Hawkeyes Headed for the Title Game?

July 28, 2011

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CHICAGO — Maybe, just maybe, the reporter in attendance at Thursday’s Big Ten Football Media Days is more of a prophet than journalist.

Near the end of University of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz’s allotted 15-minute interview session at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, a member of the media asked if the Hawkeyes were looking ahead to their game with Ohio State after two straight close losses to the Buckeyes.

“We’d love to have that opportunity because that would mean we were in the championship game,” Ferentz said. “They’re not on our schedule in the next couple years. If we had the opportunity to face them again, that would be a very positive development. Hopefully we’ll do a little bit better next time.”

Ohio State escaped Kinnick Stadium with a now-vacated 20-17 win last November and the Bucketes won in overtime, 27-24, during a meeting in Columbus in 2009. That road game was the first career start for Hawkeye quarterback James Vandenberg. There were plenty of inquiries about Vandenberg, Iowa’s potential starting signal-caller when it opens the season Sept. 3 against Tennessee Tech.

“He went in there and learned on the job, on the fly and it wasn’t always pretty,” Ferentz said. “I’m most excited about, we’ve had a chance to watch him over the past year getting ready and preparing as if he were going to be the starter. I think he really took advantage of his opportunities last year. He’s really grown.

“Sometimes good players get stuck behind good players. I think that’s really what we have with James. We had a great confidence level in him last year. Obviously Ricky Stanzi was our quarterback. He has a nice window of opportunity and he’s worked hard to prepare for this moment.”

In seven career games, Vandenberg has completed 47 of 95 passes for 515 yards and three touchdowns. He has been intercepted five times.

Not surprisingly, the first question for Ferentz dealt with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Ferentz called the addition of Nebraska “fantastic” and said the move balances the demographic power of the league since Penn State joined in 1993.

“In our case we have a border that we share,” Ferentz said. “It’s certainly something that is going to be of much interest for the fans. I remember coming to Iowa in 1981 — there were probably more Nebraska fans than Iowa fans (at Nebraska’s 10-7 win in Kinnick Stadium). Hopefully that’s changed a little bit, but time will tell. I think it’s a great thing for people in our state.”

Ferentz’s first game as head coach of the Hawkeyes was a 42-7 setback in 1999.

In review of the 2010 season, Ferentz said it boiled down to how Iowa handled the close games. While the Hawkeyes won at Indiana by five points and against No. 12 Missouri by three in the Insight Bowl, they dropped five games by a total of 18 points, including back-to-back-to-back defeats against Northwestern (four points), Ohio State (three) and Minnesota (three).

“If you look at all of our losses over the season — about four points a game,” Ferentz said. “If you contrast that to the year before, we ended up in the Orange Bowl. That was a year we did very well in close games.”

Four wins by the Hawkeyes in 2009 came by a combined eight points.

The final question for Ferentz was how he thought the Iowa defensive line would reload after losing three starters to the NFL in April. Ferentz said the Hawkeyes could rotate as many as eight defensive linemen this fall.

“The good news is we have two players coming back; (defensive tackle) Mike Daniels and (defensive end) Broderick Binns are both tremendous young guys,” Ferentz said. “We have good leadership. Last year we played four or five guys during the course of the game. This year it’s probably realistic we’ll be playing six, seven, maybe eight guys in a game; might be a little bit more by committee than it was in the past two years.

“We’ll find a way. The guys have worked hard. We have some guys eager to get their opportunity and get out there on the field.”

Ferentz is joined in Chicago by Daniels, wide receiver Marvin McNutt, Jr., and linebacker Tyler Nielsen. All four will conduct one-on-one interviews tomorrow beginning at 8 a.m.