The best news on Wednesday was that it sounds like the 13 Iowa football players that have been admitted to the UIHC are recovering, doing well and a full recovery is expected. That’s great news, and I so glad to hear it.

Things went downhill from there.

I don’t know what, I don’t know how severe and I don’t know for how long, but the path Iowa chose to go down on January 25th and 26th related to the now 13 football players that were admitted to the hospital following severe workouts could cost them something.

Beginning with the press release from Iowa on the 25th that basically raised awareness to what was going on (most people had no idea), but also not being able to provide any details about what was going on or what caused the hospitalization, it seems to have been handled poorly from a Public Relations standpoint. That’s putting it nicely. Apparently, the Des Moines Register had received a phone call from a parent of a recruit a couple hours before the 1/25 press release, and the Register called Iowa, which then sent out a press release two hours later. This, heard on 1460 KXNO’s Murph & Andy Radio program on Wednesday afternoon.

Iowa is in a bit of a trick bag here due to HIPPA laws that prohibit the discussion of the players medical issues, I do realize that. Yet, yesterday’s release just seemed like bringing a big ole semi full of napalm to a marshmallow roast.

Then there was today’s press conference, details of which you can read here.

Kirk Ferentz was not there. Gary Barta was not there. Chris Doyle was not there.

Iowa sent Paul Federici to the press conference today, representing the football program. He is the team’s Director of Football Operations. With all due respect, if you asked Iowa fans to list 500 names associated with Iowa football, my guess is you would have run out around Pete Gales at 387 with Webster from that TV show in the 1980′s at 386 (it was really his dad, but Webster would count in Kevin Bacon terms) and would not have mentioned Federici’s name because most people have no idea who he is, yet he was there answering questions, or trying to. He really couldn’t offer much detail other than the investigation as to why things happened this way is ongoing.

Chris Doyle could have delivered that message. Ken O’Keefe could have delivered that message. Kirk Ferentz should have delivered that message. If he had to be out of town recruiting until arriving back in Iowa City later tonight, delay the press conference until later tonight or do it at 10am tomorrow.

Kirk needed to be there, symbolically as much as anything, even if he would have been as limited as Federici was in his answers, which I am guessing he would have been.

Instead, he was allegedly in Glenville, Ohio talking with Ted Ginn Sr about Class of 2012 players, according to Rob Howe of HawkeyeInsider.com

Some folks are going to turn this into an ‘Iowa doesn’t care about it’s players’ attack. We know that is garbage, we know that Kirk Ferentz cares a great deal about his players. The Iowa football program is a family. But the national media that is rubber necking on this story right now because it happens to be the only thing going on in college football other than the Senior Bowl, they dont know that.

Here is a sampling of what is being written about Iowa right now on twitter:

“In summation, Iowa’s presser featured no Ferentz, no athletic director. Fantastic effort, Iowa. Kudos all around.” -CollegeFootballTalk.com, sister site to behemoth ProFootballTalk.com

“How can Ferentz still be out recruiting during this? I’d be horrified if a parent of either the hospitalized kid OR the recruits.” -Stewart Mandel, SI.com College Football writer.

“Somebody please ask Mr. Poggi if he’s OK with Ferentz not being there Monday night when this happened.” -Dennis Dodd, lead columnist for CBSSportsline.com

“After today, Ferentz is going to really wish he’d taken an earlier flight back from where he was recruiting. He’s going to get destroyed.” & “I feel awful for the Iowa ops guy who has to take all these questions, too. That’s why the head coach makes millions.” & “If Poggi’s dad hadn’t volunteered to talk, Iowa’s PR folks would have completely butchered this. He’s saving them right now.” -Andy Staples, SI.com College Football writer

“Sometimes I think another school has a saboteur working in Iowa’s SID. How can they get so many things so wrong?” Marky Hasty of AOLFanhouse, Their Big Ten writer

Dennis Dodd of CBSSportsline.com penned a scathing column on Iowa on Wednesday morning, and is going on Des Moines radio at 6:00pm.

I will stop now, but I could fill this page and several others with similar comments.

These aren’t snarky comments from the Adel Corn Times here, these are national media outlets with tens of thousands of followers on twitter, which is a powerful social medium that can spread good and bad news quicker than anything seen before.

Ferentz needed to be at that press conference, or the press conference that dealt with this. Iowa could have announced today that they would hold a press conference tomorrow, so Kirk could have been there. Things would have simmered down, Kirk would have said many of the same things Federici did, but the fires would have been contained.

Now, there is a raging national inferno that will be a worse PR black eye for Iowa than a player getting busted and admitting to cocaine and marijuana use and then a few weeks later another getting busted for marijuana possession. Those instances are looooong forgotten, and they will not have any affect on the future of Iowa football.

Today’s decision to have the press conference without Ferentz, even if he would have just been little more than a symbolic figure? That one could leave a mark.

It’s going to give negative recruiting ammo to Iowa’s competitors; we’ll see if it works. It’s going to create a false impression that Iowa doesn’t care about its current players, something I think is BS but perception is difficult to fight.

Were it not for Biff Poggi, Jim Poggi’s father, speaking to the media, Wednesday’s ‘press conference’ would have been an unmitigated disaster. Poggi’s presence and words ‘saved the day’ if you will.

We’ll see how Iowa finishes in recruiting down the stretch.

Would I have any problem right now sending a qualified child to play for Ferentz and Iowa? Hell no I wouldn’t, but I know them and I know their track record. I know they care about their players, I know they care about their safety.

But I don’t have a recruit under my roof…those people are hundreds and thousands of miles away, and they might have only met Ferentz once or twice amidst hosting coaches in their homes for months, and those coaches have one last pitch against Iowa right now that doesn’t have anything to do with Ferentz to the NFL rumors.

Tags: hawkeye football, Iowa football