It seems a war of words is upon us days after the game itself has been decided. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz was asked about the recent drama and debate focusing on Iowa’s fans booing Penn State players who were injured at various points during the Week 6 matchup between the Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions. While Ferentz didn’t come right out and accuse Penn State players of taking a dive to slow things down when Iowa was on offense, he did go to bat for the Iowa faithful suggesting Iowa fans are not stupid.
Iowa fans were regularly booing every Penn State injury during the game, feeling the Nittany Lions were actively attempting to slow Iowa’s snail-paced offense to a crawl after potentially big gains. The boos grew louder and louder as the game went on and more and more Penn State players were getting banged up.
Ferentz noticed a number of Penn State players returned to the field rather quickly (which happens plenty of times during every college football game) but did recognize there were some significant injuries Penn State experienced, including defensive lineman PJ Mustipher and quarterback Sean Clifford.
But Ferentz said Iowa fans aren’t stupid and they smelled a rat in Penn State.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said he felt bad for Penn State’s players who were legitimately injured but said fans who booed other so-called injuries “aren’t stupid” and “they smelled a rat.”
Ferentz said only one other time did he suspect an opponent took dives to stop momentum.— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) October 12, 2021
Lots of talk about Penn State taking extra time, faking injuries against Iowa. Here's Kirk Ferentz's full statement on the situation from Saturday. pic.twitter.com/pubi5XYbiJ
— Mr. SOUNDOFF (@johnsears) October 12, 2021
Penn State head coach James Franklin did not take kindly to Iowa’s fans booing his injured players and sternly said Iowa does not have the type of offense faking injuries would typically come into play. And to this point, no video evidence has been made available suggesting Penn State players were being instructed to fall to the ground after a play to draw an injury timeout.
So, for now, this is all nothing more than a coaching version of verbal jockeying for a position. There is no evidence one way or the other and each side will believe what they want to believe.
Unfortunately for Penn State, the only way to get the last word on this will be t face Iowa for a second time in the Big Ten Championship Game.