Kirk Ferentz Wins 206th Game to Surpass Woody Hayes for Most All-Time Victories Among Big Ten Football Head Coaches

By George Eisner on September 14, 2025 at 1:00 pm
Iowa Hawkeyes head football coach Kirk Ferentz (left) interviewed by Anthony Herron (right)
Jeffrey Becker — Imagn Images
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The notorious gridiron hypnotist Kirk Ferentz has dethroned Ohio State legend Woody Hayes.

Certainly not in terms of all-time prowess in college football, but on Saturday night, the long-time Iowa Hawkeyes head coach got his 206th career win over Massachusetts by a 47-7 final score at home. That victory now has Ferentz at the top of the list among all-time wins by Big Ten head coaches.

Ferentz took the head coaching job in Iowa City back in 1999 and currently finds himself in his 27th season running the show. He first arrived at Iowa in 1981 and served as the program's offensive line coach for nine seasons before accepting his first head coach position with Maine in 1990.

He has won two Big Ten Championships during that time (2002, 2004) in addition to three West Division titles during the era when the conference found itself split in half (2015, 2021, 2023). Ferentz has also won Big Ten Coach of the Year four times and AP College Football Coach of the Year once.

Ferentz already held distinction as a reviled figure in some circles of Ohio even before his most recent chipping away at Woody Hayes' legacy. He began serving as the Cleveland Browns' offensive line coach starting in 1993 and ultimately made the move with them to Baltimore when Art Modell uprooted the franchise from the Buckeye state before the 1996 season. He continued to serve as the team's offensive line coach while also assuming assistant head coaching duties in 1997 before leaving for the Iowa job two years later.

Hayes now sits second among all-time wins for Big Ten coaches, 11 more than the next man on the list: Bo Schembechler. The closest active name on the list to Woody and Ferentz remains Penn State's James Franklin, currently at 104 career wins. John Cooper has the second-most wins among former Buckeye head coaches with 111 — five more than Jim Tressel's total free of adjustment by the NCAA, 28 more than Urban Meyer and 38 more than Ryan Day.

Though Ferentz now has more wins due to sheer career longevity, he consequently also owns more than twice as many career losses (125) as Hayes (61). The Iowa head coach's career winning percentage of 62.2% falls nearly 14% short of Hayes' mark of 76.1%. Among Big Ten coaches with at least 150 games of experience, Hayes ranks third in terms of all-time winning percentage while Ferentz sits at ninth behind names including Lloyd Carr, Cooper, Franklin, Joe Paterno and Mark Dantonio.


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