Unbeaten Iowa quietly crafts argument in Playoff debate

IOWA CITY — Like with every football program, the clichés at Iowa are familiar: One week at a time. Nothing matters but the next game. Or the next play. Or the next practice rep. Or whatever. Which is why it was more than a little startling when Kirk Ferentz gave his players permission not long ago to go off-script.

Think big, the coach told the Hawkeyes during their bye week. At least for a few days, feel free to dream about what might be possible.

“Just take a step back,” says Boone Myers, a sophomore offensive lineman. “Look at the big picture and say, ‘Hey, we’re 7-0. We could do some crazy stuff right now. This could be special.’ ”

That latitude is long gone now. Ask the Hawkeyes, after Saturday’s 31-15 victory against Maryland, what it means to be undefeated, and there’s no talk of a conference championship or the College Football Playoff. As sophomore running back Akram Wadley puts it: “We’re just gonna try to get to 9-0 next week.”

Which is fine — and in this case, probably essential — because as the calendar turns to November, Iowa is perhaps the unlikeliest unbeaten. Even here, no one is really sure what to make of this bunch.

Critics point to Iowa’s schedule, past and future, as soft. The Big Ten West is not laden with good teams, and the Hawkeyes don’t play Ohio State, Michigan State or Michigan from the East division. Diving deeper, do they pass the eye test? At least a couple of their victories easily could have been losses. Longtime strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle acknowledges, “We’re not far removed from 4-3.”

That was Friday morning, before the Hawkeyes easily handled Maryland. Add a victory, and his point remains: Iowa is not far removed from 5-3. It’s why Iowa is ranked No. 11 and No. 10 in the Amway Coaches and AP polls, respectively, behind three one-loss teams.

There’s no way to know what the College Football Playoff selection committee will do with the Hawkeyes on Tuesday, when its first top 25 ranking is unveiled. But it’s hard to envision them anywhere near the first four spots. And with a remaining schedule of Indiana, Minnesota, Purdue and Nebraska — which have a combined Big Ten record of 3-14 — there aren’t really any opportunities ahead for an emphatic statement. At least, not until the Big Ten Championship game. It’s very possible Iowa could arrive in Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game undefeated — and facing what would essentially be a one-game playoff to get into the College Football Playoff.

That would be some crazy, special stuff. But for now at least, that’s also missing the point. The Playoff narrative is over-arching. But with Iowa, the local context is at least as compelling. During the pregame show on the Hawkeyes’ radio broadcast Saturday afternoon, the host closed a segment by reminding listeners, “You’re listening to Iowa football!” He paused, then went off-script:

“Unbeaten Iowa football!”

This run comes on the heels of three disappointing seasons. Beginning with a 4-8 record in 2012, the Hawkeyes were a combined 19-19. Last year’s 7-6 mark included four losses in the last five games, including lackluster performances against Nebraska at home in the regular-season finale and against Tennessee in the TaxSlayer Bowl. The atmosphere surrounding Iowa football during the offseason was combustible. The level of angst, according to Iowa athletic director Gary Barta, was higher and more intense than he’d seen. A very vocal group of fans contended Ferentz’s 16th season at Iowa should have been his last.

“It was time for Kirk to go,” Barta says. “It was time for me to go. It was time to revamp … everything we were doing — because obviously, what we were doing wasn’t working.”

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It had been coming for a while. When Iowa won the Orange Bowl after the 2009 season, Barta extended Ferentz’s contract through 2020; when it was signed, he became the Big Ten’s highest-paid coach in compensation from the school (at $4.075 million this year, he ranks 13th nationally). And then the program’s performance dipped. From 2002-09, Iowa was 70-31. From 2010-14, the Hawkeyes went 34-30.

It was with that context that Ferentz told his assistant coaches they would re-evaluate every aspect of the program. Among the visible changes is a switch to morning practices. Though that’s not unique, this is: They’ve also given the players Thursdays off. The idea was to provide two distinct periods each week of building intensity followed by rest and recovery.

“It was a shot in the dark,” Ferentz says, adding it still feels “like walking on the moon.”

