Home is where the heart is for Hawkeyes

IOWA CITY - Vince Lombardi said football is like life. It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority.

OK, so there's that. But in life, most of us don't have to wear helmets and pads at work, and either try to block or tackle someone or avoid getting blocked or tackled.

Come to think of it, that block-and-tackle stuff goes on every day. So never mind.

Still, regular life typically isn't as exciting, intense, or as joyful and painful as the week-to-week experiences of a football team. Concluding a day of doing laundry isn't on par with, say, last Saturday's Stanford-USC game.

I don't know about you, but I feel more alert and alive when I'm on the road than when I'm at home. I tend to be a lot more aware of my surroundings whether it's Times Square or Hot Sulphur Springs, Colo., than when I'm waiting for a train to mosey through downtown Cedar Rapids.

That's no knock on home. Home is good. Home is where you can count on people. Home is where your bed and your desk and the contents of your refrigerator match up to your wants and needs.

Home is where you wind down and recharge, where you temporarily hibernate.

But in Big Ten football in particular and Iowa Hawkeyes football in specific, home is where you fire up and soar. Meanwhile, the road is where your senses often seem to get a little deadened.

Home teams are 18-8 in Big Ten conference games this season. The fields are the same lengths and widths at all 12 stadiums. The officials make the teams adhere to the same rules in each stadium. And yet …

Nebraska lost at Wisconsin, which lost at Ohio State, which lost at Nebraska.

Michigan State lost at Nebraska, which lost at Wisconsin, which lost at Michigan State.

Iowa is 5-0 this season at home, 0-3 on the road. Only one of those three road opponents has as much as a winning record. So why the drastic difference in home and away play?

“We just haven't played well enough to win on the road,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. “I don't think there's anything mystical or magical about it. Haven't played well enough on the road. Three different scenarios. Contain was an issue Game 1 and Game 3. Certainly I'm more focused on that than I am the location of the game.”

That's understandable with Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson coming to Kinnick Stadium Saturday. But it's still not an answer. I don't have one, either.

Homefield advantage has been a part of football since Joe Paterno was a twinkle in his father's eye. But Iowa takes it to a bit of an extreme. The Hawkeyes are 62-21 at home under Ferentz, 25-38 on the road.

When Iowa has had its biggest seasons in the last 10 years, it won important road games. In each of its three most-glorious seasons under Ferentz - 2002, 2004 and 2009 - it won at Penn State. Its statement win in its unbeaten 2002 Big Ten season was a 34-9 triumph at Michigan.

It's hard to fathom Iowa of 2011 rallying from a 21-point hole to win at Pittsburgh. It's even harder to envision any scenario in which the Hawkeyes would have lost to Minnesota at home.

You think about Robinson and Michigan's buzzsaw of an offense against the Iowa defense, and you aren't brimming with optimism about the Hawkeyes' chances.

But the game is in Iowa's happy place. And that matters.