Iowa Hawkeyes will be without head coach Kirk Ferentz for season opener due to suspension

Iowa football will be without yet another person on their team for their season opener against Illinois State. This time, however, it is their head coach they will be without due to a one-game suspension.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz and wide receivers coach Jon Bumayr will serve a one-game suspension against Illinois State on August 31st for NCAA violations related to recruiting quarterback Cade McNamara according to 247Sports.

Now while the program is under investigation, it is unclear whether this suspension was handed down by the NCAA or by the University.

The reason for the suspension is due to the fact that it is believed that Ferentz and Bumayr were speaking with McNamara before he entered the transfer portal. After spending his first three seasons at Michigan from 2020 to 2022, McNamara chose to enter the transfer portal the day it opened on November 28, 2022, and there was already a lot of mutual interest between McNamara and the Hawkeyes on November 29th.

Budmayr had a previous relationship with McNamara and that relationship contributed to why McNamara joined the Hawkeyes.

Ferentz is the nation's longest-tenured head coach heading into his 25th season with Iowa taking over the program in 1999. He is coming off a solid season where he won the Big Ten West and made it to the Big Ten Championship. Losing Ferentz for the season opener is not great, but it is against Illinois State, an easier team versus it being for the Iowa State game.

These are the third and fourth suspensions for Iowa for the season opener as they will already be without wide receiver Kaleb Brown and offensive lineman Cade Borud. Both Brown and Borud were arrested on separate OWI charges this past summer and Ferentz gave them a one-game suspension for the charges.

Iowa's athletic director has declined to comment to the media, but Ferentz is set to speak to the media on Thursday afternoon.