What the Iowa media and fans have been talking about and speculating about since the football season ended in December has come to fruition this week.
Erik Campbell announced a few weeks back that he would not be returning as Iowa’s wide receivers coach.
Yesterday, Iowa secondary coach Darrell Wilson became the secondary coach at Rutgers University. Then today, the final straw dropped when the University of Iowa announced that running backs coach Lester Erb would to be retained as well.
Replacing Wilson and Campbell will be Jim Reid and Bobby Kennedy, respectively. The hirings are effective immediately.
Erb and Campbell both left Iowa for what the school was to “pursue other opportunities.”
“I am very appreciative of Lester and Darrell’s many positive contributions to Iowa football over the years and wish them both the best moving forward,” said Ferentz. “I am excited to have Bobby and Jim join our staff. Both men have coaching experiences that will complement and supplement our staff and team in a positive way. Jim and Bobby are tremendous individuals who will be a good fit on our campus and great representatives of our university and football program.”
Kennedy coached the wide receivers at Colorado the past two seasons and was on the University of Texas staff when current Iowa Offensive Coordinator Greg Davis was the OC for the Longhorns. Kennedy served seven years as wide receivers coach for the Longhorns. He has been a coach at six other major college programs, including Washington, Arizona, Wake Forest, Illinois and Penn State.
Reid joins the Iowa staff after serving as associated head coach and defensive coordinator at Virginia the past three seasons. Reid has more than 30 years of experience on the collegiate and professional levels.
Reid has served as a head coach on the college level for 17 seasons. He has been the head coach at Virginia Military Institute, Massachusetts and Richmond. He also has been linebackers coach for the Miami Dolphins.
It is actually pretty par for the course for Iowa to announce these kind of moves on its own terms. And telling the media with a press release at 4 p.m. on Valentine’s Day is not surprising either. Oh, and never mind that some members of the media are in Des Moines for the Iowa High School State Wrestling Championships.
But it looks like Campbell, Erb and Wilson have been off the staff back when the speculation began. The university was indeed waiting to announce the moves until the replacements were hired.
The only position to not yet be filled is Erb’s position as running backs coach. A good candidate for that position would former Iowa running back Albert Young, who was linked to a job at Pittsburgh but did not take the position with the Panthers.
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