Reports: Iowa football shaking up coaching staff

The list of names no longer affiliated with the Iowa coaching staff continues to grow.

After the announcement that Brian Ferentz was taking over offensive coordinator duties for the Iowa football team this Monday, it was all but assured that the Hawkeyes would add a quarterbacks coach to its staff and possibly others—most likely a wide receivers coach.

A report from Football scoop states that Iowa has cut ties with receivers coach Bobby Kennedy and running backs/special teams coach Chris White.

From the report:

Sources tell FootballScoop running backs / special teams coordinator Chris White and receivers coach Bobby Kennedy will not have their contracts renewed.

Marc Morehouse later confirmed the scoop and that’s about as close to horse’s mouth as you can get.

Kennedy was the most obvious choice for ousting with the retirement of Davis. Kennedy was with Davis at Texas, and Iowa’s passing attack the last few seasons has been ... suspect at best. That’s nothing to say of development we have seen at the position.

Chris White, at least to me, is a bit more surprising. Iowa saw some pretty good success on the ground the past couple years and I don’t need to tell you how many 1,000-yard rushers Iowa had this year for the what time in program history. I saw people on Twitter griping about how he didn’t do anything with Iowa’s backs before Daniels and Wadley, but counterpoint: Iowa’s running game relied on a converted fullback and an oft-injured Jordan Canzeri during that time.

That’s nothing to say of the special teams improvements under White. I can’t remember the last time Iowa gave up a punt or kickoff return for a score. Iowa’s return game also thrived under White, but that’s probably more Desmond King than anything.

However, one might not have to look further than the de-commitment of Eno Benjamin as a reason to why White is being shown the door.

With coaches unanimously approving a 10th full-time assistant to be added to staffs, Iowa now has several openings on its staff, including receivers, running backs, special teams and quarterbacks. Historically the running backs coach has also done S/T duties (see: Lester Erb) and it’s unclear if Brian Ferentz will resume offensive line coaching duties.

Regardless of performance, the White and Kennedy news should not be surprising. A new offensive coordinator is now running Iowa’s offense and if BF isn’t 110% confident in the abilities of the members of his staff then it is his du to go and find guys he thinks fit his mold better.

Right now I’m not seeing too many names beside David Raih and Marvin McNutt to replace the departed, but even if those postulations are incorrect, I’m sure it’s more likely than not than Iowa’s newest coaching additions will have some sort of tie to the program.