During his Tuesday media availability, Iowa football head coach Kirk Ferentz spoke on the many lessons the team has learned since their Week 8 32-20 loss vs. Michigan State from East Lansing, Michigan.
Ferentz mentioned that losses like the one against the Spartans are all about learning and becoming a better team as a whole through exploited flaws.
“Yeah, it’s all about learning, and every season — every moment teaches you something typically,” Ferentz said. “The bottom line is the week wasn’t good enough prior to Michigan State in retrospect, and certainly what we did in that game — you’re not going to win a lot of Big Ten games playing the way we played. It is what it is. We own that film. Your film is your resume.”
For the Hawkeyes, the 39 missed tackles were a major factor in the Spartans’ ability to accrue 468 yards of offense against a typically sound Iowa defense.
Ferentz continued by stating the loss to Michigan State allowed the team to ‘look at the mirror’ and praised his group for responding positively the following week.
“The question is was that one of those nights, was that one of those learning experiences, or is it going to be a tendency or a trend. Everybody has got a choice there,” Ferentz said.
“I give our guys credit. They got back on their feet. I think we were better focused and came up with a win the next week and then came back to work following that and had the right focus and moved forward.”
Ferentz finished by explaining that every season is different and team success is ultimately determined by how players can persevere through the ups and downs of a season.
“But the season is full of twists and turns,” Ferentz added. “I say it every year; you just never know what they’re going to be or when they’re going to happen. It’s really a matter of how can you navigate through the ups and the downs. The downs are hard, but it’s part of what we do, so you’ve got to be able to deal with it.”
Iowa (6-3, 4-2 Big Ten) will look to maintain its momentum on Friday when the team travels to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, to take on UCLA (3-5, 2-4 Big Ten). Game time is set for 8:05 p.m. CT and will air on Fox.
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