1. I don’t want to get on a soapbox, but …
There’s something so satisfying about a big bowl of irony. Especially when you’re dishing it out — not choking it down.
There was a time when the underachieving $4-million-a-year punching bag couldn’t escape the overwhelming narrative of a win-or-walk season. Now Kirk Ferentz no longer can avoid this beautiful reality: Iowa is the best team in the Big Ten.
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If the Hawkeyes don’t win the conference and serve up a hefty helping of Suck It to all involved, it will be crushing disappointment.
“It’s funny, “Ferentz says, “There was a different headline earlier in the season about pressure.”
The headline now has changed because this Iowa team, despite its lack of Ohio State star power or Michigan momentum or Michigan State big-game experience, is the one never-wavering constant in the Big Ten race.
It may be ugly at times, and it may be boring and bland. But you know what it’s not?
It’s not full of drama on and off the field. It’s not the hope of something that isn’t, and it’s not a rite of passage.
It’s just Iowa football, and for 17 years under Ferentz, that’s been good enough, thank you. Closing in on one of those rare seasons where everything clicks is simply the reward for grinding through the seasons when it doesn't.
“We’ve stayed true to who we are,” says Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard. “We’re not a bunch of household names or superstars. We’re just a group of guys who love to play football.”
A group of guys who keep winning and keep inching closer to a coveted top four ranking in the College Football Playoff despite the fact that it’s as pretty as an Iowa City winter.
Six years after Ferentz was given a 10-year contract extension that jumped his salary to $4 million a year; six years after the next five seasons produced a 34-30 record and a ton of negative energy, the Hawkeyes have spackled together a season for the ages.
Their quarterback, at various times this fall, has injured his groin, back and leg, and most recently, his hip in last weekend’s victory over Minnesota that moved the Hawkeyes to 10-0 for the first time in school history. Their star tailback has been limited by a high ankle sprain for much of the season, and played last weekend pain-free for the first time since September — and had 195 yards and 3 TDs.
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The defense that has carried the Hawkeyes much of the season has slipped the last two weeks against Indiana and Minnesota, giving up 62 points and 841 yards. But here they are, a game away (vs. Purdue) from winning the Big Ten West Division and two games away (at Nebraska) from playing the East Division winner for the right to play for it all.
Their best win of the season is a road game at Wisconsin where the Hawkeyes were literally given the game: a Badgers fourth quarter fumble at the Iowa 1 ended what would’ve been a game-winning touchdown.
They beat Pitt with a last-second 57-yard field goal, needed a fourth quarter comeback to beat Illinois and held on like grim death to beat Indiana and Minnesota. Not exactly CFP-worthy stuff.
Yet somehow this team of misfits few wanted (have you seen Iowa’s annual recruiting rankings? ) has bonded like few teams have, ignoring what should be and delivering what can’t be.
“In any sport, you do things because you’re teammates, and the people involved,” Ferentz said. “That’s all that really counts at the end of the day.”
So let defending national champion Ohio State steal the thunder this weekend with its big game against Michigan State, the winner moving one step closer to clinching the East Division.
Let Ohio State and Michigan play The Game next weekend, stealing the headlines from what will be Iowa’s perfect regular season.
Iowa doesn’t need the attention. It just needs four quarters in Indianapolis to make it all right.
And change the headline for good.
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