Kirk Ferentz goes on tangent about dark horse teams, Kentucky Derby

Iowa football has a real shot at making the College Football Playoff in 2024 as the field expands to 12 teams. Just don’t call the Hawkeyes a dark horse contender.

It’s not because head coach Kirk Ferentz or anyone will be particularly offended by the idea that the Hawkeyes might sneak up on folks as a playoff contender. No, avoid that term, unless you have the definition readily available for Ferentz.

“What’s the mean, exactly, dark horse? I’ve never asked anybody that,” Ferentz said at Big Ten Media Days. “So who wins the Kentucky Derby, the dark horse or the lighter horse? Palomino? Or is that a pony? I don’t know.”

Joking aside, Ferentz downplayed any notion of trying to chart out a path to the CFP for his squad.

For him, the focus is just winning the next game. If that happens, the rest will take care of itself.

“But long story short, we’ve all got 12 games and as I just said to the guys over on TV, my wife told me this about 40 years ago, hardly being a football expert, she goes, ‘It seems like if you guys win, things are good. When you lose, it ain’t so good.’ Essentially an astute observation, married her,” Ferentz said.

And the 12 games facing Iowa in 2024 aren’t particularly daunting, especially considering the sort of gauntlets that are possible in an 18-team Big Ten. Assuming Iowa’s offense can graduate from actively bad to somewhere within shouting distance of average, the defense should continue to be top-notch and the Hawkeyes could quite readily win double-digit games.

If that happens, Ferentz won’t be thinking of the Hawkeyes as a dark horse, whatever that is.

“But that’s really what it gets down to,” Ferentz said. “So we’ve got 12 games, every one of them count the same and if we can win 12 or as many as possible out of 12, if we deserve it we’ll get a good reward and whatever that may be. It’s probably going to be different this year than it was two years ago or three years ago. But the challenge is winning, that’s the hard thing.”

Ferentz had even more quips at Big Ten Media Days

Ferentz was in the holiday spirit in July.

“I do believe in Santa Claus and getting those guys back was part of that. That was a merry Christmas for all of us,” Ferentz said of retaining players and some portal hauls. “We tried to be real fairly cautious and just diligent with our work and all that.

“Nick [Jackson], to me, represents like the perfect transfer guy. We’ve had a couple of those guys. Rusty Feth was the same way on the offensive side. Guys that really fit what we needed.”