So you try to dig down to something meaningful and tangible that can explain how plain toast suddenly tastes like cake, and the response is so very Kirk Ferentz.
“We haven’t split atoms or anything like that,” he says.
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But they most certainly have.
You don’t change who you are, the decisions you make, the philosophy you live by, without some defining moment. Or, in the case of plain toast Iowa football, without splitting the atom.
Iowa is 5-0, and that the Hawkeyes are unbeaten is a testament to a coach who in January saw a program veering toward unsavable — and jerked a reinvented wheel toward change. Real, significant change.
Like telling fifth-year senior quarterback Jake Rudock (a two-year starter with 34 career TDs) that he was no longer in the team’s plans.
Like walking into your offensive staff room and telling everyone the days of two tight ends are over. It’s time to join the 21st century and spread it out.
Like telling your somewhat goofy and quirky new quarterback you’re laying everything offense on his dual-threat ability, then getting the hell out of the way and watching C.J. Beathard go to work and win games.
“It’s been different,” Beathard said. “But different can be good, too.”
You want different? A year ago at this time, Iowa had already lost (again) to rival Iowa State, and was on the verge of losing five of its final seven games — a span in which the Hawkeyes averaged all of 24 points per game.
It hit rock bottom with back-to-back losses to Wisconsin and Nebraska by a combined five points, two games that kept the Hawkeyes from playing in the Big Ten Championship Game, and two games Iowa faithful desperately wanted to win.
Different this fall is beating Iowa State by two touchdowns and averaging 38 points a game in the first four weeks of the season before a stout Wisconsin defense shows up and you realize splitting the atom is hard work.
You’re not going to change who you are overnight, which is kind of why Ferentz still doesn’t buy this whole idea of change, anyway. To him, they’re just doing what they’ve always done — only they’re doing it better than before.
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The Haweyes aren’t clobbering teams with an overwhelming offense (they’re averaging 400 yards per game). It’s destruction by a combination of the little things.
Iowa is converting nearly 50 percent of third down conversions, and being in the top 40 in the nation in pass efficiency (with only two interceptions). It’s averaging 185 yards rushing a game, and being plus-three in turnover margin.
“I don’t know that the changes have been radical or all that extreme,” Ferentz said. “It’s really trying to bring back into focus what really makes you good or makes you bad. And that’s not to make light of the new part of things, but you know, really, the new thing is the old thing.”
There, get that?
Obviously, Beathard hasn’t imposed his special form of nutty on Mr. Buttondown yet. But the reality is this: in any manner of change, there’s give and take.
Beathard cut his long, flowing locks before the season; Ferentz stepped out of his boat and cut ties (somewhat) to his conservative coaching.
When things got sideways last week against Wisconsin; when Beathard struggled for the first time this season, the offense got conservative and waited for the defense to force a critical turnover.
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That’s not going to work every week in the Big Ten. It won’t this week against Illinois, and it certainly won’t down the road in a critical West Division game at Northwestern on Oct. 17.
But it’s part of the process everyone is working through, and has been dealing with since early January. The seniors decided then the team would read The Slight Edge, a motivational book that focuses on direction, discipline and work.
The underlying theme: there is no quantum leap. You’re not going to be great in one day.
It takes time and it takes work, and more than anything, it takes a commitment to change. Even radical, split the atom change.
When Ferentz was in high school, he had a teacher who forever tried to change his chemistry experiments. He didn’t get it; she couldn’t change him.
“I just baffled her; I was the one student that really frustrated her,” Ferentz said. “So you can’t control everything. But you try to do what you can to enhance things and see if you can’t get some growth.”
Growth that leads to real, significant change.