Hlas column: For Hawkeyes, this was the month that wasn't

This would normally be the day in which I would write about bowl-speculation, the Monday before next Sunday's postseason pairings.

Where is Iowa heading? Who are its possible bowl opponents? Fun, debatable, guessing-game stuff.

Out of duty, we'll have enough of that as the week progresses, the whole Outback/Gator/Insight deal. But right now, the concept of a bowl for the Hawkeyes seems more an obligation than a reward, like when Iowa took a 6-6 record to the Alamo Bowl three years ago.

Like Iowa, Penn State and Michigan are 7-5. They are probably the Big Ten's other two entrants in that Outback/Gator/Insight mix.

OK, that's enough about that for now.

Things happen so quickly in a football season, and often don't begin to make sense until long after the fact.

Even though it had two one-score losses, this Hawkeyes team looked like a genuine Top Ten team and more when it mauled Michigan State 37-6 on Oct. 30. On that day, Iowa looked like it could beat anyone in the nation. Maybe it could have.

Then came Oct. 31 and everything after. The last four games produced just one effort that was comparable to those given by last year's Hawkeyes, that a 20-17 loss to a terrific Ohio State team.

This was one of the worst on-field months for the Hawkeyes in the last 10 years. The three November performances Iowa gave against teams that range from nothing-special to not-good (Indiana, Northwestern, Minnesota)? Those weren't representative of the Iowa teams this year's seniors played for as sophomores and juniors.

In their last six games, the Hawkeyes played all three Big Ten co-champs. Their effort in those games was everything you would expect from a team in a big game. But the efforts in the three games against so-so foes? Not good.

So the Hawkeyes are 7-5, a bowl team like every other 7-5 team in America because everyone can pencil in a couple of nonconference cupcakes and there are 35 bowls.

But what does the next year or two hold for Iowa? Will the Hawkeyes of 2011 and 2012 have receivers, defensive linemen, safeties and a punter that are equal to the ones leaving this program five weeks from now? Will fourth-year juniors Marvin McNutt and Tyler Sash bypass another college season to start trying to earn NFL money?

Kirk Ferentz's stewardship of this program was doubted in many circles during the 2006-2007 dip in his program's fortunes. His status was back to exalted by 2009. This year is another official dip.

Will Ferentz steadfastly stand by the off-field and in-game philosophies and practices he has always held dear, or will their be any bend in the ways the Hawkeyes match wits with their Big Ten brothers?

Iowa is entering a division with Michigan, Michigan State and Nebraska. If the Hawkeyes are to get to one of those Big Ten title games that commence next year, they'll have to raise their game. For starters, you can't be in coin-flip games with the league's bottom-end teams.

Michigan State has a good, sound coaching staff led by Mark Dantonio. With a share of the Big Ten title on the line Saturday, the Spartans went to Penn State Saturday, jumped on Penn State early, and won where it had never before prevailed. That was impressive.

Michigan, if it sacks Rich Rodriguez and replaces him with Stanford's Jim Harbaugh, will be Michigan again sooner rather than later. What Harbaugh has built in four years at Stanford against big-time competition is one of the best coaching jobs anywhere in that time.

Then there's Nebraska, which merely is in the Big 12's championship game for the second-straight year.

There's so much to be said for having a consistent approach in all phases like Iowa does. It's been critical to the Hawkeyes' many successes in the last decade. This is, after all, a program that won a BCS bowl just 11 months ago.

When less-talented teams are exploiting that approach, though, something more than a token in-house review of the program is in order.