Iowa Hawkeyes Football

The discomfort and disconnect of Iowa fans toward Kirk Ferentz's pro-style, run-heavy offense is not new. Their displeasure in the form of football last popular in the 1980's has been roundly criticized for years.

Interestingly—but not surprisingly—the issue comes to the forefront most often when the Hawkeyes are having something less than a spectacular season. In other words, when it's working, no one is upset with it, but when it fails, it's the devil's game.

In the wake of disheartening losses to Iowa State, Central Michigan and a thorough thumping at the hands of Penn State, the voices have grown even louder. I myself have been highly critical of Coach Ferentz and his crew of assistant coaches.

So, as we contemplate Iowa's upcoming trip to Evanston, Illinois to take on a team that has been a thorn in the Hawkeyes' side for years, I'm compelled to address the question head-on.

Does Kirk Ferentz's offensive system work or is it outdated?

It works when the right people do the right things.

That's the simplest answer in a nutshell. Yes, it does work.

While Iowa is struggling through some horrible losses and while the immediate future of the team looks somewhat bleak, it was working just a couple of weeks ago. It worked for the most part last year and it worked pretty well in 2010 too.

Iowa's win in East Lansing was no fluke. Sure, Michigan State may not have played their best game and they made mistakes that ultimately cost them the game. That's just football.

The fact that Iowa was in that game to the very end is indicative of the fact that Ferentz's system can work and work well.

Beating No.12 Michigan last year was no fluke. Playing No.7 Wisconsin down to the wire and beating No.14 Michigan State in 2010 weren't flukes.

Those games were the result of a system working the way it was designed to work. That's the key and the core problem the Hawkeyes are having right now. They aren't performing the system the way it was designed.

In fact, they haven't been for a few years now—not consistently, at least.

A Pro system is centered around play at the lines. It requires an offensive line that can create good running lanes and then turn around and protect the passer for long stretches of time. If they do their job correctly, just about anyone can run the football for positive gains and can do it down after down.

Just about any quarterback can look like a star under this system. If the line does its job, receivers should have plenty of time to get open and the quarterback should have plenty of time to find them.

However, that's also part of the system that isn't working right now. A Pro system also requires receivers that run clean routes, know how to get open and can go up into the air to snag passes. Most importantly, they have to catch what's thrown their way.

Iowa has had a big problem this year with receivers failing to get cleanly open, failing to come down with the ball as well as with the quarterback failing to put the ball where the receivers can catch it.

We could get into the whole defensive argument, but that's for another time. Suffice to say that Iowa isn't putting up the best defensive numbers in the Big Ten, but they're not putting up the worst either.

A Pro style offense is dependent upon every player being able to do their job and do it correctly. One weak link in the armor and the whole system can come apart.

Every system is like that, honestly. You'd have a hard time running a successful spread offense with players built and trained to operate the Pro system. Just ask Rich Rodriguez.

Some systems though, can be operated even when the parts and pieces aren't all there. Not the Pro system. It's too fickle to handle deficiencies well.

Iowa's problem isn't the system. Iowa's problem is that the players aren't operating that system the way it's designed.

Some of that is the coaches' faults. Some of it is due to injury and some of the blame resides with the players themselves. But the system is fine and it can work.

Don't believe me?

Alabama largely runs a Pro style system that isn't at all unlike Iowa's. They just do it much better. Stanford runs a system almost identical to Iowa's. Michigan State, Nebraska and Wisconsin all run a Pro system. Boise State runs a Pro system. USC runs a Pro system.

The difference between Iowa and all of those teams is that they run it better than Iowa does right now. They have (or had in the case of Boise State) enough depth to sustain injuries and keep winning. They have strength at the lines that allow the rest of the system to work.

They just do it better.

Now if you want to blame the coaching staff for not having the players better prepared for the games, be my guest. However, please don't blame the system. There are several highly successful teams around the country that run the very same system and have continued success.

If you Think the Pro style is outdated, talk to the teams that run the Option.

So, Georgia Tech hasn't had so much success the last couple of years. Navy isn't a national powerhouse.

Still, both of those teams run option attacks and the option dates back even longer than the Pro style. American football is derived from Rugby and the forward pass wasn't even a part of the original game.

The spread offense, so loved these days, often implements elements of the option attack.

Really, no style goes completely out of date. While the option attack isn't exactly a mainstay in college football as a base offensive system, Georgia Tech used it to great success for a number of years. Nebraska used to use a version of it under Tom Osbourne and won national titles.

