Hlas: It’s OK to say the Hawkeyes are good

IOWA CITY - Those were good years Kirk Ferentz and Dan McCarney shared as assistant coaches at Iowa in the 1980s.

So many victories. So few losses to teams the Hawkeyes were expected to beat. So many blowout wins over nonconference foes that simply couldn't match up with Iowa's talent.

Historically, the Hawkeyes are usually good when they run over the lesser lights of college football. This year's team is good.

We're four games in, and Iowa passes the eyeball test. Ferentz's Iowa squad manhandled McCarney's green Mean Green in Kinnick Stadium Saturday, 62-16. It was like old times.

'I was on a number of those kind of teams at Iowa when I was a coach,” McCarney said after the game.

In recent years, the Hawkeyes staggered and sometimes fell against the likes of Central Michigan, Ball State, and the 2014 Iowa State team that won just one other game. This season's team closed the door on all four of its nonconference foes. It slammed the door on North Texas.

McCarney gave a laundry list of the things he likes about this year's Hawkeyes that was almost as long as C.J. Beathard's 81-yard touchdown pass to Tevaun Smith.

'The physicality of the team is fundamentally sound,” McCarney said. Then his voice got softer and yet firmer at the same time for emphasis.

'Just the whole complete thing,” he said about Iowa. 'Special teams, punter, kicker, returner. The returner (cornerback Desmond King) obviously is going to be playing a lot of years after he leaves Iowa if he stays healthy. He's going to have a long career in the NFL.

'They're fundamentally sound, they're well-coached, they don't beat themselves. Iowa doesn't beat Iowa. You have to beat them.

'They're a complete football team from what I can see.”

Hold the phone, stop the presses, whoa Nellie! Wasn't this the same team that had several question marks a month ago? Weren't the offensive tackles sieves, the linebackers an unknown quantity, the punting dubious, and the return teams at both ends iffy at best?

Wasn't the head coach a relic from those glory days of the past who had lost his grip on how to guide a winner?

Well, we don't know if the 2015 Hawkeyes will advance from a very strong September to a glorious autumn, but there's something happening here. Something good.

Jumping to a 28-3 lead here five minutes into the second quarter was evidence enough, but when the Hawkeyes butchered a reverse and handed the ball to the Mean Green at the Iowa 6 to set up a touchdown that made the score 28-13, they didn't as much as blink. Eleven plays and 80 yards later, it was 35-13.

It's more than just Beathard running the show, but that's a pretty good place to start. You go 15-for-15 in a half for 254 yards as he did, McCarney was accurate in calling the quarterback 'tremendous.”

So what does Beathard know about his team that he wasn't sure of a month ago?

'You realize the fight we have,” he said. 'The Iowa State game and the Pittsburgh game showed the fight that these guys have. We're a close-knit group of guys. We all have each other's back.”

Tight end George Kittle, who reeled in a 43-yard touchdown pass from Beathard, said 'It feels like a band of brothers. I don't want to be clichéd, but everyone's humble. No one thinks they're better than anyone else. Everyone's just on the same level and we're all headed in the same direction.”

Don't go crazy yet, many will say with good reason. Iowa hasn't beaten a team of renown. North Texas is mean in nickname only. Wisconsin, where the Hawkeyes head next, is a different animal altogether.

But what about Iowa so far has there not been to like? What about these Hawkeyes has reminded you of the outside world's perception of the program from last November until this season got going?

The correct answer to those two questions: 'Absolutely nothing.”

Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com

Twitter: @Hlas

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