Hlas: Are Hawkeyes ready to capture relevance?

You shouldn't look to others for validation. They don't know what's in your head and your heart.

The same applies to college football teams, although I don't know if that head/heart thing applies. The latest coaches' poll — determined by coaches, presumably — has Utah ranked 12th in the nation.

The Utes are 4-0, they beat Michigan, and they won at Oregon by the awesome score of 62-20. Going strictly by performance, no one in the nation has accomplished more.

It's like everything else these days. It's all about brands. Utah isn't a national brand. It can't be No. 1 right now because it's ... Utah.

Bringing it all back home, the 4-0 Iowa Hawkeyes are unranked. There's no cause for complaint about that from their camp, because they haven't played a Michigan or Oregon.

But if Oregon had played the Hawkeyes' schedule and was 4-0, the Ducks would be firmly encamped in the Top Ten.

Oregon has a brand. Iowa doesn't. Oregon, 2-2 after that horrific home loss to the Utes, still managed to be voted No. 25 in this week's coaches' poll. Even the coaches can't get past branding to dwell on results.

However, a 12-game regular-season lets you prove yourself instead of leaving it to others to judge. The Hawkeyes have all the opportunity for validation they could want this season. Especially Saturday.

It's a game at Wisconsin, No. 18 in the coaches' poll despite having beaten no one who resembles a quality team. That's because it's Wisconsin, with three division-titles in the last four years and three Rose Bowl trips in the last five.

Now that's a brand.

Iowa has groped brand-less in the wilderness since late in the 2010 season when it was booted out of the national rankings. It has yet to return.

Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew, when the Hawkeyes had a brand. A strong one. In four different stretches between 2002 and 2010, Iowa spent at least 12 straight weeks in Associated Press' rankings. They were in 25 consecutive Top 25s from early in the 2009 season until their 2010 flameout.

Then came the rut from which the Hawkeyes are one big move Saturday from escaping. Wisconsin is 71-7 at home since the start of the 2004 season. If Iowa makes that 71-8, it goes straight into the national rankings.

But that would be the mere cherry on the top of a Wisconsin frozen custard sundae. Everybody knows what's really at stake Saturday and what really matters. It isn't validation. It is the result.

Win at Wisconsin, Iowa, and you replace the Badgers as the team to beat in the Big Ten West. Win at Camp Randall Stadium and you've shown up Minnesota, which has an 11-game losing streak against the Badgers. Beat Wisconsin, and you've shown up Nebraska, which was outscored by a total of 129-55 in its 2012 and 2014 games there.

Win, and you have a connection with the 2002 and 2009 Hawkeye teams that opened their Big Ten seasons with big road wins on their way to the Orange Bowl.

The '02 team formally introduced itself to the nation with a 42-35 overtime win at No. 12 Penn State. The '09 Hawkeyes leapt into the national football consciousness with a commanding 21-10 prime-time victory at No. 4 Penn State.

The Big Ten hasn't scheduled the Hawkeyes many games this year in which they can raise the eyebrows of American football followers. There is no Ohio State or Michigan State.

If the Hawkeyes come up short against the Badgers, they stay unranked and unnoticed. But if they prevail, the narrative of Iowa football under Kirk Ferentz will change. Again.