After ‘roller coaster’ October, Iowa football may finally be finding its stride in November

IOWA CITY — Optimism was hardly abounding in the Spartan Stadium interview room when Iowa football suffered a humbling 32-20 loss to Michigan State last month.

Kirk Ferentz said his opening statement “won’t take too long” after a game where his Hawkeyes “really didn’t play well enough in any of the phases to expect to be victorious.”

Two weeks later, Iowa seemed to be on top of the world as it routed border-state rival Wisconsin, 42-10 — its biggest win over the Badgers since 1968 — and jumped its way to the Heartland Trophy to the tune of Wisconsin’s signature “Jump Around” song.

“The season is full of twists and turns,” Ferentz said in his Tuesday news conference. “I say it every year. You just never know what they’re going to be or when they’re going to happen. It’s really a matter of how you can navigate through the ups and the downs.”

Iowa suffered a 35-7 loss to then-No. 3 Ohio State on Oct. 5 and bounced back with a 40-16 win over Washington. Then came the setback at Michigan State, followed by the 40-14 win over Northwestern and the 42-10 win over Wisconsin.

“After that Minnesota game, we’ve been kind of going up and down on this roller coaster — win, loss, win loss,” Iowa defensive end Deontae Craig said. “But we’re trying to just put it all together.”

Now, the 2024 Iowa roller coaster is again up — and possibly could be staying up — as the Hawkeyes may perhaps finally be finding their stride and playing the complementary football that they constantly seek.

Iowa has scored 40-plus points in back-to-back games for the first time since 2018 while holding its opponents to 14 and 10 points, respectively. The 10 points allowed against Wisconsin was especially impressive considering that the Badgers were averaging 32.5 points in their previous four games.

The Hawkeyes have forced five turnovers during those two games while giving up only one (and that was before the switch to Brendan Sullivan at quarterback).

“We’re doing better consistently in all three phases of the game,” linebacker Jay Higgins said. “Earlier in the season, defensively we were having some problems. And then if you look one game after that, then maybe it was an offensive problem, and the defense was doing good.”

A Ferentz-coached team finding its stride as the calendar turns to November certainly is not a new concept. The Hawkeyes have gone 19-2 in their last 21 games in the month of November, which dates back to the 2019 season. (One of the losses was in 2022 against Nebraska after quarterback Spencer Petras exited with an injury, and the other was a two-point loss in 2019 to then-No. 13 Wisconsin.)

“We just harp on November football,” Iowa defensive back Deshaun Lee said last week. “It’s really important. That’s where teams show who they really are.”

As encouraging as Iowa’s November momentum is, its up-and-down month of October wiped out any distant shot at a College Football Playoff appearance or trip to another Big Ten title game. But a strong final month could be the difference between Iowa’s bowl destination being the ReliaQuest Bowl in sunny Tampa, Fla., or the Pinstripe Bowl in wintry New York.

Iowa’s November path forward appears to be quite favorable. Iowa is a 5.5-point favorite Friday against UCLA. ESPN Analytics gives Iowa a 72.8 percent chance of beating Maryland on Nov. 23 and a 77.8 percent chance of beating Nebraska on Nov. 29.

Of course, one may have said Iowa had a favorable path before the Michigan State game, too, and then came the humbling moment at Spartan Stadium.

“It’s all about learning, and every season, every moment teaches you something typically,” Ferentz said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

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