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It's Not Plagiarism If You Link To It: Ferentz Discusses Coaching Changes, Coker

By PlannedSickDays

Ferentz speaks and we learn... what did we learn? Not much other than what was released by Iowa Tuesday night. Ferentz wouldn't announce any new coaching changes besides Phil Parker's promotion and Morgan and Wilson's switch. LeVar Wood's doesn't have an official position yet, but Ferentz says "we'll find a spot." David Raih doesn't either. The best summary can be found in Morehouse's Quick Slants.

Reading those slants we learn Marcus Coker's decision to leave Iowa was his own. Ferentz responded to questions about the departed running back with,

"I think ultimately there was a little frustration there," Ferentz said. "He made the decision that was best for him. I told him I was going to support him no matter what. I think Marcus is a tremendous young man. I wish him all the best moving forward. He'll do well."

Ferentz went on to add,

"There's athletic department policy and there's student code of conduct, which every student on our campus adheres to," Ferentz said. "Then, you have legal issues. Internal conduct is sometimes more stringent than what our athletic department is. I don't know if it's ever been more stringent than what the university would regulate. We're part of the process and we work within the system."

Ferentz isn't in a hurry to announce his new offensive coordinator. The deadline, if you want to call it that, is March 24th, the beginning of spring practice. As far as the other two openings, Ferentz says he has people in mind but don't expect those announcements to come anytime soon.

Kirk didn't rule his son Brian out as a possible candidate for the open offensive line coaching position. When asked if he would call on Brian to return to Iowa City Ferentz said, "you know we're open to anything right now." He added, "I'm really confident we're going to get a good guy or we wouldn't have moved Reese."

There may be more to Reese's move to the defensive line than Ferentz would address. Kirk said this about it,

"Fair to say he was a little surprised on that one," Ferentz said. "But I guess I've got some executive privilege. I exercised it."

Morgan will take over for former coach Rick Kaczenski and by some accounts is the polar opposite in regards to approach. Perhaps a change from an in-your-face "MF this, MF that" coach in Kaczenski is what is in order along the defensive front. If anything, maybe it's an attempt to fix the attrition problems Iowa has had in keeping defensive line recruits on the roster.

After the jump, Iowa hoops vs. Northwestern and more links.

The Iowa men's team travels to Evanston to take on Northwestern tonight. The Hawkeyes have had hard luck in Welsh-Ryan Arena and are seven point dogs in tonight's match-up. Iowa is fighting for sixth spot in the Big Ten and a .500 record in conference play.

Iowa will start Cartwright, Gatens, Marble, White and McCabe. My favorite line-up because as Horace pointed out in Fran Graphs, these guys all have the ability to score from various spots on the floor.

Northwestern could be without starters Luka Mirkovic and JerShon Cobb. Mirkovic averages 5.9 points a game, Cobb 6 ppg in 11 games played.

John Shurna and Drew Crawford will play tonight for jNW. Shurna is averaging 19.8 points a game in Big Ten play, Crawford 16.1.

It's a big game. The Cedar Rapids Gazette's Scott Dochterman calls it "really big." Dochterman writes, believe it or not, that Iowa has an outside chance of an NCAA tournament berth. Obviously, at 13-11, that makes tonight's game a must-win to keep those slim hopes alive.

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