ferentz, though, the trend is troubling.
"Broad-based, though, it's kind of like us picking up two schools from the West Coast into the Big Ten,'' he said. "We're living in different times now, operating in a different world, and we live in a very reactionary world, too, right now. That's obvious.''
In Madison, Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh reacted after the Badgers' second home defeat of the season, and one by 24 points against former Badgers coach Bret Bielema. In his eighth season as Wisconsin's coach, Chryst had a won 72% of his games (67-26) and had guided the Badgers to a Cotton Bowl in 2016, an Orange Bowl in 2017 and a Rose Bowl in 2019.
