After six games have gone into the record books, Iowa (3-3, 1-2 Big Ten) looks about like most thought the Hawkeyes just might.
Offensively, it’s still a chore for this team to move the football and to score points. Defensively, Iowa once again looks like one of the Big Ten and nation’s best. The hope is that some form of offensive changes happen during the bye week, but don’t hold your breath on any of that.
After the Hawkeyes’ latest contest, a 9-6 loss at Illinois, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz addressed what the immediate message was that he shared with his team entering the bye week.
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve got six tough opponents and that’s something that came up this week. There was a headline about, you know, all of a sudden this looks like a tough game. And I just told our players, I said that—and it’s no offense to anybody, but it’s just kind of a reflection of the way people look at the world. They already know in the offseason who’s going to be good and who isn’t.
“Football unravels itself and the seasons unravel themselves. My message to our team was that you shouldn’t be judging anybody until you start preparing for those people and see what they actually look like at that given time. So, we’re sitting here right now. We’re 3-3. We’ve got a week to figure things out best we can. We’re not going to get, you know, cavalry’s not coming, so we’ll try to figure out what we can do and do more effectively and then brace up for the next six weeks. But, we knew they were all going to be tough and that’s how I look at it moving forward. We do have some strengths on our team. We’re going to have to shore up whatever weaknesses we have and see what we can do. It’s a new six-game season and we’ll just take it a week at a time,” Ferentz said.
Iowa returns to action on Oct. 22 at 11 a.m. CT on FOX when it travels to Ohio State.
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