Kirk Ferentz To Stay At Iowa? CBS Thinks So

I'm not sure there was really much doubt about Ferentz staying put at Iowa -- despite some grumbling about the results of the past few seasons, there are no pitchfork-wielding mobs lining up in Iowa City and it never made too much sense for him to leave Iowa before his son James' senior season -- but Charlie Casserly of CBS Sports provided the firmest smackdown yet of the "Ferentz to the Kansas City Chiefs" rumors:

"One name rumored for the job that will not be there is Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz," Casserly told James Brown Sunday. "I talked to him this week and he's staying at Iowa. I would not be totally surprised if Romeo Crennel is the head coach next year."

That's probably about as close to a flat denial as we're likely to get from Ferentz, assuming Casserly isn't in the business of just flat-out fabricating quotes. (He's not.) So that's (in all likelihood) that. We never put much stock in the rumor to begin with -- a Ferentz to the NFL rumor is practically catnip for NFL writers at this point, especially with noted friend Scott Pioli involved -- but at least we can put it to bed now.

Of course, Ferentz staying put isn't the only coaching news of the day regarding Iowa -- there was also a story making the rounds of Nebraska looking at current Iowa defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski:

Sources close to the program tell us Bo Pelini has targeted Iowa defensive line coach Rick Kaczenski to fill the defensive opening he has. We continue to hear that John Papuchis will be named defensive coordinator.

Morehouse says FootballScoop is a reliable source, so there's probably some fire to this particular bit of smoke. If true, it would be a slightly curious decision -- going from the defensive line coach at one school to the defensive line coach at another school is essentially a lateral move. As Morehouse notes, this might also mean that a decision on Iowa's next defensive coordinator has been made (and, uh, it's not Kaz).