Again, it all depends on the players. If the players understand what they're supposed to do and execute their assignments successfully, it will work.

Iowa's system is no different. It isn't the sexiest offense, but you can't say it isn't used fairly widely in college football and to great success. Iowa isn't using it to great success, but the system itself is viable and current.

The real problem is the play-calling.

If Iowa's system can work and it isn't really outdated, then why have the Hawks lost embarrasing games to Iowa State, Central Michigan and Penn State? What are fans really upset about?

They're upset that the plays being called are ill-timed and far too conservative. That's not a systemic issue, that's a coaching issue.

I was very highly critical of former offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe. It seemed to me that O'Keefe was exceptionally predictable in his play calling.

Wouldn't you know though, that as O'Keefe went to Miami to help the Dolphins, Greg Davis came to Iowa from Texas and has done the very same thing. The offense is predictable, the player depth isn't available and Iowa is struggling.

It has then become clear that the problem isn't at the OC position. It's at the Head Coach position.

Kirk Ferentz apparently loves predictability. Either that, or he doesn't understand how to effectively mix the play calling to throw off opposing defenses.

It's no secret that Ferentz is risk-averse. It's also no secret that he prefers a straight forward attack in all phazes of football and expects the players to perform at the highest level.

Iowa's problems are that the players apparently aren't ready or able to perform at that level.

It really wouldn't matter if Iowa attempted to pass more and run less. The quarterback play isn't consistent enough to suggest that an aerial attack would be any more successful than the ground attack.

It wouldn't matter if Iowa stuck solely to the ground and left the pass game virtually untouched. RB Mark Weisman has been fantastic (before his injury) and there's plenty of potential with the run game, but none of the runners are quite good enough to carry a one-dimensional offense entirely.

There are two answers to Iowa's issues right now.

First, Coach Ferentz—via Greg Davis—can start mixing up the plays and digging far deeper into the play book. Getting the tight ends more involved would be a welcome change, but simply calling plays that no one expects could be incredibly beneficial.

Or second, we can just wait until the players become healthy enough and competent enough to run the system the way Ferentz calls it.

Remember that the O-line was creating huge holes before Brandon Scherff and Andrew Donnal went down with injuries. Remember that the passing game was fairly effective against Minnesota.

It can be done, even with this group of players.

However, the line has suffered with those losses and QB James Vandenberg isnt' playing well enough to expect that Iowa will have any kind of consistent success with this group. It'll continue to be an adventure every week, wondering which team will show up.

I think though, that the answer Kirk Ferentz will give (without ever saying so) is the second one. He's not going to change his play calling. Why would he now when he's led this team to more success than failure over the past 14 years doing the exact same thing?

So fans, we'll just have to wait until the personnel and depth are available for the system to work again. What other choice do we have?

Before the Iowa football team even had a chance to leave the field, after a thorough beat down at the hands of Penn State, the fans in Kinnick rained a chorus of disapproving boos on the team.  Many of those fans later took to the internet to clarify their booing was aimed not at the players, but rather their coaching staff; specifically Kirk Ferentz.

As ticket-holders, fans have the right to boo.  This is not about the First Amendment; it's about showing a little class and respecting the efforts of student athletes, regardless of how you feel about their head coach’s salary.

Unintended Consequences

The argument by those who booed and later claimed to have been voicing their displeasure with Ferentz and/or offensive coordinator Greg Davis for their schematic approach, are flawed and shortsighted.  Not because they turned up the volume on the perceived failure of the coaches' approach, but for assuming a 22-year-old student athlete with the weight of a program in turmoil on his shoulders could decipher the message.

Some fans claim to have been booing coaches for not giving backup quarterback Jake Rudock an opportunity to get some game experience when there was nothing more at stake.

I actually agree that a blowout loss would have provided the right opportunity to get Rudock some snaps.  I disagree that it is a justification for booing, which only reinforces to the player in question that 70,000 people have turned on him.

"No, James, we're not booing you for sucking, we're booing the coaches for allowing you to suck.  Don't take it personally."

Player Confidence

It is easy to marginalize booing as fans' meager attempt to inspire changes, either in personnel or approach.  The deeper motivation is presumably the anger that the product on the field falls drastically short of expectations.

