OSG CFB: Just How Much Is Kirk Ferentz's Buyout These Days...??? Still Un-Buyoutable...

((HT: Iowa State Daily Online))

Iowa State beat Iowa today in the annual CyHawk affair on a last-second field goal by Cole Netten with two seconds left in regulation.

Netten missed his first attempt, but Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz had called timeout to try and ice him.

Didn't work and now the Cyclones are 1-2 after their embarassing loss to North Dakota State and the Hawkeyes (2-1) have now lost three of the last four in the series.

Here's Paul Rhoads talking about his kicker...


And, now, we address the larger question. Frankly, it's one of the larger questions in the state after a day like today.

It is commonly known that Ferentz has the worst contract for a state employee in the history of contracts for state employees short of Huey Long.

And, for that, he can thank AD Gary Barta for base salaries, longevity bonuses, and anything else resembling supplemental payments that Barta threw at him when the contract was signed and extended.

Patrick Vint over at Bleacher Report did a tremendously face-slapping awareness piece IN 2012 on the sheer madness of the contract and why a buyout will NEVER HAPPEN UNTIL THE CONTRACT IS OVER... and, then, it just won't be renewed.

In the year 2020... let that sink in for a moment...

His contract is SO BAD it cannot be bought out, so a program is stuck with him unless someone befriends Warren Buffet or T. Boone Pickensian-type folks over the next five years or so.

If we extrapolate Vint's base number for buying out in 2012 dollars using his "75-percent of his base salary" figure, and we fire Kirk Ferentz the second this story is published, we're looking at a minimum of 52 payments of $219,742 or $11,426,584...

And that says nothing of any kind of hidden settlements or other hidden paragraphs in the Ferentz-ian contract.

It's almost the Peter Principle of contracts and there's nothing the school or the state can do about it.

Barta is more than happy, apparently, to fire one of the more nationally recognized field hockey coaches in the country when he let Tracey Griesbaum go with three weeks before the 2014 season was going to start a month ago- allegedly when five players went to Barta and claimed that Griesbaum called a player "fat."

Barta fired Griesbaum without cause and went straight to the buyout portion of the contract for that sport- and, probably, ruined it on campus.

A particular paragraph late in the Black Heart piece by Vint speaks volumes about where Barta's head is in the Iowa Athletic Program:

"A football workout actually put nine players in the hospital not long ago, yet not one person was fired or even reprimanded; the strength coach responsible for the workout got a 'Coach of the Year' award from the program two months later. And if yelling at players is grounds for dismissal, then Gary Barta has obviously not watched the basketball coach he hired four years ago."

So, if anyone is looking for any kind of success in Iowa City- good luck with that until Barta and Ferentz are gone...

SIX YEARS FROM NOW!!!

Buzzer Beater: Illinois Jon Ekey for Three and The Win vs Iowa

((ht: btn.com))

Nothing says March Madness better than a buzzer beater. And while Illinois pulling out a last second win vs. Iowa wasn't in an NCAA Tournament game, it still was pretty impressive.

Jon Ekey of Illinois was the guy with the clincher, dropping the 3 from the top left side of the 3-point line giving the Illini the 66-63 win over #24 ranked Iowa.

S.Carolina, LSU and Nebraska With Early Bowl Wins

This is the part of the College Football Bowl season where you can start paying attention.

Though to look at a couple of these games, paying attention and attending appear to be two different teams.

We start in Jacksonville in front of a crowd of tens, where Nebraska wins the Gator Bowl title over the University of Georgia 24-19 in a truly uninspiring game that featured the Huskers scoring on a 99-yard passing TD from Tommy Armstrong Jr to a streaking Quincy Enunwa.

The Bulldogs continually sputtered in the Red Zone, dropping a couple of late 4th down passes that could have given them the opportunity to salvage a disappointing season.

Your highlights from ESPN:


We move down state to the dreary confines of Citrus Bowl stadium in Orlando, where South Carolina gets the win over Wisconsin 34-24.

The game was a back and forth affair featuring 4 turnovers by the Badgers and two by the Gamecocks. QB Jaybo Shaw of South Carolina was the hero, throwing for 3 TD's, 300+ yards and running for another score.

Perhaps the biggest highlights of the day came afterwards. South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier took the opportunity to praise his team congratulate them for winning their 3rd straight bowl game and the championship of South Carolina. (Dabo Swinny pun).

And then star Defensive End Jadaveon Clowney made it official, announcing he'd be taking his services to the NFL this upcoming season.

Here's one of Jaybo's TD runs, we are still searching for the Spurrier post-game comments: (thanks ESPN)



And then our minor bowl game tour of Florida ends in Tampa where LSU held off Iowa in the Outback Steakhouse Bowl in front of a crowd that got better access than the people covering the game.

The game featured LSU tailback Jeremy Hill running for 216 yards and 2 TD's and ended only after a bizarre sequence of laterals that the Hawkeye's eventually ended up fumbling. The Tigers could only manage 82 yards passing, while the Hawkeye's were only able to run for 76 total.

We are still awaiting the arrival of full game highlights....

Iowa Beats Nebraska and Bo Pelini Dares Someone to Fire Him

It must be rough being Bo Pelini these days. Never mind what happened to brother Carl at Florida Atlantic, Bo's got his own problems.

Those problems start--and end with a restless Cornhusker fanbase who are increasingly unhappy with Pelini and his performance.

Iowa is the latest to add to the beat Nebraska war cry, beating the Cornhuskers 38-17 in Lincoln. The Hawkeyes took advantage of 2 Ron Kellogg III interceptions sending Nebraska to their 3rd home loss of the season.

The loss left Nebraska at 8-4 on the season, 5-3 in the Big 10, Iowa improves to the same record. And unfortunately, after a great win by Iowa, all anyone could talk about is Nebraska coach Bo Pelini.

Pelini has been under fire by alumni (most notably Tommy Frazier) and much of the fanbase for their perceived under-performance of the team. However, to fire the $3 million a year coach is going to take a lot of money and a big leap of faith by AD Shawn Eichorst.

For his part Pelini immediately added fuel to the fire by stating in his post game presser "If they want to fire me, go ahead" adding he was proud of his and the teams accomplishments and that the program is heading in the right direction.

And he may not totally be wrong.

It's not like Nebraska has been terrible. Though they haven't been the Nebraska of the 1990's and earlier. And that's something that the fans and alumni need to remember. For every coaching change that helps improve the program, consider what happened to Tennessee when they fired Philip Fulmer, the Vols haven't been relevant since that happened.

Your highlights from ESPN