By Brian Heinemann
For The Herald
IOWA CITY ----- It can be tantalizing, thinking about what might have been for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Saturday’s 37-6 pummeling of then-No. 5 Michigan State at Kinnick Stadium was a clear glimpse of the team the Hawkeyes could be.
A week removed for a heartbreaking loss to Wisconsin, nobody really knew how Iowa would bounce back. The answer to that question is clear now.
They bounced back with a vengeance.
“I’m guessing it was lingering with everybody,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said of the Wisconsin loss. “Those one-point losses are tough, but you’ve still got to do your job, still got to move forward. I think everybody grabbed onto that principle.
“Most importantly, they played a complete game,” he said of his team. “That’s something we have struggled to do this year.”
The players seemed to unanimously agree that they had a fantastic week of practice, with a clearer focus on the minute details and correcting small mistakes that haunted them the previous two weeks. Their coach agreed with the sentiment, but never expected to see a 31-point whipping of a Big Ten frontrunner.
That’s what they did, though. They out-executed, out-played, and badly overpowered the Spartans (8-1, 4-1 Big Ten).
“I just think we played motivated,” defensive end Adrian Clayborn said. “The last two games, we’ve been so-so. We needed to prove a point to ourselves.”
Point taken.
Iowa (6-2, 3-1) proved to themselves that they can be the team they looked like after a blistering 9-0 start last year. They proved that they still have some of the magic from last year left, despite its absence in both the Arizona and Wisconsin losses this season.
For evidence of that, see Tyler Sash’s pick-and-ladder play, where he pitched the ball after intercepting it and watched Micah Hyde run 66 yards for a touchdown. Or look at Ricky Stanzi’s 56-yard pass to tight end Brad Herman in the second quarter, which, for all intents and purposes, should have been an easy interception for Michigan State.
Everything was clicking for the Hawkeyes, in all three phases of the game. It may not have been Halloween officially, but it was a scary sight for the Spartans to run into these Hawkeyes, playing at this level.
“It just shows that when we all play together, error-free, this is what happens,” cornerback Shaun Prater, who had an interception and 10 tackles, said. “We just have to keep playing like this week after week.”
“That’s the team you want to be,” receiver Marvin McNutt said.
The Iowa team that showed up Saturday was the team that many expected to see the entire year. It was the type of win so dominant, it makes you wonder how this team lost twice this season.
The Hawkeyes don’t look back, though. They say it every week, and they’ve proven coming off of their two losses that they practice what they preach.
So, switch your gaze. Focus on the future. The two losses may be disappointing, but a 10-2 record last year was good enough to get Iowa to a BCS bowl. The road isn’t going to be easy now, with three of the final four coming on the road and the lone home game being against Ohio State, but the Big Ten title isn’t out of reach.
It would be easy to call Saturday’s thumping of Michigan State a statement, a defining win. The team doesn’t view it that way at all. To them, all it’s done is given them another Big Ten win.
To the outside world, this win put Iowa in a four-way tie for first place in the conference, giving them a chance to control their own destiny to some extent. The Rose Bowl is still in play, although the Hawkeyes would need some help from the rest of the conference to get there, and another 10-2 season is obviously on the table.
Try explaining any of this to the Iowa players, though, and their eyes will almost gloss over on you. They don’t particularly care, and, although they focus forward, they never seem to be looking more than seven days ahead.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Stanzi said. “You guys shouldn’t worry about it either, because it’ll all shake out for itself. You’ll find the answer in a couple of weeks now, four weeks when the season’s over. It’ll all shake itself out. That’s why we don’t focus on it – there’s really no reason to.”
If Iowa can keep their focus where it was for the past week, the showdown with Ohio State in three weeks could hold huge implications. But Indiana is all the Hawkeyes will be focused on this week, trying to figure out how to slow down the Pistol offense and keep quarterback Ben Chappell from throwing all over them, as he’s done to so many others.
Iowa has some of their swagger back now. It’s not that they ever lost confidence, but it’s never a bad thing to have reminder of just how good you can be.
“If we play the way we’re supposed to play, it’s hard to beat us,” Clayborn said.
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