Hawkeyes deal with difficulties

Sept. 21, 2010

Complete Coach Ferentz Transcript (Sept. 21)

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — In reality, more will be known about the resiliency of the 18th-ranked University of Iowa football team Saturday against Ball State than was shown during a noble comeback at No. 14 Arizona a week ago.

Here is a statistic that should make Hawkeye fans smile: Iowa has won 10 of its last 12 outings following a loss to a nationally ranked opponent. The most recent was a 12-0 win against Minnesota on Nov. 21, 2009, one week after the Hawkeyes dropped a 27-24 overtime decision at Ohio State.

Iowa (2-1 overall) and Ball State (1-2) kick off at 11 a.m. (CT) on Sept. 25 inside Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes are looking for their sixth straight home win against a nonconference opponent. In the only other meeting between the schools, Iowa won 56-0 in 2005.

“From our vantage point we have to get ready for Ball State and start our preparations this afternoon getting ready for them and bigger picture wise, we need to do a better job correcting the areas we are coming up short,” University of Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday at his weekly meeting with media. “Those are the two things on our radar right now, so we will start that process this afternoon and go from there.”

Injury news was more than unpleasant following a 34-27 loss to the Wildcats on Sept. 18 in Tucson, Ariz. Running back Jewel Hampton and linebacker Bruce Davis are lost for the season because of knee damage; special team’s ace and reserve running back Paki O’Meara will also miss the game against Ball State. With Jason White still recovering from a knee injury, the Hawkeye offensive backfield will either be manned solely by leading rusher Adam Robinson or true freshmen Marcus Coker or De’Andre Johnson will see their first collegiate action.

“You go into every season knowing there are going to be some challenges, some difficulties, and you deal with them, and that’s where our focus is right now,” Ferentz said. “What are we going to do to come up with some solutions? The good news is we still have a lot of good players on our football team that are healthy and will be playing this Saturday and we have to play to our strengths right now.”

If Iowa goes exclusively with Robinson, it wouldn’t be, in the words of Ferentz, an “unheard of phenomenon.” In 2002 and 2003, Fred Russell dominated the Iowa rushing workload, carrying 220 times for 1,264 yards and nine touchdowns in 2002 and 282 times for 1,355 yards and seven scores in 2003.

“We could be sitting here without any experience and Adam’s done a great job and we are all very pleased with what he did a year ago,” Ferentz said. “We’re more pleased with how he’s playing right now. When I was a freshman in college, Tony Dorsett was at the University of Pittsburgh; he weighed about 175 pounds and basically ran every play of the season. He ran for 100 yards in every game, if I remember correctly, and never missed a snap. It can be done. Fred Russell was our ball carrier and he got spelled every now and then, but it was a one man show.”

So far this season Robinson has carried the ball 48 times for 270 yards and four touchdowns. He has caught three passes for 62 yards.

The Hawkeyes march on, knowing the program has a rich history of having replacements excel at opportune times. Now there is a black and golden opportunity for other future stars to surface.

“We had a guy like Bruce Davis who wasn’t very good two years ago in ’08,” Ferentz said. “Last year he became a force and became one of our leaders on kickoff team; the year before he really might as well not have been out there. (Jeff)Tarp(inian) came on, Tyler Nielsen came on last year, Paki came on and did a great job, and we need some of those stories to emerge. And if you look historically we have had that through the years. Dallas Clark was really an unknown entity in 2000. He was a third-team outside linebacker and that’s how he kind of emerged as a football player. The opportunities are for guys right now, and that’s what we need — we need somebody to take a little ownership and jump in there and go. I’m optimistic it’s going to happen. I think it will happen, but hopefully sooner than later.”

With a team laden with maturity and character, rebounding at home would seem like a slam dunk. Anything less would frustrate the Hawkeye head coach.

“Time will tell,” Ferentz said. “I’ll be really disappointed if we don’t. I was really pleased and proud of the way the guys battled in that second half the last week, and historically for the most part, that’s been something we have been able to accomplish. If we are going to have a good football team this year, we are going to have to demonstrate that this week and the weeks forward. I’m confident they will. I think we’ve got a good group of guys here but we’ve just got to take care of every little detail to make sure we are giving ourselves a chance to be successful.”

At the end of the day, it’s still a football game. That is a fact that isn’t lost on Ferentz.

“A lot of people that work hard,” he said. “If I was in Iraq right now, I’d be a little bit more, look at me, one of those deals. Then if I think I was in Iraq or Afghanistan, football is a pretty good deal compared to the ammo coming in and all that stuff. That makes this look pretty easy to me.”