Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz made history with his team’s 47-7 win over UMass on Saturday. He picked up his 206th career victory with the Hawkeyes to break the Big Ten record for most wins by a coach — a mark previously held by Ohio State legend Woody Hayes.
Iowa’s players doused Ferentz in Gatorade to celebrate the benchmark.
“It’s not something you think about,” Ferentz said in a postgame interview with Big Ten Network. “It’s never been a goal of mine. Being a head coach was never really a goal so we’ll start there. But the whole concept was just to do the best we can at whatever you’re doing. Things have worked out. I found a great place and been around a lot of great people.”
With the UMass win under his belt, Ferentz, who took over the program in 1999, improved to 206-125 with the Hawkeyes. He hasn’t had a losing season since 2012 and he has guided Iowa to a bowl appearance in 22 of his 26 seasons. Iowa also hasn’t won fewer than eight games in a single full season since 2014.
The Hawkeyes have also finished the year ranked in the AP Top 25 poll in five of the past seven years and have two Big Ten Championship Game appearances since 2021. The 70-year-old Ferentz is the longest-tenured coach in college football and already set Iowa’s program for career wins with his 144th victory in 2018.
He also has more bowl appearances (23) than any other coach in Iowa history.
With Saturday’s win, Iowa improved to 2-1 on the year with its Big Ten opener at Rutgers set for Friday, Sept. 19.
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