Doc's No. 2 -- 2004 at Penn State

This post coincides with a series on Kirk Ferentz's top 10 games during his Iowa tenure. Mike Hlas and Marc Morehouse also blog on this topic.

There's a familiar theme to this top 10 -- great Kirk Ferentz games go hand-in-hand with big Iowa victories against Penn State. But this one was personal for Ferentz.

Just days before, Ferentz buried his father, John, a western Pennsylvanian. Ferentz soldiered on, as he always does. The game itself was the ultimate Big Ten bloodbath. Iowa won 6-4 and even accepted a safety midway through the fourth quarter rather than risk a special teams touchdown or give Penn State better field position.

Iowa held Penn State to six first downs and less than 150 yards. The defense rallied around Ferentz, and the offense didn't lose the game. That's something special.