5 Things: Iowa football vs. Minnesota

OK, so things aren't great right now in Hawkeyeland. That's understandable. Games like the one in Evanston, Ill., on Saturday don't inspire happy thoughts from many. Here's the thing, though: rivalry games have a way of superseding whatever else is going on.

Maybe this is off base, but Floyd of Rosedale and the battle for the best rivalry trophy in college football (this isn't really debatable, right?) (don't @ me) is enough of a distraction to hold everyone over for a week. Maybe.

So let's look at 5 Things: Iowa vs. Minnesota.

1. Fresh meat

Iowa welcomes Minnesota this week into Kinnick Stadium, and it'll be P.J. Fleck's first trip to the pink locker room as a Big Ten head coach*. Fleck, of course, is in his first year at Minnesota and first year as a head coach in the Big Ten.

Given Kirk Ferentz is the dean of college football coaches, being the most-tenured coach, he's faced many opposing Big Ten coaches in their first go-round in the conference. There are a few high-profile ones who he hasn't – James Franklin had two years at Penn State before playing Iowa and Jim Harbaugh had a year at Michigan before the Wolverines came to Kinnick and lost last year, for example – but he and Iowa have done well against fresh Big Ten coaches.

Ferentz's Hawkeyes have faced 24 coaches competing in their first year in the Big Ten (out of the 37 coaches who have been or are at the other Big Ten schools) and Iowa has a 15-9 record in those games. When the games are at Kinnick, like Saturday's, Iowa is 9-5. Ferentz welcomed guys like Michigan State's Mark Dantonio (2007), Wisconsin's Paul Chryst (2015), Illinois' Lovie Smith (2016), Nebraska's Mike Riley (2015) and Michigan's Brady Hoke (2011) with victories. On the other hand, Bret Bielema returned to Kinnick with Wisconsin in 2006 and left with a win.

Of the current Big Ten head coaches, Ferentz only faced six of the 13 in their first Big Ten seasons, losing only to Pat Fitzgerald and Northwestern in 2006.

Ferentz has been around a long time, and several schools have changed coaches several times. Fleck is the fifth Minnesota head man since Ferentz started. The only school with more in Ferentz's tenure is Indiana with six, which had Cam Cameron when Ferentz started, then followed him with Gerry DiNardo, Terry Hoeppner, Bill Lynch, Kevin Wilson and now Tom Allen.

2. Those guys in ____

Around here, Brian Ferentz's summer comments about recruiting caused a stir – but most of the conversation was about 'the guys in Ames.' That's natural, of course, given the in-state rivalry and its proximity. But the other part of that sentence caused just as much of a stir with the corresponding fanbase and media contingent.

As told to the Des Moines Register on their podcast, Ferentz said, in part, 'What has sped things up (in recruiting) in our state, especially, is the guys in Ames and then the new guys in Minneapolis seem to have no problem really throwing early things out.'

Social and traditional media north of the border were just as alive with coverage of that quote as it was in central Iowa.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune covered it from a couple angles, reacting to the quote initially and then following up at Big Ten football media day with what Kirk Ferentz had to say about it. Fleck and the Gophers' 2018 class has 24 commits as of Monday and ranks 34th in the nation.

Given Minnesota fans' 'Who hates Iowa?' chant, it's reasonable to assume they haven't forgotten this.

3. P.J. Fleck is a good thing for the B1G

This section could very well be its own column and have several different pegs to it, but for our purposes, the answer to this premise is pretty simple: Fleck moves people's emotions.

Several of the other Big Ten coaches don't exactly move the needle in terms of entertainment. Lovie Smith changing the tone of his voice is about as common as Kirk Ferentz dying his hair purple. Paul Chryst and Mike Riley aren't exactly controversial individuals (the latter's job status notwithstanding). Setting aside the national focus on Harbaugh at Michigan and Urban Meyer at Ohio State, Fleck is the most polarizing person as a head coach other than perhaps James Franklin at Penn State.

Fleck's 'Row the Boat' mantra – inspired by the death of his son – and the style with which he coaches and carries himself bothers fans and opposing coaches (see: the above entry). He's a talker and isn't afraid of addressing sensitive topics. He's a guy who, if he's leading your team, you love him and if he's leading someone else's, you very much don't.

NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt (stick with me here, I promise the following is relevant and not just a gratuitous racing reference) once said he loved when fans booed him. As long as they're making noise, he said, you're doing something right.

Fleck makes noise. He took Western Michigan from 1-11 in his first year, to 8-5 in Years 2 and 3 to an undefeated regular season and a MAC championship in 2016, before losing in the Cotton Bowl to Wisconsin and finishing 13-1. If his recruiting classes stay good and Minnesota returns to national relevance, the noise around him will only grow – and so too will the attention on the Big Ten.

A better Minnesota makes a better Iowa, better Wisconsin and so on, because competition usually breeds success.

4. Floyd is No. 1

As mentioned above, Floyd of Rosedale is the best rivalry trophy in college football. This can't really be debated. Despite the not-so-subtle racism surrounding how it started, the fact that Minnesota and Iowa governors bet live hogs on a football game is about as Midwest as it gets. While Rivals.com ranked all the trophies in college football a while back, let's do a brief ranking of Iowa's four:

1. Floyd of Rosedale – As explained already

Floyd is back in his spot at the Hansen Performance Center. October 11, 2016

Floyd is back in his spot at the Hansen Performance Center. #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/MZMSlmT3hi

— Jeremiah Davis (@jeremiahdavis10)

2. The Heartland Trophy – While the Iowa-Wisconsin game has been played since 1894, this trophy has only been up for grabs since 2004. A bull is a pretty solid animal to have bronzed as a trophy, and pretty accurately personifies the style of game the two teams play. Iowa has brought the trophy back to the football complex five times (out of 11 possible), and while that's not a great percentage, the Hawkeyes did prevent Barry Alvarez from ever winning one as head coach. So there's that.

3. The Cy-Hawk Trophy – RIP the Corn Family, which was never actually handed out but remains the most infamous college football rivalry trophy. If the Cy-Hawk Trophy was still the original, it might've been No. 2 here.

4. The Heroes Trophy – It's young and doesn't have much meaning or history behind it. It looks cool, though.

5. Against the spread

The over/under last week for Iowa-Northwestern was 47. The game finished 17-10 and was, uh, difficult for the offensive side of both teams. Iowa has scored 10 points in two of its last three games, and it took until the fourth quarter before the scoring piled up against Illinois. The offense is in a very-well-documented funk.

Stat Pak: Almost there, but ways to go for Iowa

That makes an over/under of 43 for Iowa-Minnesota a very, very risky bet – for entertainment purposes only, of course. The Gophers gave up 30.7 points per game in their first three Big Ten games this season before a 24-17 win against Illinois, so Iowa has a chance to correct its fortunes on Saturday, but the same was true last week, too.

The line opened at Iowa minus-9 and has since fallen to Iowa minus-7.5 as of Monday afternoon. It's hard to believe, if the Hawkeyes don't make some drastic offensive improvements, they can cover more than a touchdown.

(An earlier version of this story omitted that qualifier. Fleck came to Kinnick as a player with Northern Illinois, an assistant with Ohio State and head coach at Western Michigan. We regret the error.) 

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com