Brown: It's A Repeat of 2015 for Iowa Football

Plenty of Doubt About No. 2 Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Go to an Iowa-Minnesota football game in Minneapolis, Minn., and you’ll likely hear this chant:

“Who hates Iowa? We hate Iowa.”

And now, for the second time in seven years, that chant has expanded beyond Minnesota’s borders.

Hawkeye bashers have grown this season with each victory. The same thing happened in 2015, when Iowa went through the regular season 12-0 and got mocked nationally. Now, sitting at No. 2 in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1985, the Hawkeyes have a target on their backs. And it’s not the opposing teams aiming at it. 

After beating No. 4 Penn State at Kinnick Stadium Saturday, followed by No. 1 Alabama’s upset loss at Texas A. and M., the Hawkeyes jumped two spots. Dan Wolken, a national sports columnist for USA Today, tweeted on Sunday, “Iowa is going to be No. 2 in the polls today because a lot of voters are going to lie to themselves.”

He added in another tweet, “Iowa has beaten four bad teams, one decent team and a good team that lost its quarterback when it was dominating the game. This is not an overwhelming resume. Why isn’t Kentucky No. 2? Or Michigan? Or Wake Forest?”

Let’s roll back to the start of the season. Iowa had Indiana at home and Iowa State on the road to kick things off. Any realistic Hawkeye fan would have been happy with a split. Iowa was 18th in the AP preseason poll, jumped to 10th after beating the 17th-ranked Hoosiers and moved to 5th after taking care of the 9th-ranked Cyclones. No one called them victories over a bad team and a decent team at the time.

The Hoosiers have underperformed, yes. Iowa State also lost at Baylor in a season that started with some national voices calling the Cyclones an under-the-radar playoff contender. Iowa’s the team getting playoff talk now. Only six games through the season, that’s premature. But it gives their critics plenty of opportunity to jump up and down and stomp on Iowa’s revisionist resume.

The same thing happened in 2015. The noise got louder with each victory. It seems like just yesterday that radio personality Colin Cowherd called the Hawkeyes “a fraud,” and said their non-conference schedule included “Lamar, North Texas State and Panera Bread.” 

He also called Iowa “a poser. They walk into the club, they’re a $30,000-a-year millionaire. Look at my Corvette. It’s leased. Look at my jewelry. It’s fake. Look at my jeans. They’re my brother’s. They’re the ultimate poster in a nightclub. Look at me, look at me. You make 32 grand a year, cowboy, sit down. You’re a poser. Michigan’s not. Michigan State’s not. Ohio State’s not. Iowa’s a poser.”

On the eve of Iowa’s appearance in the 2015 Big Ten Championship game against Michigan State, ESPN radio personality Paul Finebaum said the Hawkeyes “had no chance” to beat the Spartans.

As it turned out, the only thing that kept Iowa out of the playoffs was an excruciating 21-play touchdown drive by Michigan State to pull out a 16-13 victory. In fairness to Finebaum, he said he was wrong about Iowa after the game.

Of course, Stanford’s dominating 45-16 Rose Bowl victory opened the door for a lot of “I told you so” talk from national voices.

But back to this season. One of Wolken’s bad teams is Maryland. Iowa was just a four-point favorite and many picked the Terrapins to win. The Hawkeyes knocked them from the ranks of the undefeated, 51-14. But now that victory has no merit because Ohio State scored 66 on them at home last week.

Iowa has defeated three straight rated foes this season, and has won six straight overall against ranked teams. Only Alabama, with nine, has a longer run of success. But Iowa is no good. The Hawkeyes have won 12 straight games overall. Only Oklahoma, with 14, has won more. But Iowa is no good.

The Hawkeyes have outscored their last 12 opponents by a 403-161 margin. They lead the nation in interceptions (16), takeaways (20) and turnover margin (plus 15). The defense is fourth nationally in scoring defense (13.0) and held its last 28 opponents under 25 points. And Iowa is no good.

The Hawkeyes are one of just 13 undefeated Division I teams halfway through the season. And Iowa is no good.

You get the picture. Many of the same talking points in 2015 have been dusted off this season. The Hawkeyes are plain vanilla, especially on offense, when the outside world wants swirls and sprinkles.

Former Iowa Coach Hayden Fry loved to use the term “shot at and hit” when his team was criticized. And then he’d circle the wagons. His successor, Kirk Ferentz, takes a low-key, “that’s football” approach. In the privacy of the locker room, I’d bet he uses the national negativity as a motivating factor. But publicly, he stays in his one-game-at-a-time lane.

Like 2015, the national critics are waiting to pounce with the first loss. Iowa’s has six more regular-season chances to disappear. Six more chances to hear, “I told you so.” Purdue, an 11-point underdog, is dangerous on Saturday against an Iowa team that could be emotionally drained. 

The Boilermakers have won three of the last four meetings in the series and have a good defense. Star wide receiver David Bell is back in the lineup. He had 13 catches for 197 yards and a touchdown against Iowa in 2019, and 13 catches for 121 yards and three touchdowns last season.

“We certainly haven’t had much luck defending him,” Ferentz said Tuesday. With each passing week, and each victory, the stakes will grow. The critics will get louder, and point to an offense that currently ranks 121st nationally and, granted, needs to improve as the season marches on.

“Last week was the first week where it became a little bit of a circus atmosphere and if we do have success down the road, that will increase and we’ll have to deal with it and learn to deal with it but it still gets down to the game,” Ferentz said.

Those who know football know what makes Iowa football tick. One of those is ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit.

“Iowa is the MMA fighter,” Herbstreit said this week. “Iowa’s the guy that goes in the second round and both sides are bleeding, and then they get you in that inevitable chokehold and you’re like, “Oh my God. Trying to hold on. No, I can’t.’ Tap out. That’s Iowa. That’s the style of football. They don’t care. And you might look at them if you’re an SEC fan, or Big 12, whatever, around the country and be like, “Iowa? Oh man, they’re overrated. Until you get in the ring with them, you want no part of ‘em.”

The Hawkeye football program was dead in the water until Fry arrived and inherited 17 consecutive non-winning seasons. Ferentz has elevated the program even more, with a sizzle-free style of football that isn’t for everyone.

Ferentz, 66, could end up in the College Football Hall of Fame some day. And the start of this season doesn’t hurt his chances. To get elected to the hall, “A coach becomes eligible three years after his retirement or immediately following retirement provided he is at least 70 years of age. Active coaches become eligible at 75 years of age. He must have been a head coach for a minimum of 10 years and coached at least 100 games with a .600 winning percentage.” 

Ferentz, in his 26th season as a head coach and 23rd at Iowa, is 186-127 (.594). If he gets there, it will be one game at a time. And he’ll do it his way, critics be damned.