in college football. Coaching style As both offensive line coach and head coach, Ferentz has exclusively used a zone-blocking scheme on offense. The scheme originated with Alex Gibbs and Mike Shanahan on the Denver Broncos teams of the late 1990s, and is used by current NFL coaches Kyle Shanahan, Kevin Stefanski, Klint Kubiak, and Sean McVay. The scheme involves quicker, more mobile offensive lineman than the gap (power) blocking schemes used by programs such as Barry Alvarez's Wisconsin. Ferentz's offenses often use fullbacks and tight ends as supplemental blockers. The inside and especially outside zone plays are the hallmark of Ferentz's Iowa teams, identifiable by the entire offensive line slanting in one direction. Play-action passes and bootlegs based on those runs add downfield danger. When Ferentz took over at Iowa, the zone scheme was rare in the Big Ten, whose defensive lines and linebackers typically were bulkier in order to withstand the power running schemes, giving the Hawkeyes an advantage. However, more teams in the conference started using zone after Rich Rodriguez brought a zone read look to Michigan, which was replicated by several teams in the conference. Rule changes surrounding cut-blocking have also limited the effectiveness of the Ferentz's scheme, which has remained mostly static since his hire in 1998. Kirk and his son Brian are adherents to 'complementary football,' a theory that believes a poor offense assists an excellent defense and finds advantage in field position rather than points. "We’ve got to know what kind of game we’re going to be in," Brian Ferentz said to a reporter in the summer of 2022. "Look at the worst defenses in the league. How often does it correlate with one of the better offenses in the league? More than you think. You just have to know who you are. You have to play complementary football." Ferentz had previously described his father's philosophy, saying the offense "needs to protect our defense and keep them out of bad positions. That means we need to protect the football. We need to change field position," adding "we need to score as many points as we can with the opportunities we have." Scandals and off-field issues Iowa Football Racial Bias During the 2020 racial unrest in the United States after the murder of George Floyd by police, Black former Iowa football players called for changes within the program. Former Iowa offensive lineman James Daniels tweeted