5 Things: Iowa football bye week edition

It's the bye week, and like most everyone, the Iowa football team can use it to get some guys healthy and address more than a few issues. The Hawkeyes enter at 4-2 and 1-2 in the Big Ten after snagging their first conference win against Illinois on Saturday.

In the meantime, let's look at some odds and ends through the first weeks in 5 Things: Bye week edition.

1. Breaking in the new QB

The first six weeks of Nate Stanley as the starting quarterback of the Hawkeyes has been solid, despite the hand-wringing over his missed long passes and the turnovers in his first few starts. Stanley won the job over Tyler Wiegers in fall camp, and has been handed the keys without very many limitations.

Through his first six starts, Stanley has thrown for 1,290 yards on 57.7 percent completion with 15 touchdowns and two interceptions. His five fumbles (four lost) are a concern, to be sure, but three of them came in the first game against Wyoming.

A few of his totals put him in the upper echelon of quarterbacks under Ferentz. He's best among Kirk Ferentz-recruited QBs in their first six starts (Kyle McCann, for example, was recruited and first started under Hayden Fry) in touchdown passes and interceptions and third in yards. Stanley is three touchdowns ahead of the next closest — Brad Banks (2002) and James Vandenberg (2009 & 2011) with 12 — and tied for fourth with four others at four wins in his first six.

Stanley even has a signature win already, piloting Iowa past Iowa State in overtime, engineering an 89-yard drive to send the game to into the extra frame. He went 4 of 5 for 78 yards on that drive, including the 46-yard touchdown pass to Akrum Wadley.

Ferentz had high marks for Stanley after the game on Saturday, and for good reason.

'He's doing an awful lot of good things, and I've felt like that for six weeks now,' Ferentz said. 'There's some things that we have to get ironed out, but he's really worked hard.

'With every experience he's doing some good things, he's making good throws. … We're really enthused about him, and we've got a lot of guys like him, talking about (Tristan) Wirfs and talking about Nate, that are younger as players and experience they go through is so valuable, so hopefully we can keep building.'

Iowa quarterbacks in first six starts             

2. After the bye

QB

Comp

Att

Percent

Pass yds

TD

INT

Carries

Yards

TD

Fumbles

Lost

W

L

James Vandenberg (2009-11)

112

186

60.2

1,445

12

5

29

-11

3

1

4

2

Drew Tate (2004)

112

170

65.9

1,341

9

6

41

-23

1

2

1

4

2

Nate Stanley (2017)

97

168

57.7

1,290

15

2

21

-30

5

4

4

2

C.J. Beathard (2014-15)

101

168

60.1

1,284

8

3

44

192

3

1

1

6

Jake Christensen (2006-07)

107

193

55.4

1,262

11

3

46

-18

1

3

2

3

3

Brad Banks (2002)

82

137

59.9

1,231

12

2

33

153

1

2

2

5

1

Jake Rudock (2013)

105

174

60.3

1,202

8

6

31

139

5

2

1

4

2

Ricky Stanzi (2008)

72

114

63.2

951

8

4

23

-14

5

2

4

2

Nathan Chandler (2003)

70

124

56.5

821

11

3

37

26

2

5

2

5

1

 

Conventional wisdom says any team coming off a bye week should be better-prepared and well-rested. Some coaches and programs are almost automatic out of a bye. Others don't see much of a trend.

The Hawkeyes under Kirk Ferentz fall into the latter category.

In Ferentz's first 18 seasons, Iowa is 6-7 following a bye week, with five years in which the Hawkeyes didn't have a bye week during the regular season (in 2002, 2006-07, 2009 and 2011 Iowa played 12 games without an off-week). Iowa got wins in 2001 (Penn State) after missing two weeks with a bye and the national off-week in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, 2004 (vs. No. 25 Ohio State), 2010 (at Michigan), 2012 (at Michigan State), 2014 and 2015 (vs. Indiana and Maryland).