One of the intangibles paramount to a program's improvement is the confidence of the young men tasked with executing on the field.  When a team is roundly embarrassed the way the Hawkeyes were against Penn State, their confidence is sure to suffer.  Booing from their home crowd only serves to compound the problem.

This stance is often dubbed a "loser mentality."  It is not.

Encouraging fans not to boo college teams is not the same thing as telling them they should obey the applause light as though they were the unlucky studio audience for a painfully unfunny sitcom.

If you don't approve of the direction a program is going, you could always stop attending the games.  This is often referred to as the Purdue approach.

Because college football has become such big business, fans have developed a tendency to view athletes at the large revenue-generating programs in the same light they view professional athletes.  That line has become increasingly blurred, given the amount of money involved and the escalating narrative regarding the potential for paying college athletes.

Should such hypothetical measures become a reality, it would be easier to make the case for booing, but as it stands, we’re still talking about student athletes.

The $3.8 Million Elephant in the Room

Perhaps the most common justification for all the frustration from Hawkeye fans is the team’s performance and perceived direction of the program against the backdrop of Ferentz’s massive salary.

As I have written, I am a Ferentz fan.  I like him as a coach and as a man, and I believe he is the right head coach for Iowa.  Does this mean I think he is worth the value of his current contract?  No.

The contract in question is awful, no question about it.  The extension he signed after an incredible 2009 campaign that ended with an Orange Bowl victory never should have been offered, but if that is a fan’s point of contention, how does booing solve the problem?

Iowa athletic director Gary Barta is responsible for the extension Ferentz was offered.  Is it worth rattling an entire team’s psyche by booing to protest the man who accepted a ridiculous deal that ensures he will be in the job he loves until he chooses to retire?  Should he have turned it down?

You might as well boo the pen he signed it with.

Don’t Be That Guy (or Gal)

The Penn State game seems to have revealed major flaws, but as brutal as the exposure of those flaws was to witness as a fan, imagine what it felt like for the team itself.

As if the frustration of being beaten to a pulp from start to finish, and watching some of their key teammates taken off the field with serious injuries in the process, wasn’t disheartening enough, the Hawkeyes got to hear a large contingency of their 70,000 faithful turn on them.

And so did 30 recruits trying to decide the best destination to spend their college careers.

For a proud fanbase, many members of which consider themselves an integral part of the program, their failure under the prime time lights was just as disheartening as that of the team they were supposed to support.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are proving to be Zultan’s Achilles heel this season.

For the past two Saturdays, the Z’s only misses have come because the All-Seeing One misread the signs concerning the Hawkeyes' success on the gridiron. 

Zultan picked them to lose against Michigan State on the road and win over Penn State at home. Needless to say, that did not work out to the Pigskin Prognosticator's advantage.  

Those picks doomed Zultan, keeping him from achieving perfection two weeks in a row.

With the Iowa miss, Zultan went 9-1 in Week 8. Unsettled forces troubled the gridiron, however, causing very close matches with several instances of heart-stopping heroics winning the day. The BCS loomed large in the background.

Still a win is a win. 

For the year, Zultan comes in at 34-6, or 85 percent. But Week 9 will be the proverbial turning point in the Big Ten as well as in a number of the top conferences. The Big Z senses trouble afoot.

Therefore, this could well be your week to outguess him. Time to make your own picks and be saluted by Zultan in next week’s column—since so few of you have managed to outshine Zultan so far. In fact, none this past week.

Game 1: Iowa Hawkeyes at Northwestern Wildcats

Going forward, fate has determined that the Hawkeyes (4-3) will do the opposite of what Zultan forecasts until the cloud over Iowa City dissolves. Therefore, Z must pick the Hawks to lose . Such a move would make Mom happy—since she swears Zultan has evolved into the evil eye casting spells over the Hawkeye Nation.

Northwestern (6-2) must be in the doldrums—or fighting mad—after giving up the lead at the end of the game to Nebraska last Saturday. The Cats had beaten down the Husker offense and kept them in arrears for all but the last two minutes of the game. But Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez came back hard in the fourth to secure the win for the Huskers on the road.

Northwestern’s generous spirit will not extend to the Hawkeyes, who will limp into Evanston wounded and deflated after being embarrassed in Iowa City by the Penn State team.

Pick Northwestern 

Game 2: Indiana Hoosiers at Illinois Fighting Illini

Indiana (2-5) suffered another last quarter loss, going down to defeat in Annapolis 30-31 to the Navy Midshipmen. The Hoosiers were another Big Ten victim of the frantic end-of-game two-minute drill by the opposing team. Indiana led this contest throughout—until the Midshipmen scored to go ahead with two minutes left on the clock.

