Hlas: Defense was Sash-and-burn

The previous week was one-too-many pizza slices, an unripe jalapeno, a bad clam.

Iowa's football team had heartburn after its acid-filled 17-16 win over Northern Iowa. The game didn't feel at all good. But it wasn't fatal.

Saturday at Jack Trice Stadium, the Hawkeyes had a little of everything tasty and indulged heavily in a few items. But they felt fine on the bus ride back to Iowa City after a 35-3 laugher over Iowa State.

After the rout, Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz sounded more weary than cheery. Maybe it was the heat of the day. Maybe it was the stress about the ailment that took monster offensive tackle Bryan Bulaga out of his lineup for a game, or a week of living with that worrisome performance against the Panthers.

After reviewing some game film today, Ferentz's spirits should be fine. What a trashing of the Hawkeyes' state-rival - OK, UNI, one of their state rivals - this turned out to be.

Speaking of trash, some young men in attendance wore red shirts that called Iowa sophomore safety Tyler Sash just that. But they were ribbing Sash, not insulting him. A couple of red-clads slapped him on the back after the game and said “good game.”

“All my buddies from high school (in Oskaloosa) came here,” Sash said. “I walked out and they all had ‘Sash is Trash' T-shirts on. Just giving me a hard time. Something fun.”

The real fun-lovers this day, though, wore white jerseys. Sash was at the front of the line for living large, tying a school record for interceptions in a game with three, and adding a team-high 10 tackles.

If Sash isn't named the Big Ten's Defensive Player of the Week for the second time in his career tonight, someone else had the game of a lifetime.

“Our corners and linebackers did a great job getting jams in,” Sash said. “If there's no jams, there's no chance for interceptions.”

Iowa had five INTs here. That was a lot of jamming, picking and grinning.

Junior Brett Greenwood had the other two. He tipped one of Sash's to his fellow safety.

“We've got two guys now that are experienced back there,” Ferentz said, “so you're sure hoping you get something besides just average play back there. I think both of those guys looked really good out there today.”

Sash has seven interceptions in his last six games, a huge number for anyone, let alone someone with just a dozen starts.

He had the Pick of the Ferentz Era in the fourth quarter of Iowa's win over Penn State last year. He had two first-half interceptions against South Carolina in the Hawkeyes' 31-10 Outback Bowl victory.

Sash isn't trash.

“It doesn't feel like real,” he said of his three swipes in the state's blood-feud game “It's something you dream about when you're a little kid.”

A couple of quirky little stories:

1. Interceptions have been called “oskies” by football coaches for generations for reasons that aren't clear.

You or a teammate makes a pick, you yell “Oskie! Oskie!” so the other defenders start blocking.

“Being from Oskaloosa,” Sash said, “(In high school) I honestly thought they were called oskies because we were from Osky.”

2. Ferentz witnessed Sash's talents several years ago. But the sport was basketball. James Ferentz, now one of Sash's teammates, was playing in a tournament in Sigourney with his dad in attendance. One of James' teammates was Hawkeye cager Matt Gatens.

“Tyler's team beat our team,” Ferentz said. “I think it was 40-36 and Tyler had 36 points.

“I said ‘Hey, we've got to call the basketball office. They've got a kid down there that was a pretty good basketball player.' I thought it was like a child prodigy. Little did I know four years later.”

Good thing for Ferentz the kid saw his best shot at college sports success was in football, not basketball.

Sash was first team all-state in both. He holds oodles of Oskaloosa records for rushing and receiving. He is good with the ball, you might say.

Oskie or Osky, take your pick. Sash certainly took his Saturday.