Hlas column: It looks like the Hawkeyes have a very good bye

IOWA CITY - A cave-in seemed unlikely two weeks ago today, but you never really know how a college football team will react.

Iowa had lost in highly disappointing fashion at Arizona, 34-27. The Department of Homeland Security oversaw a long, meticulous TSA check of everything and everyone getting on the Hawkeyes' chartered flight from Tucson to Cedar Rapids after the game. So the Hawkeyes got home around 7:30 that Sunday morning with glassy eyes and an unbeaten record gone.

It may have been a turning point for the team. Would they snap out of it and get back to business or not?

“I just know this last two week block was really important for our football team for a lot of reasons,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said after the Hawkeyes' 24-3 win over Penn State Saturday night. “We've put a lot into that.

“We got beat on the road and didn't play the kind of football that we want to play. There's no guarantees how everybody is going to respond first and foremost, and I thought the guys came back with a good week after that trip.

“Probably some of that execution we saw in (Saturday's) first half I think was the benefit or the result of us practicing a little bit better. I think we finally this week started to practice maybe the way we need to, not that we can't get better, but at least it looked a little more like a decent football team out there in practice.”

Now comes Iowa's bye week. Dinged-up linebackers can be ready to go at Michigan on Oct. 16. You know it can't hurt Iowa's defense to have the extra time to devise a strategy to contend with dazzling Wolverine quarterback Denard Robinson.

Being at just the one-eighth pole of the Big Ten race, it's folly to start projecting what will happen in these two months. But I will say this: If you had to overlook the tiny detail that Iowa plays three ranked teams in succession, its October schedule doesn't set up all that badly.

Say what? Well, while Iowa has this week off, Michigan will be spending a ton of physical and emotional energy all week trying to beat Michigan State at home. Win or lose, it will be a draining experience. Michigan State - as the Hawkeyes remember all too well from last year - plays as physical a brand of ball as anyone around.

After the Michigan game, Iowa comes home to play Wisconsin. The Badgers will have hosted Ohio State the week before. It will be the same deal for Wisconsin that week as it is for Michigan the week it meets Iowa. Win or lose against the Buckeyes, Wisconsin figures to have used a lot of emotional and physical fuel.

Then comes Michigan State. On the Hlog (thegazette.com) this summer, I picked the Michigan State game as the most-dangerous on the Hawkeyes' schedule. Many readers chose Arizona instead. They were proven correct.

But playing MSU after consecutive games with Michigan and Wisconsin, and knowing the Spartans will be hungry to avenge last year's last-play loss to Iowa, gives MSU some edges. However, Michigan State plays at Northwestern the week before coming to Iowa, and two straight road games against two good teams is tough duty.

Realistically, of course, it's a little goofy to be looking as much as that far ahead.

The Big Ten season will only be half-over for Iowa when its stretch of Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State is done. So enjoy this bye week, Hawkeyes. You've got a lot of work ahead.