Kirk Ferentz hopeful NCAA will rethink Noah Shannon suspension
After revealing that the NCAA has suspended Noah Shannon for the entirety of the 2023 college football season, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz shared why he is hopeful the NCAA will rethink its decision.
The sixth-year defensive tackle has been wrapped up in the Iowa gambling investigation. Due to his involvement in the gambling probe, Shannon voluntarily opted out of Big Ten media days in mid-July.
Expected to be one of Iowa’s key defensive playmakers up front and one of its leaders, the Hawkeyes are instead faced with the possibility that Shannon’s career in Iowa City may suddenly be over.
As Iowa and Shannon get set to appeal the yearlong suspension, Ferentz made it clear why he has his defensive lineman’s back.
“We definitely are going to appeal that. The department will appeal that. I’m confident Beth will do a great job and the department will do a great job of just reapproaching this with the NCAA. And, my personal feelings again, it’s really hard to, you can’t negotiate game integrity, so if someone bets on our sport, you know, tough to say much beyond that. But after that, I think it really needs to be rethought a little bit. I strongly believe that, and I’m hoping the appeal maybe will reflect some people rethinking things a little bit,” Ferentz said.
Per Ferentz, Shannon allegedly bet on one of Iowa’s other sports teams.
“Yeah, so I know he bet on one of our other sports teams here, and I understand that may be a bad thing. He bet for them, and I’m guessing he got caught up in the emotion. Again, I don’t do this stuff, but it’s on their phones, people are enticing them with apparently three hundred bucks credit if you go with us, all that stuff. I think it’s just time to really recognize the world these guys are living in and maybe be a little bit compassionate towards that,” Ferentz said.
The longtime Hawkeye head coach noted how the rise of sports gambling nationally and in the state of Iowa has made it a different landscape for athletes in 2023.
“We live in a totally different world than we did two years, three years ago and in Noah’s case, he has not committed a crime at all. So, nothing criminal, you know, and I just feel like it’s a little bit harsh. I think it’s punitive me personally, and just I’m hopeful that they’ll reconsider his case. And, I don’t want to say I’m confident, but I would assume at some point they’re going to reshape what they announced back late April and early May in terms of the policy moving forward just because, you know, similar to the drug testing policy, it’s radically different than it was two years ago.
“Our culture’s radically different as a country. So, I’m hopeful that they’ll catch up maybe in their thinking a little bit as it pertains to Noah. Again, I can’t say enough about him. He could commit a lot of other crimes. He hasn’t committed a crime. He could commit crimes and get a lot less of a punishment, which is, seems kind of funny in some ways,” Ferentz said.
One of the frustrating pieces of the situation for Iowa is the reality that the NCAA could make an example out of the Hawkeyes when this type of activity is likely happening in other states with other collegiate athletes as well.
“I can’t imagine we’re the only state where college kids bet. I just can’t imagine that. I mean, seriously. It’s like rounding up 20-year olds that had a beer. So, that would fill Kinnick. I know that,” Ferentz said.
As Iowa remains hopeful that it will get Shannon’s suspension reduced, it has to move forward as though it won’t have Shannon in the meantime. That would mean the loss of 44 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss and two sacks from last season.
With Shannon potentially out of the picture, the Hawkeyes’ top defensive tackles are Logan Lee, Yahya Black and Aaron Graves.
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