Field position landed on the Hawkeyes

EAST LANSING, Mich. — You can tell when a coach is having fun in the postgame. Of course, the fun only happens after a victory.

So, Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio was having a blast talking about his punter Jake Hartbarger after the Spartans' 17-10 victory Saturday over the Hawkeyes.

'I've been waiting for a couple years when he was a redshirt freshman and redshirt sophomore for him to start punting like he's going to the fair,' Dantonio said.

The fair? What fair has punting?

'When you go the fair and everything is going well for you, you have a lot of confidence that you can shoot the hoops,' Dantonio said. 'You go over and pitch a penny. You can do all these different things and you can just enjoy going out there punting.'

That pretty well described Hartbarger's day.

He punted five times and all five pinned the Hawkeyes inside their 20-yard line. In the first half, when field position was quietly making and breaking this game, Hartbarger punts forced the Hawkeyes to start at their 9, 8 and 8.

'When the offense isn't getting points or production, it comes to us,' Hartbarger said. 'So as a punting unit, we have to think about where we are going to put the ball and put it inside the 10-yard line.'

This was an Iowa and Michigan State game. Dantonio and Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz believe in the power of the line of scrimmage and are perfectly satisfied with a drive that chews four minutes off the clock and ends with a punt that wins field position.

The flip side to that was Iowa's punting. Those three first quarter drives that Iowa started inside its 10 went nowhere. The playbook shrinks to something that would fit underneath a bottle cap from inside your 10. The fact that this was Iowa at Michigan State magnified that principle 10 fold.

All three of those drives were three-and-outs. Iowa sophomore punter Colten Rastetter was forced to punt from around his own end zone all three times. He went into Saturday 10th in the Big Ten at 40.3 yards a punt.

Forced to punt from the 6, Rastetter got off a 36-yarder. Michigan State started at Iowa's 31 and took a 14-0 lead 10 plays later. Forced to punt from Iowa's 3 in the second quarter, Rastetter had a 33-yarder. Iowa's defense minimized the damage and held the Spartans to a 38-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead.

In Rastetter's defense, when you punt from your 3, you're already half dead.

'What we're going to have to do is move the ball out so we can chance field position,' Ferentz said. 'They did a better job of that, especially in the first half. I thought that was the story of the first half.'

Weird twist of fate time: Hartbarger averaged 38.6 yards a punt vs. Iowa. Rastetter, who's in his first year on the job, averaged 37.8 yards. Ferentz was asked last week if he was happy with punting.

He was asked again after Saturday.

'We didn't move the ball, we didn't punt the ball as well as we need to,' Ferentz said. 'With a young punter, you're going to have to ride the roller coaster a little bit. We'll assess that this week like we'll assess a lot of things.

'We'll keep an open mind. I've got an open mind at every position. We're only five games into this right now.'

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com