Just the Facts, Ma'am

Nov. 7, 2009

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Editor’s Note: The following first appeared in the University of Iowa’s Official Sports Report, an e-newsletter that offers a daily look at the Iowa Hawkeyes, delivered free. To receive the UI’s OSR or to learn more, click HERE

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Remember Seargant Joe Friday from the television series, “Dragnet?” One his signature lines was a simple, “Just the facts ma’am. Just the facts.”

Well, yesterday, the UI’s Sports Information Office – the group of staff responsible for communicating on a daily basis with local, regional and national sports media – shared with that collection of journalists a “Just the facts” summary that put in black and white some of the facts about the 2009 Iowa Hawkeyes. The aim, of course, was to combat the outright fiction and, perhaps, the half-truths that seem to be expressed daily on sports talk shows and in print.

For example, over the noon hour Monday one national sports talk radio host was commenting on the Hawkeyes’ non-conference schedule. Fair enough…except that he never once mentioned the fact that Iowa is one of the few teams nationally that routinely plays two BCS-conference opponents annually and that this year’s games included a convincing win on its intrastate rival’s home field and a solid victory over an Arizona team that currently sits at No. 18 in this week’s BCS list.

Oops. He missed those.

Have you read anywhere that Iowa and Oregon are the only teams with three wins over teams ranked in this week’s BCS Top 25? Or that six of Iowa’s nine victories have come against teams with winning records? Or that the four teams Iowa has defeated on the road – Iowa State, Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State – have a combined record of 23 wins and just 12 losses in their home games?

Listen and/or read closely, and you get a sense that many – media and fans alike – are waiting for the Hawkeyes’ bubble to burst. It may or may not. Whether it does or doesn’t shouldn’t matter. As it’s been written here before, a win is a win is a win, even if each of them is “ugly” in the eyes of some.

“Tennessee-Alabama (two weeks ago). Game like that are going to come up,” Ferentz said of the home game the Crimson Tide won because it successfully blocked a pair of field goals, the last coming on the final play of the game.

“If you can survive those games and find a way to win those games, it’s to your advantage. We’re not winning style points but I guess I’m old-fashioned. To me, it’s just more fun coming off (the field) with a win.”

“Yeah, it would be wonderful to win by a lot,” Ferentz continued. “But I’m not worried about that, and I’m not sure our guys are.”

To a man, the Hawkeyes don’t care if the final margin is 1, 10 or 30 as long as the team in black-and-gold has the larger number when the scoreboard hits double-zero.

“Our guys don’t buckle. They just keep playing, believing in each other. They realize the game goes 60 minutes,” added Ferentz.

They also realize the regular season is 12 games. So, for the Hawkeyes, it’s nine down, three more to go, starting with the Northwestern Wildcats, Saturday at 11 a.m. Iowa time, inside historic Kinnick Stadium. And, as the facts tell us, those three games are against teams that have a combined won-loss record of 17-10.

Pass those tests and maybe the naysayers will become believers. Maybe.