Next K.C. Chiefs Coach: Iowa Hawkeyes Kirk Ferentz?

Now that Todd Haley has been canned by the Kansas City Chiefs front office, defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel wil serve as Head Coach in the interim. His first game will be versus the undefeated Green Bay Packers- have fun with that.

So who replaces Haley in the long term? Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli has reportedly told people that Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz is the leading candidate.

How much money will it take to get Ferentz to leave the Hawkeyes program?

This situation kind of seems like a NFL vs. college football version of the NBA vs. college basketball decision Tom Izzo faced a couple years ago. Ultimately he decided to stay at Michigan State instead of go to the Cleveland Cavaliers even though he turned down a gigantic pay raise.

It’ll take a similar amount of paper to get Ferentz to leave. And you can overlook Kirk’s pedestrian 8-8 record in Big Ten play the past couple years, Pioli and Ferentz go way back, and he badly wanted to hire Kirk in 2009.

The move would reunite Ferentz with his school record setting QB Ricky Stanzi. The third-stringer ex-Hawkeye might get a shot to start soon. The season appears lost, and for what it’s worth Stanzi has the endorsement of Kansas City mayor Sly James.

James tweeted yesterday:

Would like to see what Stanzi can do. Nothing to lose really.

The other leading candidate for the head coaching job is obviously someone with New England Patriots Bill Belichick coaching tree connections, and that would be Josh McDaniels. He flamed out with the Denver Broncos and his offense isn’t doing so hot right now in St. Louis. However, the Rams knew he might bolt for a head job when the chance arrives and McDaniels is still the first Tim Tebow believer.

He drafted the media darling or media darlings in the first round when most scouts couldn’t believe he could play in this league. So that has to count for something.

Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports

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