3 and Out: Good morning, Hawkeyes!

1. The big change

- OK, forget about the 'New Kirk” stuff. Iowa isn't all that different in what it does football-wise. It's a lot sharper. It's getting pretty much what it needs out of quarterback play. It's running the ball much better, and the defense has hammered its way back to Iowa standard.

Besides the $55 million building Iowa football now calls home, the biggest change from 2014 to 2015 has been switching to morning practices. 6 in the a.m. Up and at 'em.

It came down like this in spring practice, the Iowa staff put notes in the players' lockers and said, hey guys, practice will be 6 a.m. during camp. Please adjust your crazy lifestyles. (OK, paraphrasing.)

'I was just wondering what time exactly is this going to start?” senior wide receiver Tevaun Smith said. 'Am I going to have to be here at 5, wake up at 4? That was one thing I wondered about. I like my sleep, I like my rest.

'But it's really kind of working out for us.”

It really is.

There are a few conclusions that are easy to make. Get practice in and then the players are free to live their lives as college students the rest of the day. It also frees them chunk their schedule. Go to school, study and then return to the Hansen Performance Center and go to meetings, do video study, get treatment, that sort of thing. They don't have afternoon practice sitting in the middle of everything.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said it's given the staff more time to articulate plans and communicate effectively.

'I think it's been good, and we've enjoyed it as coaches, too,” Ferentz said. 'It really gives us a chance to go back to our thoughts and make sure we've got them worded the way we want to.”

On the old schedule, the players had Monday off. Now, it's Thursday. The benefit here has been a tapering period. Practice is full-go Monday through Wednesday. Thursday is the off day. Friday is a 'thud” or walk-through period.

Don't disregard the 'fresh legs” factor. The players feel it.

'It helps out a lot,” Smith said. 'It used to be Monday (the day off). They say that it's good to get that lactic acid out (of their muscles) right after a game or competition. That would be that Monday or even or Sunday and Monday.

'We get the hard work done at the beginning of the week. By Thursday and Friday, which is basically nothing, we get two days to rest before the game. Everything is done, all that work is done at the beginning of the week. That's good for us.”

Thursday used to be the final padded day of practice, with the four days of practice going from Tuesday to Friday. You can see how players might feel that going into Saturday games, particularly 11 a.m. starts.

'There were times in the past where I did feel kind of sore on a Saturday,” Smith said. 'Now that we have two days, you take advantage of that. You come here and get your body right. It's honestly worked out great for us.”

Earlier this season, Ferentz compared not practicing on Thursday to walking on the moon. It just felt out of place. He has that coach mentality where he's waiting for the other shoe to drop. This just seems too perfect, right? OK, one potential problem could be that the players are going home and sleeping through class and everyone bottoms out in grades (certainly, they would be aware of this), but that's the crazy, worst-case scenario. Ferentz did say that there would be evaluation at the end of the season.

The benefits of morning practice seem obvious. It's been well received. If nothing else, it pulled the 17-year Iowa head coach out of his routine.

'Full confession,” Ferentz said. 'I look at my sheet every day now because I'm just trying to make sure . . . I've only been late for one meeting so far, where they had to send somebody down and say you were supposed to be here 10 minutes ago.”

2. Yes, that ACC crew was in Kinnick

- The Atlantic Coast Conference on Sunday announced that the officiating crew for the great Miami (Fla.) lateral play that beat Duke has been suspended for two games (along with the replay official and replay communicator).

Mistakes were made, obviously. Several blocks during the play appeared to be illegal blocks in the back. Also, there was one moment where a Miami lateral-er had his knee touch down before he pitched the ball. They also missed a Miami player coming off the bench to celebrate while the play was still going on.

Miami sneaked off with a 30-27 victory. Duke fell out of a potential first-place tie in the ACC's Coastal Division.

The head official was Jerry Magallanes and the crew was Terrence Ramsay (umpire), Mike Owens (linesman), Jim Slayton (line judge), Robert Luklan (back judge), Bill Dolbow (field judge), Michael McCarthy (side judge), Tracy Lynch (center judge) along with George Burton (replay communicator).

Why, yes, this is the same crew that officiated Iowa's 27-24 victory over Pitt at Kinnick Stadium on Sept. 19 (in intersectional games, the road team's conference brings its officiating crew). What did they miss in that game? There was that helmet to QB C.J. Beathard's chin, but that also seemed to fall under the definition of 'defenseless” player.

Ferentz was asked about the play this week. The connection hadn't been made. He was asked if the Hawkeyes practice the multilateral kickoff return.

'You do,” Ferentz said. 'I think they'd probably admit, too, there's a lot of luck involved in that play. It's one of those deals, everything has to fall right. To their credit, they got it done. That's a tough play to execute.”

And officiate, apparently.

3. Big Ten nerd game of the week

- You really should make Illinois at Purdue your lead up to the Iowa-Indiana kickoff.

Purdue is on the uptick. Wait, what? Purdue is on the uptick. Really. Last week at West Lafayette, Ind., the Boilermakers snapped a five-game losing streak with a 55-45 upset victory over Nebraska.

This helped improved the Boilers to 2-6 and it might've helped save coach Darrell Hazell's job. Yahoo and ESPN reported Wednesday night that Hazell will return for his fourth season as head coach despite his record of 6-26.

As far as local media go, Mike Carmin of the Lafayette Journal & Courier asked athletics director Morgan Burke for comment. Through the school's SID, Burke said he wouldn't comment on a report with unnamed sources.

So, probably Hazell is OK and likely he'll be coach of the Boilers when they show up at Kinnick on Nov. 21.

Here's some Hazell buyout info from Carmin's post: Hazell has three years remaining on his contract after this season. He originally signed a six-year $12.75 million contract prior when named the program's head coach before the 2013 season. Hazell's buyout clause will cost the athletic department $6.7 million to fire him on Dec. 1. That figure drops to $4.6 million on Dec. 1, 2016. According to the contract, Hazell would receive monthly installments over the remainder of the term as opposed to a lump sum if he was fired.

After the Fighting Illini beat Nebraska to move to 4-1 on Oct. 3, they've lost three straight, including a 39-0 thud at Penn State last weekend.

Bill Cubit had a lot of momentum for the 'interim” tag to come off when Illinois was 4-1. As you might expect, that's starting to dissipate.

So, watch an interim coach lead his team to almost bowl eligibility against a coach whose buyout might be too expensive for his school to get rid of him.

I think I nailed the nerd game this week.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com