In the new era of the Big Ten, cross-country flights are now the norm to play conference games. Luckily, Iowa has not had to prepare for this sort of travel until Week 11.
But, it is upon the Hawkeyes now as they get ready to head west to take on the UCLA Bruins. After two home games, Iowa is taking their show out west and on a short week with kickoff on Friday night.
With the long flight, the short week, and all that goes into it, preparation and travel plans are big things for Iowa this week. Kirk Ferentz detailed how the Hawkeyes are handling that.
“Yeah, that’s probably the best comparative really. It’s different, now you’re going West Coast versus East Coast, but we’re probably handling it pretty much the same as we did that trip. We didn’t make a big deal of it. I told the team, when I was at Maine we drove to Rutgers, whatever that was, nine or ten hours, which we split up going down, but coming back it was a straight shot. So this is not exactly a big challenge that way. The weather will probably be a little better, too.
So we’re trying to minimize all that. It’s another away game. It is a short week, and we’ve had, I think, 11 of those since ’15. It just is what it is and it’s kind of part of college football nowadays,” Ferentz said in regards to how Iowa will handle the travel.
Fortunately, Iowa and their staff are no strangers to short weeks. Every season Iowa must handle a short week to end their season against Nebraska on Black Friday with Thanksgiving sandwiched in between.
This week has no holiday and sees Iowa traveling to a nice, warm destination in early November. While the flight might be a little longer than normal, the travel plans and logistics should be something Iowa handles with minimal issue.
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