The Hawkeyes head to Northwestern out of the bye week this season. The Wildcats lost to No. 3 Penn State, 31-7, on Saturday.

3. Favorite Ferentz-isms

On occasion, Kirk Ferentz news conferences can be less than exciting. That's not really breaking news. But. The longest-tenured head coach in college football drops in a few dimes every once in a while that either will make you raise an eyebrow or legitimately crack up. He's had a few good ones this year.

A totally unscientific ranking of the best Ferentz-isms this year:

'Q. I can't imagine he'd care too much, but what do you think about the Tigerhawk at the 50?

KIRK FERENTZ:

It looks good. I'll give you an opinion. Every now and then I will.'

'Q. Where do you think that narrative comes from; that one side (in the Iowa-Iowa State rivalry) cares more than the other?

KIRK FERENTZ:

I kind of found it insulting in some ways. You know, it's almost like you don't care. That's really insulting to say to anybody that competes in anything. I don't know, I guess I haven't jumped up and down. Have to do some jumping jacks or something, be a little bit more demonstrative out there.'

'Q. What was your vantage point in that 2015 (Big Ten championship) game, the last play? I don't think I've seen two teams grind as hard for one single play maybe? At one point it looked like Desmond King had him down at the three.

KIRK FERENTZ:

I got in trouble for saying this three years ago, but that's football. It's two teams competing like hell out there. They're going after it.'

'Q. Josey (Jewell) and Bo (Bower) have been playing together for a really long time now. What's it like having so much chemistry at linebacker?

KIRK FERENTZ:

Yeah, Bo looks older than Josey. He looks a little bit older than most of us, actually. I was teasing him about that. I think he might have an illegal road game contract. We're investigating that. Somebody probably will, now that I mentioned it.'

These are all quintessential Ferentz, and in a few of the cases, the best part is he directly acknowledges that fact. The Tigerhawk and 'that's football' responses were tongue-in-cheek with a nod to you all. The Iowa State response lit up Twitter.

The best one, though, was his poking fun at Bo Bower for being bald — and looking like a much older young man than he is.

4. It all comes back to 1985

Give a hat tip to Athlon Sports for this one. In Bryan Fischer's weekly 'Seven-Step Drop' column, he mentioned in his Stat(s) of the Week that Jay Norvell became the ninth member of the 1985 Hawkeyes to win an FBS game as a head coach. He joined Hayden Fry, Bill Snyder, Barry Alvarez, Dan McCarney, Kirk Ferentz, Bob Stoops, Chuck Long and Mike Stoops.

To expand on that a little:

That group of former players and coaches accounts for 1,026 FBS wins, with Ferentz (151), Snyder (205) and Norvell (1) the only three still active. The group also has 22 conference championships in the Southwest Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, Big Ten and Big 12 and one national championship (Bob Stoops with Oklahoma in 2000).

Fry still has the most wins at 232, but given Snyder is ageless, he could pass the Iowa legend in three or four years.

5. Against the spread

Betting Iowa this year has been a roller coaster. The Hawkeyes are 3-3 against the spread this season, covering against Wyoming (minus-12), Penn State (plus-13) and Illinois (minus-16) while failing to do so against Iowa State (minus-3.5), North Texas (minus-19.5) and Michigan State (plus-3.5). Those lines, by the way, come from here.

The most stressful among those, if you're a betting man or woman? By far it was North Texas. The Hawkeyes looked for sure like they weren't going to cover for most of that game, but with less than a minute to go in the game, Iowa found itself on the 2-yard line after nearly scoring a garbage-time touchdown. A field goal would've covered the spread. Instead, Ferentz ordered Nate Stanley to kneel on it, either breaking some hearts or providing painstaking relief, depending how you bet.

As for the over/unders, it should come as almost no surprise that Iowa has not been a part of too many overs this year. Only the Iowa State game (O/U of 49, 44-41 final score) and Illinois (O/U 42.5, 45-16 final score) hit the over.

Basically, all of that translated: don't bet the Hawkeyes games. You know, if gambling were legal.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com