Ferentz: Hawkeyes Healthy, Working Hard

Dec. 26, 2006

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Here’s a riddle that could very well stump even the die-hardest of fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes: What do Oscar Award-winning actress Julie Andrews and Kirk Ferentz have in common?

Yes. The question is correct. No misprints here.

What do Oscar Award-winning actress Julie Andrews and Kirk Ferentz have in common?

Stumped?

We’ll narrow it down a little: What do Julie Andrews in her lead role in the award-winning movie, “The Sound of Music,” and Iowa’s veteran head football coach have in common?

Still stumped?

Well, it’s a stretch, yes, but both Andrews and Ferentz opted – when they found themselves challenged by a talented group of young people – to “start at the very beginning” because, whether it’s song as with the Van Trappe children or with football and the Iowa Hawkeyes, fundamentals are, as the lyrics instruct, “a very good place to start.”

Ferentz came to his realization shortly after the Hawkeyes’ regular season finale at Minnesota.

“It was really hard to find anything that we did well in our last football game,” Ferentz told the media assembled outside the practice facility at Trinity University Tuesday afternoon in San Antonio.

“We were on time for kickoff, but that was about it,” he said with a not-so-wry smile.

Iowa played poorly against the Gophers. Very poorly…. Missed tackles. Dropped passes. Missed assignments. Poor execution. Missed opportunities.

However, despite all miscues, Iowa had an opportunity to win the game and, in fact, almost outgained the Gophers by 100 yards. The game was the Hawkeyes’ 2006 season all wrapped up in one not-so-tidy 60 minutes of college football.

“We went back to square one,” Ferentz said of his staff’s approach to preparations for the defending national champion Texas Longhorns in Saturday’s 2006 Alamo Bowl.

“We were more concerned about ourselves than our opponents and were for pretty much the first three weeks. We couldn’t assume anything,” Ferentz said.

How has it gone, the “two-steps-backward-to-make-one-step-forward” approach to the UI’s sixth straight post-season bowl game?

“We’ve had a pretty good month overall,” Ferentz said. “But we’re not ready yet.”

Ferentz is straightforward in what it will take to get “back there” with “there” being where the Hawkeyes have been the previous four seasons – in the mix for a Big Ten Conference football championship when the page on the calendar turns over to November.

“We didn’t finish. We didn’t play the way we want to be playing in October and November,” he said.

Ferentz resists the notion that Iowa’s 6-win, 6-loss season is, in some measure, attributable to a string of bumps and bruises, strains and tears, and full-blown injuries to more than a fair share of first stringers.

“I’m not a big fan of alibis or crutches,” Ferentz said tersely, before admitting, reluctantly, that the 2006 season had “more than its share of `obstacles’ ” and that several key performers were never 100 percent and, in some cases not even available.

“That’s the nature of the game of football. Unfortunately, we weren’t good enough to overcome the hurdles,” he said.

Iowa will enter the 2006 Alamo Bowl healthier than it’s been all season, Ferentz said Tuesday.

“It probably fair to say that that’s the case. That’s a positive and, hopefully, it will help us. But it’s no guarantee. We just can’t assume that since we got some guys healthy and back on the field that pixie dust is going to fall and all will be well,” he said.

Ferentz does take some comfort in the fact that the Hawkeyes have had a “good attitude” since coming back from the Thanksgiving break and that practices have been “up tempo.”

“We’ve worked hard and that’s a positive. Whether it’s been hard enough…we’ll just have to see. We’ve got a couple more days before we play a very, very good football team,” he said.