Dec. 1, 2003
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Kirk Ferentz met with the area media Monday and talked proudly about his 2003 Iowa Hawkeyes overcoming the “Terrible Two’s.”
No, Iowa’s head coach wasn’t talking about that infamous behavior of toddlers. Instead, he was talking about his squad’s ability to avoid back-to-back losses.
“The Michigan game was significant. There were so many big plays in that game,” Ferentz said. “I also thought we played well against Penn State and we played a remarkable game against Minnesota.”
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Ferentz doesn’t follow the bowl stuff too closely. He only knows that his 2003 Iowa Hawkeyes will be playing their final game “somewhere nice” against a “very tough” opponent.
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All three of those standout performances came the week following a hard-fought road loss for the bowl-bound Hawkeyes, winners of nine games in 2003, 20 of their last 25 and the third-highest ranked Big Ten team in this week’s Bowl Championship Series standings.
Ferentz also talked about the waiting game known as the college football bowl season, bowl game preparations, post-season awards, post-season opponents, the coaching carousel, what back-to-back bowl games in January means to recruiting, and more during his first session with the media after Iowa’s thrilling victory at Wisconsin in the season finale late last month.
“That was one great series,” Ferentz said of the last two plays of this year’s game against the Badgers. “I still can’t believe they got that final play off….and I’m not questioning whether they did or didn’t. I’m just saying I can’t believe they got it off.”
And, yes, for those who are still wondering, Ferentz and the Iowa coaching staff did talk about the possibility of taking a safety during the final minutes of the game in Madison.
“Inside the 10 — that seems to be the magic number — yeah, we probably take one,” he said.