No finger wagging from the Hawkeyes camp

IOWA CITY — The No. 5 Hawkeyes are headed to the Rose Bowl for a matchup with No. 6 Stanford, so when Kirk Ferentz speaks now it's to the large world of college football.

The Rose Bowl comes with a little more magnification than . . . hmm, what's a good example . . . let's go with the TaxSlayer Bowl. Iowa was there just last season, so why not? Let's set that up for a comparison in magnitude.

OK, they don't compare. Or let's say they compare like the 2014 Hawkeyes, a 7-6 team that lost four of its last five games in painful and/or embarrassing manners, would with the 2015 Hawkeyes, who, you know, are 12-1 and in the Rose Bowl.

Given the chance to wag his finger during Sunday's Rose Bowl news conference, to savor the moment, to fling a barb back at the doubters who ranged from healthy skepticism to outright derision during Iowa's 12-0 season and run into the Big Ten championship game, Ferentz didn't care to engage it.

The view from above is that Iowa had a nice, little season and lost to Michigan State, 16-13, in an exhilarating but decidedly old school grunt of a B1G title game. And so, here's the Rose Bowl, good job, Iowa.

'Very close loss with arm stuck out with a football going over the goal line to lose that game,' College Football Committee chairman Jeff Long said. 'Holding them five was a strong sentiment of the committee. As you guys know, the Rose Bowl chooses the selection there. They chose Iowa and it makes a great matchup with Iowa and Stanford in the Rose Bowl.'

And then, ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit during the CFP telecast on ESPN, 'I had my questions about Iowa all year. It wasn't necessarily about them but it was more about who they have beaten and are they that good. I probably gained more respect [for them] in the Big Ten Championship than in the previous 12 games they played.'

Ferentz could say 'stuff it' here, but he didn't. The Hawkeyes' 12-0 season and effort that fell a yard short against No. 3 Michigan State last weekend in Indianapolis are the statement.

'I think this team's proven it week in and week out, going back to our first ballgame,' Ferentz said. 'Going into the game last night I certainly didn't feel compelled to defend our team for anything. I don't know why we would have to. They've played well. I was talking to somebody last night, I'm not sure I've been around a team that's not only prepared each week, but then that shows up and competes about as hard as you can compete 12 times.'

Let's pull the lens back a little farther. Last year after a disappointing 45-28 defeat at the hands of a nondescript Tennessee team (it was 6-6 going into the game) in the TaxSlayer Bowl, the Hawkeyes stood at 7-6 and with a million different questions and a million different doubters, many of whom lived in the 319 and 515 area codes, and whatever other area codes exist in the state of Iowa.

No one is raising their hand on this right now, but it's true and Iowa athletics director Gary Barta has the emails to prove it.

'Pretty quiet,' Barta said Sunday when asked how the email bonfire was crackling now compared to last year. 'My thousands and thousands of advisers from last year aren't sending me as much, which is probably typical of human nature.'

Barta is part of this, too, of course. Last December, he issued Ferentz a vote of confidence. At the time, it seemed like hope and a genuflection to the contract buyout that would've been in the $16 million range. Now, the only thing you can call it is pragmatic.

'We have great fans, they have great passion,' Barta said. 'We were all frustrated last year. There's a lot less frustration this year.'

No finger wagging from Barta, either. He invested heavily on Ferentz when he signed him to a 10-year contract extension at $4 million per year before the 2010 season. Last winter, the stock took a tumble. This year, the stock has everyone in signature series Mercedes and custom polos.

'No,' he said when asked if he'd like to take a victory lap. 'Am I thrilled we are where we are? Yes. Whenever you make a decision, you want it to be right. If it was wrong, I would've had to deal with that. I feel great the decision to stay with Kirk, which I felt strongly about, felt confident in, it worked out.'

Instead of any apologies or explanations from Ferentz last winter, you got a mission statement, which, incidentally, has been there from day 1. Ferentz reminded everyone that championships have been and always will be the goal and that 7-and anything is unacceptable.

No finger wagging from Ferentz on Sunday with his team having punched its ticket to Iowa's first Rose Bowl in 25 years. No finger wagging, even as Ferentz was named a finalist for two national coach of the year awards on Monday (Eddie Robinson Award, George Munger Award).

'We took a step back, there's no denying that, and we didn't finish well, be it the season, be it games,' Ferentz said of 2014. 'But we weren't that far off. That opened the door for us to look at things a little bit closer, make some more tweaks possible and just talk about some things. We made some adjustments, and to me this is a continuation of it.

'And we sit here right now, I think we won 27 games in the last three years, so to me it's another step forward and every step's hard, every step's a challenge and this next one in front of us will be a tough one, too, but we're just really pleased to be in this position.'

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