Good football teams usually don’t lack memorable moments or plays throughout a season, especially if that season involves zero losses. Undefeated Iowa is no exception to this rule.
A magical 2015 campaign has given Hawkeye fans more than their fair share of these instances — four trophies, last-second wins, huge road victories, the list goes on and on. When No. 4 Iowa takes on No. 5 Michigan State in Saturday’s Big Ten Championship game, the program and its fans will be hoping to add another moment and another trophy to that résumé.
“There have been a bunch of good teams that we’ve played that we’ve beaten,” quarterback C.J. Beathard said. “…We just have to focus on what we’ve been doing all year long and focus on what we have here as a team.”
So what gives this Hawkeye team its best shot at that fifth (and biggest) trophy of the season? Ask anyone in the program, and it’s staying the course with what’s made the Hawks so successful this season — limiting mistakes and controlling the game.
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Most players and coaches at the Hayden Fry Football Complex point to January as the turning point from last season’s 7-6 campaign to this year’s 12-0 regular season. That was the time when head coach Kirk Ferentz rededicated himself to the game and when the Hawkeye players put 2014 behind them.
Although it’s clear the team bought in enough to right the ship, it wasn’t a magical, overnight turnaround following the TaxSlayer Bowl.
“I’d say it took a little bit,” wide receiver Tevaun Smith said. “It took a little bit after spring ball to really realize that we had a good team. Obviously in camp when freshmen came in — there are a couple freshmen that definitely played a role and are playing a role to help our team.
“There were little things that had us going and showing that we had a pretty good team.”
Whether it was a player changing his hand placement on a block or diagnosing a play quicker, as those little things began to pile up, so did the check marks in Iowa’s win column.
Some wins, like Wisconsin, were low scoring, some, like Iowa State and Pittsburgh, were incredibly emotional. Some, like Northwestern, were pretty and some were dominant (see: North Texas). Perhaps some were closer than they should have been and some were by a larger margin than they should have been. In the end, they all count as the same thing.
There are metrics that shed light on reasons why Iowa has won 12 games. The Hawkeyes own a plus-14 turnover margin, have a quarterback who has only thrown three interceptions, and have earned the Big Ten’s third-best rushing attack.
The intangibles are also there — there is an incredible attention to detail visible when a linebacker sheds a block or when a fullback beats a defender at the point of attack. Iowa is one of the tougher teams in the Big Ten, having a quarterback play through injuries for a good portion of the season, and seemingly missing a key contributor every week. Of course, Beathard’s easygoing presence as a leader of this team is part of that success too.
“This offseason we focused on taking care of little details and taking care of little things,” Beathard said. “Those little things end up turning into big things, and I think that’s show this season. When you focus on the little things the big mistakes don’t happen.”
And because mistakes haven’t happened, it’s put the pressure on opponents — that’s where the game control comes into play. The Hawkeyes have scored first in 11 of 12 games, the only exception being the Big Ten-opening win over Wisconsin.
Couple that with the fourth-best time of possession in the conference, and the Hawkeyes have executed a tremendous recipe for success. Once teams are in a hole, it’s tough to get the ball back for any sustained amount of time, giving the Hawkeyes a huge advantage.
“I think these guys have just really done a good job of tuning into the things that we’re really trying to emphasize,” Ferentz said. “One of the biggest things we emphasize is playing clean.”
What Ferentz described is exactly what his team will have to do to leave the field at Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday night with the Big Ten Championship trophy. Much like Iowa, Michigan State is a team that does not make mistakes and controls the clock.
The Spartans also own a plus-14 turnover margin, and are slightly better in the time of possession department with an average of 33:01 to Iowa’s 32:13. The similarities between the two schools are aplenty, which makes the margin for error even tighter on an already-enormous stage.
“It’s definitely a game where mistakes are going to kill you,” linebacker Cole Fisher said. “That’s how we’ve had to play all year — we’re just one of those teams that can’t make a lot of mistakes and expect to come out with a W. We’ll have to play good, clean football the entire game to win.”
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These opportunities don’t come around very often — Hawkeye fans, and Hawkeyes themselves know that.
Just ask the senior class. They’re part of what makes games like the one Saturday night so special — they’ve endured a 4-8 bowl-less season in 2012 as freshmen and are led their team to Iowa’s first Big Ten Championship game ever.
“That 2012 season was not fun,” center Austin Blythe said. “…Just to be in this position as seniors, is really satisfying.”
A win over the Spartans would mean the College Football Playoff, which would of course bring a bigger stage than this one. A loss would mean the CFP Committee would decide the Hawkeyes’ bowl destination and steal Iowa’s control of its own destiny from its grasp.
Perfect seasons don’t happen often, maybe on will here — there’s no way of knowing that until Saturday.
What is possible to know, however, is the fact this is yet another memorable moment in a season full of them, and that memory won’t fade for a long time.