But one thing about the Hoosiers—they have a great offense. It would be even better if their defense followed suit. But, alas, that is not the case.

This week Illinois (2-5) hosts the Hoosiers in Champaign. These two teams are at the bottom of the Big Ten Leader’s Division. Illinois, however, has not shown anything yet on either side of the ball.  

Even though the oddsmakers favor the Illini, Zultan will...

Pick Indiana

Game 3: Purdue Boilermakers at Minnesota Golden Gophers

Purdue’s defeat in overtime at the hands of the Ohio State Buckeyes had to make the Boiler’s collective fan base weep. Purdue (3-4) had the game in hand—in Columbus, no less—but during the last tick of the game clock, Ohio State took the ball into the end zone and added a two-point conversion to force overtime. 

In overtime, Ohio State sealed the deal, winning the game but losing their quarterback in the process. 

Minnesota (4-3) was busy trying to hold down the Wisconsin offense in Week 8. So far, the Gophers have not had any success in the Big Ten. They will welcome Purdue into Minneapolis where, hopefully, Coach Kill has instilled some backbone into the Gopher defense.

Purdue, if they play up to their level, should win this game—assuming they have the right attitude.

Zultan guesses that they will.

Pick Purdue 

Game 4: Michigan State Spartans at (25) Wisconsin Badgers

Michigan State (4-4) lost another heartbreaker on Saturday to their instate rivals, the Michigan Wolverines. This one came down to five seconds on the clock as Michigan put up a field goal to edge past the Spartans 12-10 in Ann Arbor.  It was the first Michigan victory over Michigan State since 2007.  

Wisconsin (6-2), on the other hand, had their way with Minnesota. They ran over the Gophers all the way to 38-13, exploding on offense in the fourth quarter.  

Michigan State seems to be falling back as Wisconsin gains steam. Expect this trend to continue.

Pick Wisconsin

Game 5: Ohio State Buckeyes at Penn State Nittany Lions

Ironically, the two sanctioned teams in the Big Ten are the two best.

While Penn State (5-2) was busy humiliating the Iowa Hawkeyes, Ohio State (8-0) was fighting for their lives at home to get past Purdue.  

How does that information help Zultan shape the forecast for Week 9?

Ohio State was just plain lucky to get out of that game in Columbus with a win and with their quarterback in one piece. If they are smart, the Buckeye coaching staff will not overtax Braxton Miller upon his return to the lineup this week. It is a difficult spot, however, trying to remain perfect on the road in Happy Valley.  

Penn State’s defense is awesome—a thing of beauty. Now that their offense is keeping pace, this should be the ultimate test for both programs. For his part, Zultan sees the future of this contest clearly.

Pick Penn State

Game 6: (22) Michigan Wolverines at Nebraska Cornhuskers 

This is another big contest in the Big Ten. The Michigan Wolverines (5-2), who lead in the Legends Division, will travel to Lincoln to play the Nebraska Cornhuskers (5-2), who are dying to trip the Wolverines up on their way to the Big Ten Championship game.

Nebraska just eased past Northwestern last weekend in a game they should have lost—but it was on the road. Yet the Huskers held on and came up with goods when they were needed, led by the often harangued quarterback Taylor Martinez.

Michigan also escaped defeat by a whisker, but the Wolverines were at home.  This week, the Wolverines will face another stiff defense in a hostile environment. You have never seen hostile until you have visited in Lincoln. Zultan knows of where he speaks.

Zultan believes the rarified air in Lincoln will be too much for the Wolverines in Week 9.

Pick Nebraska. 

Game 7: (2) Florida Gators at (10) Georgia Bulldogs

Last Saturday, the Florida Gators (7-0) ground South Carolina to dust and blew them away 44-11, proving that their No. 2 BCS ranking was no fluke. It was redemption for the Gators who knew they were special from day one.

Meanwhile, Georgia (6-1) was having an off day on the road at Kentucky (1-7). They could not put the Wildcats away until the fourth quarter. After going up 29-17 midway through the last quarter, Kentucky came back to score again with just under four minutes left on the clock closing the gap to 29-24.

But the Bulldogs held on.

This week, however, Georgia hosts the Gators in Jacksonville, Fla. This game will determine the probable winner of the SEC East. The Gators have so far exceeded expectations while the Bulldogs have not.  

