Tuesdays with Torbee

Kirk Ferentz’ 200th victory was executed in perfect Ferentzian fashion.

Despite the Washington Huskies out-gaining the Hawkeyes 393-328, holding onto the ball nearly 10 minutes longer than Iowa and holding quarterback Cade McNamara to a relatively anemic 108 yards passing, the game ended in a 40-16 rout for the home team.

As it has for more than two decades, a bend-but-don’t break defense, stellar special teams, a ball-hawking defense that creates turnovers and a punishing running game secured a Big 10 bully ball win.

To be fair, I believe west coast teams playing at 9 a.m. by their body clock in unfamiliar hostile venues is a huge advantage – at least early on in the new conference alignment – but Iowa showed it has the talent and coaching to challenge for a high upper division conference position. It likely will be favored in all its remaining games, and yet another double-digit win season is within realistic grasp.

While the head man’s historic mark garnered the headlines, my game ball goes to first-year offensive coordinator Tim Lester. The final statistic were not gaudy, but finally someone has resurrected Hayden Fry’s strategy of scratching where it itches. Even the Iowa plays that failed due to execution looked fresh and able to challenge defenses. For too many years, there were long stretches where it looked like the Hawkeyes weren’t even trying to disorient their opponent and that offensive football was a wickedly difficult puzzle. Under Lester, Iowa looks capable and – at times – dangerously explosive.

Much of that explosiveness is thanks to Kaleb Johnson, of course. But he appears to be a perfect fit for the Lester system. Every time he touches the ball, you expect something good to happen.

Last week, the negative attention was focused on Cade McNamara. He played better this Saturday, but I still believe his 2024 ceiling is being an effective game manager. I will say, Brenan Sullivan’s absurdly ill-advised attempted pass/lateral that missed being an Iowa turnover negating a score showed that perhaps both quarterbacks need to take care of the ball better. But hey, you can’t’ expect everything to look perfect, even in a romp. His couple of slants across the middle, particularly the one for a touchdown by freshman receiver Dayton Howard were excellent throws. I remain concerned about his lack of mobility and sometimes sketchy footwork, but when he values the ball, he can be effective.

In addition to the excellent play calling, Iowa’s domination in the trenches was heartening to see, after they were pushed around a bit the week prior by Ohio State. Early in the game the Washington offense’s speed appeared to catch the Hawkeyes by surprise a bit. Of course, under Phil Parker, it’s not that unusual to see Iowa give up dink-and-dunk yardage between the 30s only to bow up and take points away in the red zone and that’s exactly how it played out this week. Likewise, the offensive line mostly had its way, plowing its way to another 200-yard-plus rushing game.

I was unable to watch the game in person, as I am in Arizona this weekend. Down here, I had the chance to talk to a former player who played defensive in end in the Southern Conference and is now a Tennessee fan living in Knoxville. He told me Iowa is his favorite Big 10 team to watch because they play football the “right” way. When I asked what he meant by that, he responded: “run the ball, hit them on defense, be the tougher team.”

Iowa is not always pretty, flashy or fun to watch. But when they are smacking people in the mouth and forcing mistakes, they can look pretty darn good.

We are halfway through a very unique season and Iowa is 4-2 and lurking on the edge of the Top 25 with a pretty favorable schedule looming. Here’s hoping for a November to remember.

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