By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – One of the conveniences with covering a Kirk Ferentz-coached football team is all the stuff you don’t have to be concerned about, including who he might call on his cell phone.

Kirk Ferentz is boring in a good way.

He’s been coaching the Iowa football team since 1999, and much like his predecessor, Hayden Fry, there has been no hint of any wrongdoing or character flaws during that time.

Ferentz’s teams haven’t always met expectations and some fans consider him too conservative and too predictable on offense and too stubborn about others things like his no-visit policy for committed players.

But those criticisms are all debatable, unlike Ferentz’s character, and have to do strictly with his approach to coaching football.

Ferentz’s character is one of the reasons he has thrived at Iowa because it limits potential distractions and helps to gain the trust and respect of others.

Ferentz certainly wants his privacy as the Iowa football coach, but he has nothing to hide.

I felt compelled to remind Iowa fans just how good they have it after reading about the demise of Mississippi coach Hugh Freeze, who resigned after school officials found a disturbing pattern of behavior that allegedly included calls to a number associated with a female escort service.

Some Hawkeyes fans have affectionately referred to Ferentz as “Anti-Freeze” on social media, which is pretty accurate.

I was in the process of writing this column when Marc Morehouse from the Cedar Rapids Gazette posted this on Twitter.

“You probably don’t want to hear this, but part of Kirk Ferentz’s value at Iowa is that he’s not Hugh Freeze and never will be.”

Morehouse’s tweet was spot on about both head coaches.

Freeze performed a quick fix at Ole Miss by signing some elite recruiting classes, but that immediately drew suspicion for being too good under the circumstances.

It turns on there was reason to be suspicious.

In February, the school self-imposed a one-year bowl ban for the 2017 season after it received a new NCAA notice of allegations that accused the school of lack of institutional control and Freeze of failure to monitor his coaching staff.

But it ultimately was Freeze’s behavior away from coaching that led to his demise. It was reported that Freeze resigned after Ole Miss said it would release a statement regarding the phone call.

"While Coach Freeze served our university well in many regards during his tenure, we simply cannot accept the conduct in his personal life that we have discovered," Ole Miss chancellor Jeffrey Vitter said in a Thursday night press conference.

Ferentz, on the other hand, is more likely to call a triple reverse on fourth down from his own 1-yard line in wet conditions than an escort service.

Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta has plenty to be concerned about in his job, but what Ferentz does in his personal life should be the least of Barta’s worries.

This isn’t to suggest that Ferentz is perfect or beyond scrutiny.

Some Iowa fans are bored with Ferentz entering his 19th season as the Iowa head coach, and that’s probably to whom Morehouse was referring when he started his tweet with “you probably don’t want to hear this.”

Ferentz fatigue is real for some, but is caused solely by football-related matters and has nothing to do with his character.

Or, at least it shouldn’t.

Some have accused Ferentz of nepotism for hiring his son, Brian Ferentz, as offensive coordinator and his son-in-law, Tyler Barnes, as recruiting director.

But that’s about as controversial as Ferentz gets and would only become an issue should Iowa struggle.

Before you accuse me of being a Hawkeye homer or a Ferentz apologist, I picked Iowa to finish just 6-6 this coming season. Ferentz’s team is suspect in several areas, including receiver, quarterback, the secondary and punter.

Ferentz’s character, on the other hand, always meets expectations.

You’d like to think that anybody who rises to become a college head coach is a person of extremely high character. But sadly, that isn’t always the case.

Kirk Ferentz might not always please or satisfy Iowa fans with his team’s performance. But he also doesn’t embarrass them or bring shame with his behavior.

That deserves to be mentioned every now then.