Iowa’s hopes for title on the line against Spartans

IOWA CITY - Superman isn't coming. Michigan State is.

This is the No. 19 Hawkeyes' last stand as far as championship Big Ten football goes. Iowa is now 2-1 in the Big Ten (5-2 overall). This morning, Iowa is looking up at Wisconsin - really looking up after the Badgers' 31-30 win in Kinnick Stadium on Saturday - Ohio State and Michigan State.

The No. 5 Spartans lead the conference at 4-0 (8-0), with No. 9 Wisconsin (3-1) and No. 10 Ohio State (3-1) one game back.

Michigan State might be the Big Ten's last and best hope for a slot in the BCS title game. The Spartans come to Kinnick on Saturday.

This is the Hawkeyes last chance to have a say in their fate.

“Tomorrow we'll look at the tape. Try to learn from the good things we did and, more importantly, learn from the mistakes we made and then we move on,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “That's what you have to do. That has to be your mentality win, lose or draw.

“This hurts. Losing is never fun. If you don't put it behind you and move on, you don't want one to cause two.”

If Iowa is learning from mistakes, this video session might keep them busy until Tuesday.

Start with special teams, where everything is glitched from PATs to kick coverage (a headache since Arizona) to punt cover.

Four special teams plays stung the Hawkeyes against Wisconsin, all leading to or taking points off the board.

First, the “led to points.” Brad Nortman's 17-yard rush up the middle on a fourth-and-4 caught Iowa asleep at the wheel. The Iowa staff called for a punt return. As soon as UW Coach Bret Bielema saw return on the field, he called for the fake that led to the Badgers' winning points with 1:06 left. Eastern Illinois pulled a similar trick on the Hawkeyes in the opener.

Before that, true freshmen Don Shumpert was called for an offsides on a kickoff after the Hawkeyes stuck UW's star returner David Gilreath at UW's 18. Wisconsin took the penalty and wanted the re-kick. Gilreath took the ball to UW's 49, a 31-yard difference. That's three first downs the Badgers didn't have to get.

Iowa is playing nine true freshmen this season. A lot of their duty is coming on special teams. The inexperience shows.

“There is a lot of potential in our young guys and our coaches see that,” punt returner Colin Sandeman said. “But we are young. I think we have six freshmen on the kick cover team. I think that shows you the type of depth we have. I think there are a lot of key guys who need that rest and who start on defense or offense.”

The “points off the board” part came from veteran players. Wisconsin defensive end J.J. Watt blocked freshman kicker Mike Meyer's PAT. He ran between starting guards Julian Vandervelde and Adam Gettis.

For the first time in four years, senior long snapper Andrew Schulze sent a field-goal snap back a little too high for holder Ryan Donahue, who was forced to scrap a 31-yard FG attempt and was tackled for a 4-yard loss.

“It's a work in progress,” Ferentz said of special teams. “I feel like we've been making ground the last three or four weeks, but we slipped back a little bit today.”

A fix on special teams might not come this season. Superman isn't coming to play linebacker, where the tank is on “E.”

When UW got inside Iowa's 20 on its winning drive, Iowa's linebackers were true freshman James Morris and red-shirt freshman Shane DiBona. Senior Jeff Tarpinian missed his third game with a stinger. Senior Jeremiha Hunter fought through a knee injury to return Saturday, but was out at the end. Ferentz said senior Troy Johnson was “nicked” and had to leave the game.