The departure of Ladell Betts from the Iowa Hawkeyes football program to the NFL left a gap in the coaching staff. After a monster year by the Hawkeyes' ground game, they had a hole at the running back coaching position.
After doing their due diligence and checking out many candidates, Iowa and head coach Kirk Ferentz went with Omar Young, an addition that brings ample experience from the NFL and collegiate ranks, to coach the running backs.
At the start of spring ball, Ferentz discussed Young's background and what led to his hiring with the program.
"Yeah, I'm not saying I like doing coaching searches because in a perfect world everyone says here, but the world is not perfect, and Ladell is a great example. He had an opportunity he was excited about and I'm fully supportive. I think that's every coach's decision to make a decision on what's best for him, and that one made perfect sense.
"The fun part of it is we all worked collectively on it. I say we, the offensive staff primarily in this case, and you start doing research, and we started out pretty much got it down to about a list of four or five that we were serious about and then cut that back by a couple.
"But felt really comfortable -- there were probably three guys that we could have hired very easily and it would have worked out very well, but Omar just kind of rose, and the last step of the process was bringing guys to campus and spending time with them in person.
"We did Zoom calls, you do a lot of calls and research and try to check sources, all that, but the biggest thing to me is getting quality people that we can envision -- just like players, you can envision them really functioning really well in our system.
"Whether it's the outside, like living in Iowa, but also being part of the program, and then adding to it in Omar, I think with his experience and the places he's been, some of the systems he's been involved in, the transition is going to be easy for him.
"Also he'll add to the equation. He has good personal skills. He's walking into a good room. Ladell did a great job of bringing players in that really, I think, have great futures in front of them, and it's an easy group to work with. Those guys like football and they like working. I think it's a good mesh," Ferentz said about Omar Young.
Young has an extensive background of coaching in both the NFL and collegiate ranks. He has spent time with the New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, and Cleveland Browns. In the college world, he has worked with Eastern Illinois, Colorado, and South Carolina.
Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Riley on X:
