IOWA CITY - Kirk Ferentz didn’t need the point spread to tell him Iowa State would make life difficult at Kinnick Stadium.
The Iowa coach said this week he had been listening to radio chatter about the Los Angeles Rams, a team many were already hyping as a super team before the season began. Then the Rams opened with a 27-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Australia.
“It's happened with some college teams already - when you've been anointed to do this, or you're favored, and they’ve got a bunch of new guys and all that,” Ferentz said. “Humans are humans, and they start hearing that stuff.”
That was the backdrop for Iowa’s 16-13 escape against the Cyclones on Sept. 12, a game that looked nothing like the blowout many had forecast. The Hawkeyes entered as a two-touchdown favorite and left with a hard-earned win, their first against Iowa State at Kinnick since 2018.
The matchup had been framed by memories of 2016, when Iowa rolled past a first-year Cyclones coach in Matt Campbell, 42-3, under the lights. But this version had a different feel from the start. With another first-year Iowa State coach, Jimmy Rogers, the Cyclones came in loose, aggressive and unafraid to test Iowa for 60 minutes.
That’s why Ferentz wasn’t shocked at all when the game turned into a grinder.
“This game was more like that 2016 North Dakota State game than the Iowa State game,” the piece noted, and the comparison fit: the Cyclones mixed in unusual offensive looks and a defense built to stuff the run, while Iowa had to survive a tense, physical fight to the finish.
“We knew it was going to be a tough battle," said Iowa linebacker Cam Buffington, who had 15 tackles. "Kudos to them. Good team.”
In the end, this one came down to the kick Iowa made rather than the kick it had to defend. Caden Buhr drilled a 42-yarder with 15 seconds left to break a 13-13 tie, and the Hawkeyes finally had the late answer.
For a young roster, that mattered.
“That's going to help us moving forward,” said linebacker Jayden Montgomery, one of only six scholarship fifth-year seniors on the team. “It's a good experience to have under our belt.”
Ferentz has been talking all week about what happens when a team loses 27 seniors and a program-record seven NFL Draft picks. His answer centered on perspective - and on resisting the temptation to define this group too early.
“I've been in situations where it works both ways where you have a veteran team that might be too veteran,” Ferentz said. “Then sometimes the beauty of maybe not being as veteran is you don't know any better. Like you should be … more worried about this week, but sometimes the guys are oblivious to that.
“My encouragement to them is no self-imposed ceilings. We acknowledge what we are and who we are, but don't put a limit on yourself because of that, because that's not the whole story.”
That message fits this team right now. Week 1, with 372 yards of offense in the first half against Northern Illinois, wasn’t the whole story. Neither was Week 2, when Iowa had only one play longer than 16 yards and didn’t run for anything longer than nine yards.
There’s still a long way to go, and the Hawkeyes seem to know it.
“We're just one team. We're one unit,” transfer wide receiver Tony Diaz said after catching eight passes for 95 yards.
“We don’t (have) separation. Everybody's bought in.
That's what I like about this program, about this team.”
Montgomery sounded the same note when asked about a younger roster that can still grow fast.
“As a lesser experienced team, you have a lot more room for growth,” Montgomery said. “That's been more of the mindset that we've taken.”
Quarterback Hank Brown is part of that growth curve, too. The second-year transfer from Auburn appears to have taken hold of the job after going wire-to-wire against Iowa State.
His day was uneven, but he completed 21 of 30 passes for 191 yards, including a needed 56-yard strike to Diaz after Iowa fell behind 10-0. He also got through 60 minutes in the Kinnick pressure cooker without a turnover, something the Hawkeyes will gladly take.
“We always find a way to win,” Brown said, “and we're resilient …. But we don't want to put ourselves in those types of positions all the time.”
Iowa’s next chance comes Sept. 19 against Northern Iowa at 3 p.m. on FS1, a game that should push the Hawkeyes to 3-0 in non-conference play. After that, the schedule that once looked brutal suddenly feels a little more navigable.
Michigan heads to Ann Arbor on Sept. 26, and the Wolverines have scored only 30 total points through two games, including six on a Hail Mary. Ohio State visits Iowa City on Oct. 3 after blowing a big lead in a 24-23 loss at Texas.
Washington travels to Seattle on Oct. 9 after edging Utah State, 17-16. Then Minnesota comes to Minneapolis on Oct. 24 after a bye week, following a 38-13 loss to Mississippi State in which it didn’t score an offensive touchdown.
That’s the window now for Iowa to do what Ferentz teams often do: improve, survive and keep stacking wins.
The idea isn’t new. The article pointed back to the 2009 Hawkeyes, a team that got out to a 9-0 start and seemed to arrive ahead of schedule, while the 2010 team with bigger expectations stumbled. Sometimes, Ferentz said, it helps to be young and a little naïve.
The really good teams find ways to win, even when things aren’t going great.
Iowa has one of those now. The question is how far it can go.
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