Kirk Ferentz shares how Iowa is preparing for Ohio State's offense

Despite featuring one of the best defenses in the country, Iowa has a problem trying to prep for Ohio State this week. Head coach Kirk Ferentz put it pretty plainly: Iowa doesn’t have anybody who can mimic the blend of size, speed, skill and athleticism that the Buckeyes have across the wide receiver room.

To be fair, Marvin Harrison Jr., all 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds of him, isn’t a wide receiver that many teams can mimic in scout team — if any at all. But Ohio State also has the top wideout recruit from the 2021 and 2020 classes on the roster, too: Emeka Egbuka and Julian Fleming, respectively.

“So, a lot of it just comes back to awareness and just trying to play really smart technique and try to keep the ball in front of you,” Ferentz said. “But as far as duplicating it out on the practice field, it’s hard to do because they got a lot of really good athletes at every position.”

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Oh, and those are the three receivers who have been carrying the load for Ohio State with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, arguably the best wideout in the country, sidelined with an injury. There’s a decent chance he makes his season return this weekend after the Buckeyes week off.

The critical mass of elite passing game talent — don’t forget the role quarterback CJ Stroud plays in this all — is probably going to be too much for the Hawkeyes to handle. Iowa has one of the stingiest defenses in the country, ranking in the Top 10 in both total defense and scoring defense.

But they also haven’t faced a team as explosive across the board as the Buckeyes. The best offense Iowa has likely faced this season is Michigan and the Hawkeyes surrendered a season-high 27 points. Michigan is looking like a legit playoff contender, but they were content to quite literally run out the clock on the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.

The Buckeyes are much more capable and willing to strike fast and through the air — and will have a home crowd behind them.

“You just play your defense. The hard part is simulating — we’ve had that discussion too, especially involving those guys. I think it was [Terrell] Pryor and Braxton Miller. But, where do you get somebody to duplicate what they do at quarterback?” Ferentz said, referencing prepping for past Ohio State teams. “And we’ve used running backs, defensive backs maybe that were high school quarterbacks, in those situations. But, we don’t have a lot of guys who can duplicate what their receivers do.”