It might have been as important as a symbol, a way of showing the players that when Ferentz said he would re-evaluate every aspect of the program, he meant it.

“It wasn’t the main or driving reason for making the change, but one of the benefits was it was clear to the players we were taking action,” he says.

Since the season started, there’s been talk of how Ferentz has changed, too. Some have taken to calling him “New Kirk,” with observers discerning a more aggressive approach in offensive schemes and risk-taking moves. Ferentz and others around the program chuckle at the idea.

“The foundational, fundamental concepts of Iowa football and Kirk Ferentz remain the same,” says Doyle, whose tenure at Iowa runs as long as Ferentz’s. “It’s tried and true, old-fashioned, tough, smart, physical football.”

Among the enhancements in the Hawkeyes’ new $55 million football operations building, which opened during the offseason, is a continuous loop of highlights from previous Iowa teams. When Ferentz met before the season with the players’ leadership council, they told him those teams reminded them structurally of the current Hawkeyes.

“They were playing the same,” Ferentz says. “The defense looked similar to what we do now. Either you’re playing really good football, or you’re not playing good football.”

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Iowa looked like a vintage Ferentz team on a cool, damp Saturday against Maryland, which brought an interim coach and a four-game losing streak to Kinnick Stadium. Leading 21-0 at halftime, the Hawkeyes shut things down in the second half.

Although they led 31-7 at one point and never were threatened, the Hawkeyes were ultra-conservative after intermission, managing only 53 yards and leaning on the defense to win. William Likely’s 100-yard kickoff return for a Maryland touchdown midway through the fourth quarter at least made things interesting, but Iowa’s perfect record wasn’t really endangered.

It was all so very old Kirk, a point Ferentz perhaps unintentionally reinforced during his opening statement of the postgame news conference. The first player he praised — four sentences in — was punter Dillon Kidd. And when Ferentz allows himself to think beyond the immediate, this team reminds him of several other very good Iowa teams during his tenure.

“It’s a mix of different teams,” Ferentz says, while making it clear it’s the same formula.

There was 2008, when the Hawkeyes started 3-0, lost three and then went on a serious run to end the year. There was 2009, that Orange Bowl season. And there was 2004, when they kept finding ways to win despite injuries.

Iowa has won this season despite a run of injuries including the loss of standout defensive end Drew Ott to a torn ACL. With starting running back Jordan Canzeri hobbled with a bad ankle, first Wadley and now LeShun Daniels have combined to produce a solid rushing attack. Junior quarterback C.J. Beathard, while also banged up, has been effective.

It’s fair to pan the schedule, but the Hawkeyes’ defense has been very good, ranking near the top nationally in rushing defense (No. 5, 85.8-yard average), total defense (No. 7, 287.6-yard average) and most important, scoring defense (No. 6, 15.3-point average).

And the Hawkeyes have been perfect in the only statistic that ultimately matters. “New Kirk” has them playing unbeaten Iowa football.

“Six months ago, there was ‘Ferentz Fatigue,’ ” Ferentz says, laughing. “Not even six months, it was probably six weeks ago. So we’ve shifted quickly.”

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But that’s how it is in college football. It’s why Barta cautions, “There’s a long way to go.” Anything can happen. But ask the Hawkeyes — get past the clichés for a moment — and they’ll tell you anything can happen.

“We believe that we can play with everybody,” junior tight end George Kittle says. “We’re just playing really good football right now.”

And Myers adds, referring to Tuesday’s initial Playoff top 25: “They’ll put us up there wherever they put us, and we’ll just try to prove to them that we’re up there. … We’ve just got to prove it on the field, if we can finish out these next four games.”

How long can they keep going? Who knows? Despite the favorable schedule, they don’t have much margin for error. Starting 8-0 is nice, but as Ferentz says, “November is when it all counts.”

“The bottom line is, we’re not really gonna know for another five weeks,” he says. “There’s not a team out there that isn’t capable of beating us, but conversely, we’ve got a chance to beat them all, too.

“I don’t know if we’re good enough, but we’ll give ourselves a chance.”

For Iowa, for now, that’s more than enough.

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