Trophies on the table for the Hawkeyes the next few weeks

A Big Ten West Division trophy might be on display at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. The thing is certainly up for grabs, with the No. 5 Hawkeyes holding a one-game lead and the tiebreaker over Wisconsin with two weeks left in the season.

If Iowa (10-0, 6-0 Big Ten) can handle its business against Purdue (2-8, 1-5) at Kinnick Stadium (11 a.m. kick on ESPN2), it wins the West for the first time in . . . OK, in just the second year of the West Division's existence.

This is the sixth year of Big Ten divisional play, by the way. It only feels like forever because of Legends and Leaders (which, for what it's worth, lasted just three seasons but just felt like a really long time because Legends and Leaders).

As of Monday, Iowa wouldn't confirm plans for a trophy presentation. As you can imagine, the approach is conservative. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz isn't into the celebration part, he's way embedded into the beat Purdue end of things. And, well, yes, beyond Purdue.

'We want to win it outright. That's our goal,” Ferentz said after Iowa's 40-35 victory over Minnesota on Saturday night. 'But to win the game next week and clinch a bid (in the Big Ten championship game), that would be fantastic. That will be our goal tomorrow. We'll turn our sights on our next opponent. There's nothing easy in the conference. I know that, but we'll worry about that tomorrow.”

An outright victory would take a win at Nebraska (5-6, 3-4) or a Wisconsin (8-2, 5-1) loss. The Badgers play host to Northwestern (8-2, 4-2) this week and then close at Minnesota (4-6, 1-5) in the Paul Bunyan Axe game. If Iowa loses one of its final two, it owns the tiebreaker over Wisconsin because of its 10-6 victory at Camp Randall Stadium on Oct. 3, the Big Ten opener for both schools.

Last weekend, the Hawkeyes claimed the Floyd of Rosedale traveling trophy with the victory over the Gophers. After an 0-for-4 in trophy games during 2014, the Hawkeyes have claimed the Cy-Hawk Trophy, the Heartland Trophy (Wisconsin) and the bronze pig. Iowa coughed up the Heroes Trophy against Nebraska last fall when it watched a 17-point second-half lead melt into an overtime defeat.

So, the trophy accounting goes Big Ten West this weekend, Heroes up for grabs on Black Friday at Nebraska and then, if the West is won, the Big Ten championship game Dec. 5 at Indianapolis.

Ferentz doesn't and maybe can't allow himself to look out the window and peer down the road that far. The players know they can't.

'It's cool, it's better to be in that situation than not in that situation,” Iowa QB C.J. Beathard said. 'We know that if we lose any of these next games, we're right back where we were. We have to continue to win. People care about us, we're undefeated and this and that, but the second we lose a game, we're nothing. We have to take it one game at a time.”

The last trophy presentation at Kinnick Stadium that wasn't a pig, bull, Cy-Hawk or a Hero was in 2004, when the Hawkeyes beat Wisconsin and claimed a share of the Big Ten championship.

This was a big moment, as you might imagine. Linebacker Chad Greenway was an all-Big Ten performer on that team. He's now a Minnesota Viking. Of course, Monday he was asked about his Hawkeyes toppling the hometown Gophers.

His thoughts traveled a little farther than that.

'Obviously, I'm super proud of the whole program,” said Greenway, a two-time all-Big Ten performer for Iowa. 'The way Coach Ferentz runs the program couldn't be done better, win, lose or draw. You say that in a season when they're 10-0, you say that in a season when they're 5-5. He just does things the right way. I can tell you, my five years there were as good a years I've ever had as far as just being around good football people, people who want to see guys do more and do better.”

During the Big Ten Network's broadcast Saturday night, a graphic ran that showed the number of 4- and 5-star recruits for the top five teams in the College Football Playoff rankings. Alabama, Ohio State and Notre Dame have 46, 51 and 42 4-stars, respectively. No. 1 Clemson has 28. Each team had a few 5-stars, with Alabama's 14 leading the way.

Iowa clocked in with eight 4-stars and zero 5-stars. This graphic screamed 'development,” which is the word Ferentz used on ESPN last year when asked to describe his program in one word.

Greenway was an unrated recruit coming out of Mount Vernon, S.D. He played quarterback. He is acutely aware of what Iowa does, how it works and what the real possibilities can be.

'They develop players down there, myself included, that come in as menial recruits and they develop into players that help them win Big Ten games, and I think they do that probably better than anybody in college football, because they're not going to get the 4- and 5-star recruits like everybody else,” Greenway said. 'A lot of kids don't want to go to the cornfields and play football. I'm just constantly impressed with the way they handle their business, and the way they bring guys in and develop them into the type of men that they want them to be. And that's really what it's about, harvesting boys into men down there. The end-all is not about winning football games down there; it's about doing things the right way.”

Depth Chart Monday . . .

- OT Ike Boettger made an appearance on the depth chart Iowa released on Monday. The sophomore tackle has been out of the lineup since Oct. 10 with a high-ankle sprain.

- LeShun Daniels and Jordan Canzeri are listed as co-starters at running back, with sophomores Akrum Wadley and Derrick Mitchell next.

Really, just like them all with slashes between their names.

- True freshman wide receiver Adrian Falconer made the depth chart of the first time.

- The CJB targeting system went like this last week: WR Matt VandeBerg 6 of 8, TE Henry Krieger Coble 3 of 6, TE George Kittle 5 of 5, WR Tevaun Smith 2 of 4, RB Derrick Mitchell 1 of 1, WR Riley McCarron 1 of 1, RB Jordan Canzeri 1 of 2.

In passes of 20-plus yards, Beathard hit 3 of 7 for 65 yards, with HKC grabbing two of those. In 10 to 20-plus, CJB was 2 of 3 for 42 yards with one to MVB and the other to Kittle. In throws of 10 or fewer yards, Beathard connected on 14 of 17 for 117 yards, with a pass that covered 5 air yards going to Smith, who broke a tackle for a 29-yard gain.

- Here is the formation breakdown:

12 (one back, two TEs): 32 (43 percent of Iowa's plays came out of this formation, that is probably a season high or very, very close to it.)

11 shotgun (one back, one TE): 18

11 (one back, one TE): 10

22 (two backs, two TEs): 10

21 (two backs, one TE): 4

23 (two backs, three TEs, short-yardage): 3

10 (one back, four WRs): 1

32 (three backs, two TEs, victory formation): 2

- One last observation from the Minnesota game: When Iowa won, it locked hands and did a slow swarm over to the Minnesota sideline to collect the pig. UM D-lineman Alex Keith stood in the way and seemed as though he was going to break the ranks and be a bleep about the whole thing.

I noticed Iowa assistant strength and condition coach Raimond Braithwaite was behind that spot in the swarm, you know, just in case it got weird.

I don't know what Keith's intentions were, but he did break the rank. Iowa Nos. 22 (either Angelo Garbutt or John Milani) and 50 (either Jacob Sobotka or Jackson Subbert) gave him a 'good job” congratulatory pat on the shoulder pads and the whole thing passed without incident.

I thought that was cool. Maybe Keith said good job, I don't know. I thought it was cool that Iowa players didn't receive it as an act of aggression.

Then again, the pig was theirs.

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