Bohnenkamp: Iowa Enters 3-Game Stretch Against Pests

Purdue, Wisconsin, Northwestern Have Been Thorns in Hawkeyes' Side

Kirk Ferentz has talked in recent weeks about how the Iowa football season is broken into blocks.

There is the seven-game block that ends with Saturday’s game against Purdue. Then, after next week’s bye week, the five-game block to end the season.

It seems, though, like the Hawkeyes’ schedule has been broken into smaller blocks.

There was the two-game block to start the season against Indiana and Iowa State, two teams ranked in the preseason national polls. You looked at it and thought, “If the Hawkeyes go 0-2, this could be a long season. Go 1-1, and there’s still plenty of season left. Go 2-0…”

The Hawkeyes went 2-0.

Then there was the two-game block against Kent State and Colorado State, those non-conference games where you’re expected to win, so you want to go through it, get better, and stay healthy. The Hawkeyes went 2-0, although Colorado State provided a strong challenge and a lesson in how to win when things aren’t working right.

Then there was the two-game block against Big Ten East teams Maryland and Penn State — a road game against the Terrapins, a feisty home game against Penn State that turned into a matchup of top-five teams. Iowa won them both.

And so now we’re here in the next block that will provide some more definition to the Hawkeyes’ season.

Let’s call this next three-game stretch the Block of Pests.

It starts with Purdue, a team that has beaten Iowa three of the last four seasons and always seems to find a way to torment the Hawkeyes’ defense.

Then, after the bye week, it’s a road game to Wisconsin against a program that has won seven of the last nine games against Iowa.

That’s followed by a road game at Northwestern, which has won four of the last five against Iowa.

Ferentz talked this week about how this team’s path feels like the 2015 team that went through the regular season undefeated. That team traveled through the different chunks of the season and made it to the end.

The coach knows it can be a treacherous journey.

“But the rest of the story is like that team ran the whole race,” Ferentz said. “We're just at the halfway mark, I have no idea how many Kentucky Derby winners won that were leading at halftime or the first whatever, however many, whatever. They go, one lap, right? It's a big-ass track, but you follow what I'm saying.”

The Big Ten is a big track, too, full of potholes and various annoyances.

The Hawkeyes go into all of this with a No. 2 national ranking, and there’s a big target that comes with that. Ferentz and the players have

“I don't know that we've had that conversation in real deep because it's been kind of week-to-week,” Ferentz said. “But it's part of the thing and part of the territory, if you do have success there's going to be more attention and I think they understand that and get that concept that really what it all gets back to is just trying to do your best to get ready during the course of the week and then being ready to go at kickoff and anything can happen. 

"So last week was really the first week where it became a little bit of that circus atmosphere and if we do have success down the road, that will increase and we'll have to deal with it and learn to deal with it but it still gets down to the game.”

The Hawkeyes have passed all of the tests — the opening salvo of ranked teams, the games to endure, the road games, the crucible of a noisy day against one of the best teams in the nation.

Now they face the teams that can be aggravating thorns.

The next block is ahead.