Kirk Ferentz wrapped up a four-minute opening statement following Iowa’s 20-17 comeback win over Michigan State on Saturday. The Hawkeyes had just scored 17 unanswered points to erase a 10-point deficit. Ferentz could have thrown it to questions right there. Instead, he paused and said he wanted to acknowledge two people in the room before moving on. He mentioned John Campbell briefly, then turned his attention to Michael Hlas, the longtime Gazette sports columnist.
“Michael will totally be embarrassed, and that’s good because you get me all the time,” Ferentz said. “Just wanted to do that. I’ll share a quick story with you. First of all, I’ve had great respect for Mike as a journalist for 27 years now. Just think he does really quality work. Quite frankly, I don’t read a lot of stuff — no disrespect there — but I read a lot of his stuff. And I’ve always had great respect for the way he goes about his business, the way he does things.”
Kirk Ferentz with a tribute to @Hlas. pic.twitter.com/i7ExgeDNFa
— Tyler Tachman (@Tyler_T15) November 23, 2025
The Gazette announced last week that it’s being purchased by Adams MultiMedia, a Minnesota-based family company. The deal is expected to close Dec. 1. Hlas has been informed he will not be retained by the new ownership. He’s working until that date, with his final column scheduled for Nov. 30. Saturday’s game was his final one at Kinnick Stadium for The Gazette.
Hlas column: The journey really does matter more than the destination, and the people are more important than the scoreboard. A personal story as the final football game I cover at Kinnick Stadium for the Gazette nears. https://t.co/IKnpm7gnqk
— Mike Hlas (@Hlas) November 21, 2025
Hlas has covered Iowa sports for The Gazette since before the internet became a thing, as he puts it. He’s won a Society of Professional Journalists national award for sports column writing in 2009 and has been a fixture on the Iowa beat for decades. His relationship with Ferentz spans the entire length of Ferentz’s tenure as head coach, which began in 1999.
Ferentz then shared a story from when he first took the Iowa job at the turn of the century. Hlas traveled to Baltimore, where Ferentz was coaching with the Ravens, and the two sat down on a Saturday night after meetings. They talked for what Ferentz couldn’t recall exactly how long, and Hlas wrote what Ferentz described as “a really nice piece.”
“We had a good visit that night,” Ferentz said. “I appreciate him making the effort to come out and visit. Just been an admirer of his for a long, long time. Mike, just appreciate your great work.”
Coaches don’t typically spend the opening moments of a postgame presser praising reporters. They especially don’t do it for journalists who’ve covered them fairly, which means not always positively. But Ferentz and Hlas have worked alongside each other for 26 years. That’s longer than most marriages last.
And after nearly three decades, Ferentz figured Hlas had earned a few extra minutes before taking questions.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.