Bill O’Brien might not be the only coach the Patriots lose this offseason. New England tight ends coach Brian Ferentz — the son of Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz — could be joining his father’s staff as an assistant.

There’s been a lot of movement lately on the Hawkeyes coaching staff, where Reese Morgan, Iowa’s offensive line coach for the past nine seasons, is moving to defensive line, and according to this ESPN blog post, that would open up a spot on the coaching staff for Brian Ferentz.

The son of Kirk (who worked with Bill Belichick in Cleveland), Brian started with the Patriots as a coaching assistant in 2008, moved to offensive coaching assistant the following year and became an offensive assistant in 2010. He was officially promoted to tight ends coach at the start of this season, and has helped youngsters Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez become two of the best young tight ends in the game.

Ferentz spoke with the TheGazette.com shortly after the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss to the Giants, and discussed a handful of topics, including the new openings on the Iowa coaching staff, whether he would be a candidate, as well as Gronkowski’s performance in the Super Bowl.

“My job is the coach of the New England Patriots’ tight ends. I’m trying to do that to the best of my ability today,” he said. “What happens in the future, whether a year, two years, 10 years from now, I’m focused on doing my job.”

When it came to Gronkowski’s performance against the Giants, Ferentz was impressed with what the big tight end could do with a high ankle sprain.

“I’m certainly not a doctor, but it was something comparable to what Ricky Stanzi had two years ago,” he said.

“I was impressed coaching him in how he showed a lot of mental toughness, a lot of physical toughness. Most importantly, he had the commitment to his teammates to get out on the field and give us whatever he had. I still think he brought a lot to the game with blocking protection in the run game, and he actually performed pretty well. He gave us some spirit, some juice.”