September 12, 2015: C.J. Beathard (16) runs the ball for Iowa, one play before a 48-yard pass. Iowa State was the only team in the 2015 regular season to lead Iowa in the second half. It ended with what the Gazette has dubbed the 82nd-best win of the Kirk Ferentz era.
You may have heard that Kirk Ferentz is going to become the winningest coach in Iowa football history. He has 143 wins with the Hawkeyes in a coaching record that sources say dates back to the 20th century and started closer to the launch of the space shuttle than the present day. (Sources are sketchy.) Coincidentally, his 144th win — Northern Illinois on Saturday — would bookend the first, Northern Illinois on September 18, 1999, his only win of that year.
How many coaches do you have to go back to get the same number for Iowa State? Technically, seven. It was September 14, 1985, the season opener against Utah State, when ISU was coached by Jim Criner. To get 143 wins, you have to go through Criner, Chuck Banker (interim when Criner was fired, one win against a pre-Snyder Kansas State), Jim Walden, Dan McCarney, Gene “5-and-19” Chizik, Paul Rhoads, and Matt Campbell.
Iowa has conducted one search for a football coach since Disco Demolition Night. Iowa State has conducted … more than that.