Iowa offensive tackle Kyle Calloway was arrested over the weekend for allegedly driving while intoxicated on a mo-ped. He is at least the 26th Hawkeye player known to have been charged or ticketed by police since April 2007.
The timing could not have been worse for coach Kirk Ferentz, whose comment earlier last week about media coverage of three players who were arrested in the spring for public intoxication raised eyebrows. One of those players happened to be his son, James.
"You talk about beating dead mules," Ferentz said. "For this to make front-page news in a major publication — it's a great state we live in."
Less than 72 hours after Ferentz blamed the messengers, Calloway got popped. Oops.
Iowa players getting into trouble is nothing new. It happened all the time under the legendary Hayden Fry, but Hawkeye fans seldom heard about it. Here's why: Fry had a good relationship with the Iowa City cops, including an agreement that if one of his players got into trouble, they were first taken to the coach's house by the cops.
Nothing will straighten out a player like a visit to the coach's house at 2 a.m. on a Saturday.
Fry would enforce the discipline and if the player ever got into trouble again, he was off the team.
It worked like a charm.
Bottom line: Ferentz could learn something from Fry about building a relationship with local law enforcement.
After 26 arrests or violations over the past two years plus - including two involving his son - I would think Ferentz would be on a first name basis with everyone in the Iowa City police department down to the meter maids.
Posted by: Will | June 22, 2009 at 05:22 AM
Ouu! Ouu! Ouu! Can we also find out how many times this group of vicious felons has been cited for speeding?!?!?!?!?! Were any Hawkeye FB players late to class last year?!?!?!?! Inquiring minds want to know.......
Posted by: PantherHawk | June 22, 2009 at 06:22 AM
Ferentz was an assistant on those Hayden Fry teams, he knows what was going on back then. Another assistant coach on those teams, Dan McCarney, was a relative of the police chief. The non-stop troublemaking is beginning to reflect directly onto Ferentz himself, especially when its his son getting arrested.
Posted by: Tristan | June 22, 2009 at 08:12 AM
The Darth Pantherhawk (just google it) has spoken. Where's your lightsaber?
Posted by: Jeff | June 22, 2009 at 08:18 AM
Check out my take on this whole thing: MY VIEW: What’s a College Football Player Riding a Moped For? http://www.easterniowanews.com/?p=3371
Posted by: Christoph Trappe | June 22, 2009 at 09:16 PM
Is this even an option in today's society, though? Police officers would rather get their name in the paper than follow this protocol. This isn't the 80s.
Posted by: hawkeye fan | June 23, 2009 at 09:43 AM