Expect that to continue.

Pick Florida

Game 8: (5) Notre Dame Fighting Irish at (8) Oklahoma Sooners

The fighting Irish (7-0) have their first real test of the season on the road. Notre Dame must travel to Norman to face the Oklahoma Sooners (5-1). Both teams are ranked in the Top 10 regardless of your favorite poll. 

The Irish seem to be making their way back into national prominence. But take a look at who Notre Dame has vanquished. True, the Irish passed Michigan and Stanford, both now ranked, but this only the second game on the road for the Irish. 

Oklahoma, who suffered a loss at home against the best team in the Big 12, Kansas State, has been rebuilding their Big 12 fences, trying to prove they are worthy of consideration by the BCS. 

Despite outside forces, no way will Notre Dame out-offense the Sooners on the road.

Pick Oklahoma

Game 9: (14) Texas Tech Red Raiders at (3) Kansas State Wildcats

It took Texas Tech (6-1) three overtimes to put down TCU on the road. The Red Raiders must be exhausted after putting up that many points (56-53) over the No. 23 ranked Horned Frogs.

They should have saved something, because they will need it traveling to Manhattan, Ks., to face Bill Snyder and his superlative Wildcats. Kansas State (7-0) annihilated West Virginia whose high octane offense found no legs against the Wildcat’s drop-dead defense. 

You got to love Bill Snyder, by the way, who once served on Hayden Fry’s staff at Iowa. But mainly you must appreciate what Snyder has done to bring glory back to Manhattan.

Pick Kansas State

Game 10: (11) Mississippi St. Bulldogs at (1) Alabama Crimson Tide

Mississippi State (7-0) had an easy Saturday, sauntering past Middle Tennessee in Starkville. They won 45-3. 

Life will not be so easy this Saturday as the Bulldogs pack their bags for Tuscaloosa to face the No.1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide (7-0). 

Alabama also had an easy day on the gridiron rolling past Tennessee 44-13.

So far, however, Mississippi State has faced no ranked team while Alabama has faced only a prematurely ranked Michigan team at home. Neither team has really been tested. 

This is the first real challenge for either SEC team. It will give some hint about the veracity of the ranking systems once the curtain comes down on Saturday.  

Zultan believes Alabama is the real deal and Mississippi State is the pretender.

Pick Alabama.

Towards the middle of the second quarter in Iowa's matchup against Penn State, Hawkeye quarterback James Vandenberg stepped back to pass. The PSU pass rush almost reached him, and he rolled out of the pocket, seemingly escaping trouble.

He began to pump the ball, but seemed to squeeze it too hard, at which point the ball popped out, Penn State jumped on it, and two plays later the Nits were up 24-0.

This moment seems to encapsulate where JVB is right now. He is trying too hard and has too many wheels spinning in his head.

His efficiency rating is a Big Ten-worst 103.91, which leaves fewer than five starting quarterbacks in the country with a worse rating.

It is true that statistics don't always tell the whole story, but they also rarely lie.

Some will point to the new offense and loss of record-setting receiver Marvin McNutt as the key reasons for his struggles. However, Vandenberg is missing bread-and-butter passes that he routinely hit last year.

Moreover, while McNutt's absence this year certainly plays a part in JVB's struggles, last year, Vandenberg did complete 158 passes to players not named McNutt.

He has unquestionably been lousy, but last year proves he is a better quarterback than he's been.

Nevertheless, Vandenberg began the season poorly and has continued to regress with every almost game.

It came to a head last weekend when Iowa got destroyed by Penn State.

Heading into the fourth quarter, JVB had connected on 9-of-23 passes for 120 yards and an interception. The Hawkeyes had scored zero points, and while Penn State has a good defense, the Nits are not Alabama.

In fact, following the game, PSU ranked as the No. 36 pass defense in the country.

The bigger question than Vandenberg has been head coach Kirk Ferentz's refusal to give his backup a shot.

This is not to say that Ferentz should permanently bench Vandenberg, but his regression from last season to this season and from the beginning of this season to now has been palpable.

It is evident that whatever ails JVB is in his head, and whatever Kirk Ferentz is doing to get Vandenberg on the right track isn't working.

Perhaps some time riding the bench—at the end of a blowout such as Penn State last week or even within a normal game—would help him to put some distance between himself and the downward spiral that has enveloped him.

