Iowa coaches feeling out new additions

CEDAR RAPIDS - Before their recent seasons ended, Iowa's coaches rarely gave a second thought to the next wave of Big Ten expansion because it didn't immediately affect them.

Now, the schedules say something different. In football, it reads Iowa at Maryland on Oct. 18. For men's basketball, it lists home games against Maryland and Rutgers. It's the flip in women's hoops. The reality of playing Maryland and Rutgers - just like facing Indiana and Ohio State - has started to settle in, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

'I know it's going to be good for the conference, but it still feels different,” Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz said before last night's Linn County I-Club meeting at Kirkwood Hotel. 'I've never been in their stadium in my life. So I think until we go out there a couple of times and get in that mode, there's a process to everything. It's all about growth and a good thing for the Big Ten.”

The feel was different for Ferentz when Nebraska joined the league in 2011. Although Iowa and Nebraska previously faced off just a couple of times every generation as non-conference football foes, fans from both programs often expressed mutual disdain for one another. The geography made Nebraska's addition feel natural to Ferentz.

'When I think of Maryland and Rutgers, I think of more East Coast, whereas Nebraska is a Midwestern school,” Ferentz said. 'We've played them in recent years - recent is 14 years ago - nonetheless, we've played against each other. We kind of know each other that way. It's just not as different, if you will.”

Women's basketball carries a different vibe. Maryland and Rutgers are titanic additions. This year the Terrapins advanced to the Final Four and won the 2006 national title under Cedar Rapids Washington graduate Brenda Frese. Rutgers is led by Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer, who has taken three different programs to the Final Four. That includes Iowa in 1993.

Stringer was Iowa's all-time winningest coach until she was surpassed last season by current Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder. Adding programs with that kind of pedigree is prestigious for the Big Ten. It also increases the competition within the league.

'The profile of the league is amazing,” Bluder said. 'Again, when we added Nebraska, that was a huge addition for women's basketball as well. I think it's just continues to rise our stature rise among all the power conferences. For our program, obviously, you have to keep raising the bar. When you bring in teams like this, it makes everybody just increase their game a little bit more.”

Frese was an Iowa State assistant for four seasons and led Minnesota for one season before taking over at Maryland in 2003. Stringer coached Iowa for 12 seasons and received an honorary doctorate from the school in 2000. They have local connections, and both seem to feel at ease returning to the Big Ten.

'We were in Big Ten Conference meetings last week, and I sat next to Vivian and Brenda, both of them,” Bluder said. 'Neither one of them asked any questions; they both have been in the Big Ten before so it's familiar ground for them. I think that makes them feel a lot more comfortable. They've already been here, done that.”

It may still feel strange for Iowa to consider Rutgers and Maryland as conference brethren. But that will fade quickly, Ferentz said.

'Probably until we go out there and play them,” he said.

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