Hawkeye Football: Iowa’s Culture Issues

The Iowa Hawkeyes are at a crossroads. Over the last week, Iowa, like much of the nation, has seen tremendous despair over social justice issues including the dismantling of systemic racism and police brutality.

Iowa coaches Kirk Ferentz and Fran McCaffery — as well as athletic director Gary Barta — put out statements following the national protests that stemmed from the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minnesota police officer.

Over the weekend, myriad former Hawkeye players took to social media to share their experiences inside the football program. That was met with a series of statements, videos and calls with the media by Kirk Ferentz.

As outlined in the video above released Saturday evening, head strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle was placed on administrative leave. The long-standing ban on social media has been lifted, and current Iowa football players will be allowed to voice their opinions on Twitter. The Iowa Football staff is undergoing an internal review and further changes are forthcoming.

As Coach Ferentz has said repeatedly, this is a time to listen, learn and grow. We will be allowing all our staff to voice their views on the developing situation with relevant news updates also linked to this stream. We would also encourage anyone interested to utilize the Fanshot or Fanpost tools on this site.

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