The argument against this, of course, is that Vandenberg's backup—redshirt freshman Jake Rudock—has never seen a collegiate snap, and would be a significant drop-off from JVB.

The question is how much of a drop-off could he be? At this point, Iowa's passing efficiency is 118th in the country.

Rudock may be a step back, but he can and likely will improve. After 22 collegiate starts, the same cannot be said for Vandenberg. While Rudock might be a sizable step back, until Vandenberg fixes whatever is going on in his head, he cannot improve and cannot lead this team to victory.

In effect, Ferentz is doing his quarterback, not to mention his team, a disservice by not getting him off the field.

In the end, there are certain realities to face.

Firstly, this is as it has always been: Kirk Ferentz's offense, and neither former offensive coordinator (OC) Ken O'Keefe nor current OC Greg Davis can do anything but work within Ferentz's tightly controlled universe.

Secondly, as regular Hawkeyenation-poster Hawkeyegamefilm noted, Ferentz will stick "with Vandenberg until the very end."

Thirdly, Vandenberg will not magically snap out of the funk that he is in.

Where does this leave the Hawkeyes, and more specifically, Hawkeye fans?

As Iowa blog Blackheartgoldpants recently noted, watching a "bumbling, incoherent, comical shambles" of an offense that is manned by players that are, for whatever reason, ill-prepared to run it.

This doesn't mean that benching Vandenberg is the answer, but it does mean that whatever Ferentz is doing right now isn't working.

As if the first half of the Iowa Hawkeyes' dismantling at the hands of Penn State (5-2, 3-0 Big Ten) wasn't bad enough, it took me until the first Nittany Lion score of the second half to start hearing Rob Schneider's character from The Waterboy in my head.

"Oh no! We suck again!"

After a temporary high in the aftermath of crushing Minnesota 31-13 and upsetting Michigan State 19-16 in double-overtime, Iowa fans came crashing back to earth. The 2-0 start in Big Ten play? Deceptive. The back-to-back solid performances? Lost dreams.

Hawkeye fans woke up to find their team outclassed, outplayed and outcoached for four solid quarters. Nothing went right for Iowa, everything seemed to go right for Penn State, and the Hawkeyes were humiliated.

That's a sting that will last.

Last week, I stated that the Hawkeyes had the ability to run the table and potentially even win the conference. I stand behind those statements.

At the time I wrote that article, Iowa's offensive line was opening huge holes, Mark Weisman was plowing his way through them, the pass attack was picking up steam and the defense was starting to look like the Norm Parker defenses we used to know and love.

That Iowa team could beat everybody left on its schedule. It wouldn't be easy, and there would be some heart-thumping finishes, but it could do it.

Unfortunately, this isn't that Iowa team anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4jGSvxCRp4

I don't say that because I think this loss will demoralize them to the point of collapse or anything silly like that. Kirk Ferentz is too good a coach to allow that to happen. More importantly, the players are too good to let that happen.

If anything, this loss will wake them up and potentially make them a lot better. In the long run, this loss will make them all stronger. They won't forget this one as long as they live.

They won't forget the booing of the fans. They won't forget the way they were run over, thrown over and basically left laying in the cool Midwestern dust while their rivals from the East exacted a decade's worth of revenge on them.

I say it's not the same team because it's not. The Hawkeyes have likely lost offensive tackle Brandon Scherff for the season. Coach Ferentz announced Sunday that Scherff underwent surgery for a "lower leg injury."

That medical personnel choosing to put an air cast on his leg before loading him on the back of a Gator and carting him off suggests that said "lower leg injury" was a broken leg. At best, the Hawkeyes might get the young tackle back in time for a bowl game. Not before.

Making matters worse, shortly after Scherff went down, Andrew Donnal also suffered a significant injury. Right now, we don't know the extent of that injury or how long it will keep Donnal sidelined.

The impact was immediately felt on the field Saturday. The run game—which had seen limited effect even when Weisman was on the field—was pretty well shut down. The holes just weren't there.

The pass protection was decent most of the time, but Penn State blitzed mercilessly, and the makeshift line couldn't handle it.

What about Weisman? We got to see him in very limited action Saturday. He obviously was not the same runner we'd seen in prior weeks. The ankle injury wasn't healed completely, so it was no surprise that he couldn't make the cuts or find the power he'd used before with so much success.

How soon will he be back to 100 percent, though? We can make assumptions, but we don't really know. Eventually, he will return, but he'll be running behind a very different offensive line.

We also now know that this team is truly hot and cold. There have been glimpses of that from the beginning, but it was largely a subtle wavering with more consistent progress.

Saturday, it was a full step (or two) backward. There was nothing subtle about the lack of penetration by the defensive line. There was nothing subtle about the holes the Nittany Lions offensive line were generating or the big runs they were enjoying on an otherwise stiff defense.

There was nothing subtle about the way they used their tight ends (something Iowa used to do) to shred Iowa's secondary and poke huge holes in the zone defense.

There was nothing subtle about the way quarterback James Vandenberg struggled to put passes on target without putting them right in line for interceptions.

How do you begin to predict the season going forward? What will this team look like next week or the week after?

Those are very tough questions to answer.

They could recover remarkably. It wouldn't be completely unthinkable for the new line to come together, start creating holes for the run game and for the defense to make adjustments that will thwart future attacks similar to that of Penn State.

It's also possible that Saturday's thumping is a foreshadowing of things to come. Perhaps the road map has been created to beat the Hawkeyes, and beat them soundly.

Coming into Saturday, Iowa looked like an 8-4 team or even better. Saturday, it looked like a 5-7 team or even worse.

However it all ends up, one thing is certain: This team has been changed forever by the crushing defeat they suffered. Will it be for the better or for the worst?

Who needs sexy?

In the early 2000s, head coach Kirk Ferentz seemed to go out of his way to explain that his suddenly successful Iowa Hawkeyes were effective, but NOT sexy.  

Over a three-year stretch in which they claimed a Big Ten title, BCS appearance and three consecutive top-10 finishes, the Hawkeyes’ brand of unsexy was enthusiastically embraced as a blue-collar approach by a fanbase bursting with pride over the teams other descriptive nickname.

When the Hawkeyes scuffled through the next three years and took a troubling step backwards, the bully moniker vanished and the absence of sexiness seemed less blue collar and more predictable, stubborn, and outdated.

Over the years, Iowa’s defense has served as a microcosm for the way Iowa fans view the coaching staff because it is the unit which best displays the good and bad that accompanies a team devoid of sexiness.

This season’s Hawkeye defense is the best kind of unsexy.

Coming into the season, there were question marks at nearly every position on the defense, specifically the defensive line. For the Hawkeyes, a shaky defensive line is especially concerning—it is the D-line's responsibility to provide a sufficient amount of bullying ablity to counter the schematic lack of sexy stunts and blitzes.

The common denominator of Iowa’s most successful defenses in the Ferentz era has been the presence of NFL-level players on the defensive line. Whether it was Matt Roth and Jonathan Babineaux or Adrian Clayborn and Christian Ballard, the ability of a superior front-four to create havoc and penetrate the backfield allowed the Hawkeyes to thrive.

A look at the roster heading into the opening game of the season revealed a grand total of zero defensive players with anything slightly resembling NFL buzz.

However, the one thing the defense has shown under first-year coordinator Phil Parker is constant improvement. It started with halftime adjustments. Even in its losses, the Iowa defense gained steam as the games wore on, ultimately giving the team a chance.  

Just as Justin Verlander’s fastball seems to gain velocity late in games, the Hawkeyes fly around the field at a more ferocious pace and play a sharp, opportunistic brand of football at the point when most teams begin to slow down and make fatigue-driven mistakes.

The Hawkeyes' defensive line has improved each week as the competition has started to heat up. If Iowa's early-season improvement was a house of cards, Michigan State appeared to be the team best suited to expose the remaining deficiencies up front.

But they didn’t.

Iowa was able to get increased pressure on the quarterback and meet perhaps the Big Ten’s toughest running back, Le’Veon Bell, in the backfield often enough to make him earn the yardage one assumes he is going to get by the time it’s all said and done.

As the defensive line has improved, Iowa’s linebackers—the strength of the defense and possibly the entire team—have flourished.

Junior Anthony Hitchens leads the nation in tackles, James Morris is a disruptive force and Christian Kirksey is steadily improving and emerging as a playmaking threat.

When it comes to predictions, the 2012 Hawkeyes are a difficult team to project with six games remaining due, in part, to the fact that the inconsistency of the Big Ten creates an environment where anyone can beat anyone on any given Saturday.

The only stone-cold lock is that there will be a typical sexiness deficiency on the defensive side of the ball for the Hawkeyes.

And I mean that in a good way.