*photo courtesy of Iowa Athletics
Hampton native Ben Hansen has begun his tenure as Director of Football Operations at the University of Iowa. He’s held several positions in 15 years with the program, and took over for the outgoing Paul Federici in July.
Hansen says his position acts as the direct connection between the athletic department and the football program, along with coordinating off-the-field operations.
“It’s everything kind of outside of X’s and O’s and strength and conditioning,” Hansen says. “Getting the team from point A to point B, whether that be home games, we stay over at the Hotel Kirkwood up in Cedar Rapids. So doing that for our seven home games and then for the five road trips, you start the planning process a year and a half out. Nowadays though, you don’t get the dates until usually late October, November, but securing all the hotels, getting the hotel contracts for your five road trips, your charters, getting those kind of squared away. And then your bus companies on the road, your meals on the road, working with the event group at the away stadiums, credentials, etcetera. So, kind of just making sure all those things are in place. I always look at it as a very large puzzle piece and just putting those together. Then you just put out fires when those may happen. But we’ve got a really great, great team. There’s a lot of great people that work alongside myself that help make things run as smoothly as possible.”
Hansen on how the program has adapted to recent changes in college athletics, such as conference realignment, NIL and the transfer portal.
“The biggest thing is you’ve got to always keep the basics the basics. You can’t lose sight of that. Obviously things are always changing. I think the forks in the road come at a lot quicker pace than they did in the past. Something may new always happen, but you have time to kind of adjust to it before the next thing. And I think ever since, obviously all of us that were here during COVID and navigating those types of travel and those types of things were one thing, but then coming right after that, had NIL, the transfer portal, then a few years then you’ve got this new playoff format. Now obviously starting this year, you have the rev share. So I think with all of it, I think you just have to be able to adapt. Coach Ferentz is unbelievable in regards to that, but also keeping the basics the basics, whether you’re a player, same things have to happen. You’ve still got to tackle, you’ve still got to block, you’ve still got to catch the ball. Those things never change. And also with my job, what doesn’t change is me making sure that those distractions are limited and that we can continue to perform, because that’s the biggest thing.”
Hansen says Head Coach Kirk Ferentz has provided invaluable leadership during changing times, entering his 27th season.
“First and foremost, Coach Ferentz is an amazing person. We all know he’s an amazing coach, but I think he’s an amazing, more personal as a leader, than even a coach. A lot of people don’t get to see that side, but obviously our fan base knows and understands just how great of a person that he is. But I think from him being able to see a lot of different things, been through a lot. I think that’s why it’s so easy for him to kind of tamper it all down, even though things could be flying at 100 miles per hour left and right with different changes.”
The Hawkeyes will open the season on Saturday, August 30 by hosting Albany.
Ben Hansen interview:
