Past is certainly not prologue in Iowa-Northwestern

IOWA CITY - Rivalries carry a psychology to them. Football is, after all, one of the most physically competitive teams sports. You identify strongly with your team. The other side identifies with strongly with its team. You may foster negative sentiments toward each other.

Let's look at Iowa (5-2, 2-1 Big Ten) and Northwestern (3-4, 2-2).

You have your historical element. The two Big Ten teams have met 75 times, with the first happening in Evanston, Ill., in 1897. The mythological element also is strong here. From 1974 to 1994, the Hawkeyes defeated Northwestern. That's 21 straight victories. That's a lot of frustration. As you can imagine that accumulates and, college football being college football, it catches up to you.

So, the Wildcats eventually rose up and in 1995, they beat Iowa. Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald was an all-American middle linebacker on that team. He was at the epicenter when this flipped from a casual Saturday to a rivalry with hostility and everything.

'I think we've got a great rivalry going,” Fitzgerald said. 'Again, built on respect. Our games, man, at least in my 14 years, I'll go back to when we finally beat them in '95. Since ‘95, it's been a fun. It was a butt-whipping rivalry for Iowa up until then, but it's been a fun rivalry.”

Yes, Iowa, it's a rivalry. That 21 straight? That's dead and buried. Since Northwestern broke through in ‘95, the Wildcats are 10-7 against Iowa. Fitzgerald is 5-3 against the Hawkeyes.

'It seems like it's kind of a rivalry game,” Iowa defensive tackle Carl Davis said. 'They play everybody tough. I don't know if they have something extra against us or anything, but we love playing them and they love playing us.”

So, yes, rivalry and, surprisingly, there seems to be a lofty spirit to it.

It wasn't always like that.

Back in ‘95, the pregame run-up included some white-hot sports takes from Northwestern center Rob Johnson.

'I want to hurt Iowa,” Johnson told Chicago media. The Hawkeyes beat NU 49-13 in 1994 and it had left a mark.

'We were embarrassed, whether intentionally or unintentionally, by Hayden Fry,” Johnson added.

For the first 16 of his 20 seasons as Iowa's head coach, Hayden Fry took Northwestern out of his back pocket, blew his nose with it and tossed it into the trash bin. Fry guided Iowa to 16 consecutive victories with an average score of 42.12 to 12.25. Iowa scored 40-plus in nine of these games, including twice into the 60s.

'I haven't done anything to make them mad, except win,” Fry said the Tuesday before the ‘95 game. 'If that makes them mad, then they're mad.”

Then-NU coach Gary Barnett made Iowa a topic in the book (High Hopes: Taking the Purple to Pasadena) he wrote after the Wildcats' historic ‘95 season, which included its first Rose Bowl since 1948. He also talked Hawkeyes during his weekly news conference.

'No, this team wants Iowa so much, I can't put it into words. We've waited 12 months for this.”

The Wildcats went on to win three consecutive against Fry and Iowa. In his final season in ‘98, Fry did clip Northwestern, 26-24. Fry did, for the record, deny running it up on Northwestern.

Are you running up the score? That was the question to the Iowa football coach then. Now, it's how about that Northwestern rivalry?

'I've read the story about Gary Barnett and Coach Fry, and Gary Barnett did a wonderful job there, and Pat played on that football team, so it's got to be very personal to him, I'm sure,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'But bottom line, in the ‘80s that wasn't much of a series. That's well-documented. Since I've been back, it's been a really tough series.

' ... I think a lot of people make the mistake of maybe living in the past. I mean, since ‘95 these guys have been really good. They've got a proud tradition, and they play like they have a proud tradition, so they're a good program, excellent program.”

Northwestern has made its point with Iowa's players. It's a mutual respect festival across the board. You saw how Iowa rushed the field last season after beating Northwestern in overtime. Sure, there was the OT factor, but that also was the same Wildcats team that hung 349 rushing yards on the Hawkeyes in a 28-17 victory at Evanston in 2012.

'I don't want to say no and I don't want to say yes,” strong safety John Lowdermilk said when asked if there's something extra when it comes to Northwestern and the Hawkeyes. 'We just know it's always tough. I know coach Ferentz has tons of respect for their coaching staff. We have a lot of respect for their players. They're hardworking, tough. We always know what we're going against when we play them.

'I think both sides play with chips on their shoulders. That goes along with toughness and having something to prove to everybody every week. That's where a lot of similarities between us lie.”

Iowa and Northwestern also occupy the same space in the Big Ten West Division. Today's loser is going to be hanging by their mouthpiece if not flat out eliminated.

'Northwestern is a very smart team and very technically sound,” linebacker Quinton Alston said. 'They remind me a lot of us. We have a lot of respect. It's a tough, hard-nosed team.”

So, what we have here in Kinnick today is the 'Chip on the Shoulder” Bowl, with two teams that seem to have a healthy grasp of rivalry, wrapped in what amounts to a Big Ten West playoff game.

'I feel like we both lack respect in the league,” Davis said. 'When you look at the Big Ten, you look at Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State and Ohio State and Nebraska now, people respect those teams. When people see us, I feel like they thing, ‘We should beat those guys.' It's not that way. Everyone wants to be noticed. We're in the Big Ten for a reason, we want to compete.

'You have to play week in and week out, especially with the Big Ten playoffs right now. That's what we call it, Big Ten playoffs.”

Rivalries are good, and this is one of the Big Ten's most underrated. A run of 21 straight will never happen again between these two. They have each other's full attention.

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com