IOWA CITY — Jay Norvell met with the media for the first time since rejoining the Iowa football program as the Hawkeyes' new running backs coach.
The former Iowa safety and 40-year coaching veteran spoke at length during his more than 20-minute media session about why he chose to return to Iowa City and why he elected to be an assistant coach with the program, rather than pursue other opportunities.
Here's everything Norvell had to say about why he's back in Iowa City:
On his love for Iowa and returning to the program, Norvell said...
“I wanted to come back to University of Iowa because of my deep love for the University of Iowa and really, my great respect for Kirk Ferentz and what he's done. It's been a long time since I've been back, and I've had a lot of amazing experiences since I left here in 1986, and most of those experiences have been with people from Iowa. And so I'm so grateful for that, and to have an opportunity to come back after being a head coach for nine years and really having a deep understanding of what it takes to be in that position, I really was excited about the opportunity to come back and work with Kirk.”
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On Kirk Ferentz and what he admires, Norvell said...
“I've been so blessed to be around so many Hall of Fame head coaches and coaches that have won the most games at their schools, whether it's Barry Alvarez or Bob Stoops and now Kirk. Until you are a head coach, you really don't understand all that goes into it. And the last four years, especially with NIL, transfer portal, all the different things that go into this profession, you just really respect people that have done it as well for as long as Coach Ferentz has done it, and all the different ways that he's pulled back and forth and handling the ups and downs.
"Last year, I got let go in October, and I got to do something I hadn't done in 40 years. I went to Oklahoma, I went to Illinois, I went to Michigan, I went to USC, and I came to Iowa, and I watched practice. Iowa was my last stop, and Kirk gave me the great honor to be able to speak to the team. But I told him before I spoke, I said, ‘Coach, I've seen five different schools. It's by far the most disciplined practicing team of all those schools that I saw.’ And when I talked to the team, I told them they were a great example of what a team is, and that's difficult. That's really challenging in this day and age. And I just think we all need to be grateful when we see a job well done, and that's one of the things I very much admire Kirk for.”
On what makes Iowa special, Norvell said...
“One of the things that are getting lost in college football right now, and everywhere I've been, I've tried to recreate the experience that I had here at Iowa. When I became a head coach at Nevada, I could pick up the phone and call any one of my coaches and they would have done anything to help me. How many kids today can say that? You can't transfer to three different schools and have the relationship with a coaching staff like you can have here at the University of Iowa.”
On his experience returning to Iowa as an honorary captain last fall, Norvell said...
“I got a chance to see and reflect on what a special place this is and what a first-class organization it is in comparison to other major schools. I traveled, got in my car, jumped on airplanes, went everywhere and saw great programs. But this place is just very, very unique. I think it's the continuity. Rita Foley was a secretary when I was in school, and she still has files of letters that my father wrote. It's incredible. It's very unique to be able to come back to a place and have that sort of connection still.
And being in Kinnick ... at halftime, I was getting ready to run up the sideline on the left, because up the stairs where we used to run, that was years since that locker room's been there. I can remember when there were tennis courts behind the south end zone. There's so many things that kind of come back to you. I mean, one of my summer jobs was painting the visiting locker room pink. I worked for the Johnson County Road Company and drove around. There's so many memories that come back, and so just really blessed.
I tell our players, I said, I was just like you. This place means an awful lot to me. And so I told them, I said, this is my school. Don't screw this up. Do it the right way."
On his speech to the Hawkeyes when he served as an honorary captain, Norvell said...
“I really wanted to tell them what I learned from playing at Iowa. I told them three things.
The first thing I told them was never let your teammate down. When I was a senior, we were preseason ranked No. 3 in the nation, and I was a guy starting for really the first time. I look around at Hap Peterson and Larry Station and Ronnie Harmon and Chuck Long, and I'm like, I don't want to let these guys down. That really motivated me. The intensity of what it took to play here — my freshman year, my very first game, we played Nebraska in 1981, and I'm looking at Mark Bortz and Andre Tippett — it's a different level of commitment.
(The second thing was) you can play hurt. That's something that is learned behavior. I remember Bob Stoops his senior year — he broke his foot week two or three, limped around all season, never missed a game. When you're a young player, when I was in school, I remember I was a strong safety, and we sat by position, Bob stoops was in the first chair, Mike (Stoops) was in the second chair, I was in the third chair and Mark Stoops was behind me. We all became head coaches. I really attributed that to Bill Brazier. What an amazing coach he was, but you can play hurt. that was the second thing.
And the third thing I told them that I learned was courage. This is a hard sport. You have to have courage to play the sport well. Thomas Jefferson made a comment, and he said, one man with courage is a majority. To do the right thing, to stand up and play hard for your teammates and play with physicality and courage — those are the three things I learned from being at Iowa, and they served me well for many years, and I'm very grateful for those lessons.”
On what Iowa meant to him as a player, Norvell said...
“I'm an example, just like a lot of players here. This place benefited me so much. The lessons that I learned from Coach Fry and his staff — I was a head coach nine years, I had a picture of Coach Fry about this high in my office at every place I coached. It's pretty well known how I feel about this university in other parts of the country where I've been, but I'm so grateful for what this university has done for me.”
On Hayden Fry’s impact, Norvell said...
“You really don't understand somebody's methods until you become older, kind of like parents. I can't tell you how many times I found myself telling our kids the exact same things Coach Fry told us. He had a lot of sayings about being a bell cow and being a leader. All those things he used to tell us, they are are really true and he was a master.
I think that era of head coaches, those guys were masterful because they did everything. They handled the psychology of the team, they built their players up, they developed the leadership of the team. I just think he was a master coach, and I'm so grateful that he came into my house in December of 1980 in the worst snowstorm of the winter. Barry Alvarez was with him, Bernie Wyatt was with him, Dan McCarney was with him. Those men changed my life.”
On Kirk Ferentz, Iowa’s continuity, and why it feels like home, Norvell said...
“I really lean on veteran coaches. There's a great veteran coach, Al Groh. He used to be the head coach of the Jets, worked with (Bill) Belichick and those guys. He's a really close friend of mine, and when this was all going on last fall, he told me, he said, Jay, he goes, before you take a position you need to find your tribe. And he goes, because you can take a job and it can be a good job and not be happy. And I had chances to be a coordinator. I had chance to be head coach again. It just wasn't the right situation for me. It wasn't the right people for me.
This is my tribe. ... Coach Ferentz came to Iowa the same year I did, 1981. He was our offensive line coach. The transformation of those years and this university are very special to me, and so I'm very, very grateful to be back.”
On the emotional pull of Iowa and team culture, Norvell said...
“The biggest thing — I've always loved team. There's something very special about team. And when I came back here, I felt that.”
Ethan Petrik is a University of Iowa beat writer for the Lee Enterprises network. Follow him on X or send him an email at ethan.petrik@wcfcourier.com.
