The 2010 Hawkeyes were a different kind of cat (+ Minnesota box score, final regular-season stats)

MINNEAPOLIS -- Kirk Ferentz is correct when he says this isn't a 2006-type of situation.

The 2006 Hawkeyes were the "fat cats," an adjective the Iowa coach pulled out after a crushing 21-7 loss to Northwestern at Kinnick Stadium. When the '06 Hawkeyes lost, they lost decisively, for the most part.

If the '06 Hawkeyes were "fat cats," the '10 Hawkeyes are "flat cats." On several different fronts, from the beginning of Saturday's 27-24 loss at Minnesota -- a Gophers team that was 2-9 with an interim coach going into a trophy game -- to the all-too-familiar fourth-quarter collapse, the "flat cats" sticks.

"It's probably been a little different story each and every week," Ferentz said. "The bottomline is we didn't finish well in November, that's for sure." 

Since an inspiring 37-6 victory over Big Ten co-champion Michigan State on Oct. 30 at Kinnick, the '10 Hawkeyes (7-5, 4-4 Big Ten) have gone flat.

A phantom victory at Indiana is the only thing that kept 2010 from totally reliving the 6-6 regular-season finish of 2006. All five of Iowa's losses ended with a fourth-quarter collapse, including consecutive collapses against Northwestern, Ohio State and now Minnesota (3-9, 2-6), which also included the front-end flatness of the Northwestern game.

"The bottomline is they outplayed us right from the start," Ferentz said. "Whatever that means, they took the ball and drove it and next thing you know, it's 10-nothing. They drove it two times and we didn't do anything with it."

So, some bowl is going to get "flat cats," a team that's lost three straight with its last victory coming nearly a month ago on a dropped pass at Indiana.

Going into Saturday, Iowa athletics director Gary Barta believed the Hawkeyes might've been in line for the Outback Bowl with a victory.

Barta pointed to Iowa's TV ratings versus Penn State this season, saying Iowa bettered PSU in that area. Iowa also holds the head-to-head 24-3 victory over Penn State, but the Nittany Lions have won five of their last seven compared to Iowa's losses in four of its last six.

Penn State's best argument to Outback is it hasn't been there since 2007 (a 20-10 victory over Tennessee) and Iowa was just there in 2009 (a 31-10 victory over South Carolina). It would be Iowa's fourth Outback trip since 2004. Penn State has been to the Tampa bowl game just three times since 1996.

The Lions finished 7-5 after a 28-22 loss to Michigan State. Michigan also finished 7-5 could be a factor for Iowa to contend with if the Gator Bowl comes into play.

The Wolverines lost five of their final seven and coach Rich Rodriguez is in the crosshairs, but UM has quarterback Denard Robinson, one of the most electrifying players in football who also happens to be from Deerfield Beach, Fla. Plus, UM hasn't been to a bowl since 2007.

The Gator Bowl is in the first year of a Big Ten tie-in. Iowa was last there in 1983 (a 14-6 loss to Florida).

“I have a pretty good sense . . . with a win today . . . it would be the Outback Bowl,” Iowa AD Gary Barta said on the pregame radio. “But don't discount the Gophers. The pig means a lot to them.”

Outback and Gator scouts were at Michigan State-Penn State on Saturday, checking out the Lions. The Gator hasn't scouted Iowa this season. The Outback had a pair of reps at Kinnick for the Ohio State game.

Here's the pitch for interested bowl reps:

"We've got a lot of work to do, we've got a lot of improving to make," Ferentz said of the team mission statement for December. "I guess if there's only one good thing or maybe two that came out of today, we'll still go to a bowl and we'll have plenty to do this month because we're in need of a lot of improvement right now."

One more good thing, there were no bowl scouts at TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday.

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