Better to be running to the trophy than getting out of the way

The moments after a football game aren't the time for any real reflection. The bumps and scratches are still red and warm, and who knows where the rage it takes to play the game goes in the immediate seconds after the clock is four zeroes.

The NFL and BCS have a mandatory 10-minute cooling off period that allows players and coaches to get themselves correct, physically and most definitely mentally.

The wires are exposed. The synapses are snaking through the brain looking for somewhere to ground. These are the moments of half-cocked infamy.

Where, maybe, a defensive lineman walks up to a coach during the postgame handshake and tells him how great it's been beating him for four years (see Iowa-era Bret Bielema and Iowa State Jim Walden). Or perhaps, a running back with massive personality issues floors a defensive lineman with a right hook (see Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount and Boise State D-lineman Byron Hout).

And just what kind of handshake was 49ers' coach Jim Harbaugh trying to execute with the Detroit Lions' coach Jim Schwartz? The Magic Flying Handshake of Doom?

So, you can imagine the moments after losing a trophy game are uneasy even for the most centered football soul. You lose. The scratches on your neck are just starting to sting (anyone who plays on the line of scrimmage has scratches on their neck). You just lost a rivalry game with a trophy at stake.

And they're coming to get it.

"It's like a slap in the face," Iowa running back Marcus Coker said. "You start thinking about what you could've done. We just should've gone out there ready to play and none of that would've happened."

The Hawkeyes (5-2, 2-1 Big Ten) have had to simply get out of the way in their last three trophy games. Last season against Wisconsin in Iowa City, the Badgers snatched the Heartland Trophy bull off the Iowa sideline.

"It's not the greatest feeling in the world," quarterback James Vandenberg said. "You just kind of want to get out of the way."

Then in last season's finale, the Minnesota Golden Gopher (1-6, 0-3) stole away the Floyd of Rosedale bronze pig trophy for the first time in three seasons. When Iowa visited Minnesota in basketball last winter, there was a sign on the Williams Arena door that offered fans a chance to have their picture taken with Floyd.

"It wasn't a good feeling at all," defensive tackle Mike Daniels said.

In week 2, Iowa State plundered the Iowa sideline after laying claim to the interim Cy-Hawk Trophy. The Cyclones and fans eventually tore apart interim Cy-Hawk. A "one for you and one for you" kind of deal.

"It's just a terrible feeling," offensive tackle Markus Zusevics said. "We felt that this year against Iowa State. It's a terrible feeling, knowing there are plays out there and you probably didn't play your best. It just hurts."

Reserve wide receiver Nick Nielsen got caught in the wash and maneuvered a few Cyclones out of the way. Same thing happened to Jordan Bernstine when he was a freshman in 2007. Iowa lost, Cyclones ran to the sideline and Bernstine, then a true freshman, got in a minor skirmish trying to get away from it all.

"As an older guy, you have to know to get out of there," Bernstine said. "That was my first trophy game. I was kind of caught in the middle of the moment. You've just got to get out of there."

That's 0-for-3 in their last three trophy games. The Hawkeyes have the "get out of the way" technique down. Saturday, the Hawkeyes have a chance to go get one back. Floyd will be on the Minnesota sideline for the first time since the '07 matchup, when the Gophers claimed the pig with a 34-24 victory in '06.

"I have no plans of giving away that pig," Minnesota defensive end Ben Perry said this week. "I want to keep it.”

As far as the "insult to injury" factor goes, is a trophy run inviting the opportunity for something unseemly? Fights are all over the map in college football this season. The grandaddy of them all for at least this year was UCLA at Arizona on Oct. 20. The sidelines emptied and 10 players where suspended by the Pac-12 Conference.

There wasn't even a trophy at stake. A streaker set it off, for whatever reason.

The Big Ten has a trophy game nearly every week. So far, so good on the "getting out of the way" formation. Maybe the Big Ten offers plenty of opportunities for every team to at least have a plan.

"With this conference, I don't think it'll ever happen," Iowa cornerback Shaun Prater said when asked if the hostility could lead to an altercation. "Our coaches stress character and all that stuff, so I don't think it would ever happen. In this conference, everyone wants good character and good guys playing on Saturdays."

There is a more logical reason to avoid sideline ugliness. It's called the 60 minutes leading up to the sideline rush. That's every team's chance to have a say and set the starting blocks for a trophy dash.

"You control yourself by rationalizing it," Zusevics said. "'Hey, if you didn't want this feeling, you should've done something during the game. You're not going to be a tough guy after the game. If you wanted to do something about it, you should've done it during the game.'

"Simple as that."

Of course, what's the logic in a football fight? They're wearing helmets.

"Fights are useless anyway, so we don't want any of that stuff going on," guard Adam Gettis said.

Have you caught on to the fact that the horde coming to take the trophy is a bad feeling?

"It's the worst feeling and it's something you'll always remember and that you hope you never feel again," Iowa wide receiver Marvin McNutt said. "You don't want to be a part of it."

Seriously.

"It's just a sucky feeling all the way around," senior defensive end Broderick Binns said.

It's hard to imagine a Big Ten world without trophy runs. So much spontaneity has been taken out of the game, the players kind of need this release, or any release.

It's not something you can choreograph. The main theme from Iowa players polled for this was keeping it respectful.

But first things first.

"First thing we have to do is win to have a chance to create some hostility," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. ". . . I hope we have that issue. Not that issue, but . . ."