Iowa hosting Wyoming team brimming with 'unfinished business' mentality

IOWA CITY — Last season, when North Dakota State came to Kinnick Stadium and left with a win, the Bison did so with an attitude. The Bison, winners of five straight national championships headed into that game, feared no one.

That attitude was born under the head coach who led them to their first FCS national title: current Wyoming head coach Craig Bohl.

So it stands to reason that a Bohl-led team would have a similar mentality. Adding in the fact that their quarterback has every manner of hype a quarterback can have while returning to campus having spurned the NFL Draft and the Hawkeyes certainly won't have a cakewalk Saturday.

'Ever since I decided to come back, Sept. 2 is all I've looked forward to,' said Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen. 'We're eager. It's a want this team has, understanding we lost four of our last five games last year. That's not acceptable. It's been eating at our stomachs ever since. We're ready to get on the field and show the world what we can do.'

Unfinished business is generally the reasoning when a potentially draftable talent returns to school. Akrum Wadley is an example of that as well.

But Allen's profile clearly has only grown to a national scale and his talent even prompted Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz to remark, 'I don't know who scheduled this one,' in some form or another more than once.

Allen's success under center might not have been predicted — it's well-covered how he was sparsely recruited both out of high school and junior college — but success under Bohl has come in unexpected ways before, like those Bison championships.

Having a quarterback achieve this level of notoriety and individual success is part of a larger building process Bohl has set in place. After overseeing the transition from Division II to Division I FCS at NDSU, Bohl won a national title in his eighth season leading the program. He's in his fourth season at Wyoming and coming off a year in which the Cowboys went 8-6 with a loss in the Poinsettia Bowl.

Players like Allen and his success lend credence to that process.

'There's a bad taste in a lot of our guys' mouths,' Bohl said. 'We did some special things last year, but we ended with a couple losses that were not very enjoyable — and that's putting it lightly. Josh's last pass was a pick. He didn't want his legacy left with his last pass being a pick. That notes that this team has unfinished business, that they're hungry, they're confident, but they recognize we have some more wins to get under our belt.'

The wrinkle for Wyoming on Saturday is recent history.

Last season, the Cowboys went to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Neb., and essentially got ran out of the stadium in a 52-17 loss to Nebraska. Allen went 16 of 32 for 189 yards, one touchdown and five interceptions (which counted for 1/3 of all his picks for the season). Wyoming managed 320 total yards on offense and had six total turnovers, adding a lost fumble to Allen's interceptions.

Iowa presents every bit the same challenge Nebraska did, if not more. The Hawkeyes will be without starting cornerback Manny Rugamba, meaning Josh Jackson and Michael Oujimedia get the work on the outside, while Miles Taylor and Jake Gervase survey up top. But it's in the front seven where Allen likely will be kept busy.

Defensive coordinator Phil Parker was bolder than he's been in ages in calling the Hawkeyes' front seven the best he's seen since he's been the coordinator at Iowa, and Allen and Co. didn't exactly disagree with the sentiment.

Allen highlighted Rugamba's absence as a point of focus for the Cowboys' offense. Being able to 'take the easy throws and take what they give us,' is their plan, he said. He also said he knows, from experience, what a Big Ten defense can bring. After what happened at Nebraska, 'staying calm and composed the whole game,' is the key.

Wyoming has the same roots of confidence and expectation NDSU had last year. What remains is if Iowa can snuff out that, and Allen's tremendous talent with a talented group of their own.

'I've watched that defense and they're where they're supposed to be, they play with great passion and great pad level,' Bohl said. 'For us, to give Josh time is to get ourselves out of third and long. You do that by running the ball, which is going to be a tough challenge for us to not become one-dimensional.

'We're going to need to be somewhat unpredictable.'

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