Iowa believes loss to Penn State ‘not a reflection’ of offense although history may suggest otherwise

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The dissatisfaction with No. 24 Iowa football’s 31-0 loss to No. 7 Penn State was obvious.

Quarterback Cade McNamara called it a “tough pill to swallow.”

Head coach Kirk Ferentz said it was a “disappointing game” and “disappointing outcome.”

McNamara also believes “with my whole heart” that the 2023 Hawkeyes are better than how they played Saturday night.

“I can promise you that this is not a reflection of our team,” McNamara said after the loss. “We will be better because of this.”

On one hand, Saturday’s game was just one game against a highly-ranked Penn State team that could contend for a Big Ten title and a College Football Playoff bid.

On the other hand, the magnitude of the loss — the 31-point margin along with not scoring at all — is not encouraging, especially when looking back at Iowa’s history during the Ferentz era.

Saturday’s loss was the first time Iowa had been shut out since 2000 — when Iowa suffered a 31-0 loss against a Ron Turner-led Illinois team that finished 5-6. Iowa went 3-9 in that season.

The only time the Ferentz-led Hawkeyes suffered a 25-plus-point loss in the regular season and went on to win 10 games was in 2004. The Hawkeyes lost by 37 to Arizona State, yet finished the season with an 11-2 record.

The other seven seasons with at least one 25-point-plus defeat in the regular season never ended with a record above 8-5.

When the Hawkeyes suffered losses of that magnitude in 2022, 2016 and 2014, they finished 8-5, 8-5, 7-6, respectively. Going farther back, the 2005 and 2007 seasons ended with 7-5 and 6-6 records. The 1999 and 2000 seasons — Ferentz’s first two seasons as head coach — had four wins combined.

Other factors obviously have an impact on the record as well. Iowa’s defensive success and the Big Ten West’s weaker composition are reasons for optimism in 2023.

While historically bad, Saturday’s lack of offense is not a total surprise.

The last time Iowa faced a top-five team on the road, the offense did not fare well either. The Hawkeyes had 158 total yards of offense in their 54-10 loss to then-No. 2 Ohio State last year. (Seven of the 10 points were because of a defensive touchdown.)

This time, Iowa had 76 yards in a 31-point loss to Penn State. Instead of 2.2 yards per carry against the 2022 Buckeyes, Iowa had 1.2 yards per carry against the 2023 Nittany Lions.

Moving forward, Ferentz remains optimistic about the offense’s direction.

“We got quality guys,” Ferentz said. “We’ve made improvement. I think we’re doing a lot of things really well. Not tonight necessarily.”

Asked if he saw any schematic issues with what Iowa is doing offensively, Ferentz said Iowa is “not going to create a new playbook.”

“I’m not a wholesale believer in changing because you had a bad game,” Ferentz said. “It was not a good game today. I think we made progress in three weeks.”

Iowa indeed had a season-high 254 rushing yards against Western Michigan. But the offensive improvement was against teams that did not have high outside expectations going into the season, however.

The Mountain West preseason poll picked Utah State to finish eighth out of 12 teams. The Big 12 preseason poll picked Iowa State to finish 10th out of 14 teams. The Mid-American Conference, meanwhile, projected Western Michigan to finish last in its west division.

Then against what will likely be Iowa’s toughest regular-season opponent, the outcome was much different.

“Tonight was a disappointment,” Ferentz said. “We played a really good football team. We’ll keep it in perspective.”

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com