By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

Below is a written transcript of Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz’s teleconference on Tuesday with the Big Ten media:

Ferentz’s opening statement:

“It was certainly a tough weekend, a disappointing weekend for our team. We went back to work on Sunday and had the day off yesterday. We’re eager to get started again today and we’ve got a big challenge on our hand going up to Ann Arbor to play Michigan, who is an excellent football team. They’re playing very, very well and came off a very exciting win and certainly it’s going to be a great challenge for our team.”

On what types of challenges Michigan’s Devin Gardner presents to Iowa’s defense:

“You know, I think it’s just a case, I certainly don’t coach at Michigan but I think it’s a case they have two outstanding players. They wanted to find a way to get him on the field. He was doing a great job at receiver. Now certainly with the situation that occurred, he transitioned back.

“The thing I think we’ve seen is with each week, he’s growing. His confidence is growing, the package has grown and he’s playing very well, very effectively and he’s a dangerous player in a couple of different areas.”

On the issues with the running game during Iowa’s current losing streak:

“Well, I think some of our personnel situations have created that, certainly. We’ve lost a couple of linemen, we lost a really good running back. We’re not real deep at that position anyway, so certainly, your personnel kind of dictates the direction you go, as does the score of the games.

“But outside of the Penn State game, we were never really in that, so if you take that out of the equation, the other ones, it’s more just driven by getting our best players on the field and doing what we think gives them the best chance to have success.”

On the oddity of leading the Big Ten in turnover margin despite having a losing record:

“It’s a little bit unusual. It’s not totally unusual, but a little unusual. The one thing with that is it’s hard to have a good football team or winning team and a winning, successful season if you’re poor in that area, so I think that’s not quite an absolute, but almost an absolute. Then flipping it around, if you do do a good job in that area, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee success.

“But our guys have done a good job of taking care of the ball and I think we’ve been opportunistic defensively. The other positive is I think our kicking game has improved significantly, so those are the things we’ve, I think, steadily gained ground in.”

On how he’s preparing for Michigan defensively given the uncertainty it has at QB:

“You know, it’s a little bit tricky. They’re both good players. They’re a little bit different in terms of what they do and how they attack you when those quarterbacks are in. So that’s a little bit different for sure and nobody’s going to know. As I understand it, Robinson’s ‘day-to-day,’ which means he might be out there, he might not be. So we have to prepare as if either guy is going to play and even the possibility of both of them playing.

“It’s a little bit unique, a little bit different. We kind of went through that with Minnesota a little bit earlier in the year. You know, that’s just one of the circumstances we face this week and we’ll have to prepare that way.”

On the challenges of having to teach a team to win close games:

“Well you know, I think in our conference that’s really, at least for us historically, been a big determining factor on how you do. I go back to 13-14 years ago when we were improving as a team and that was the biggest challenge. We were playing people close in 2000, then we had to get over that hump of winning the close games and a lot of things go into that.

“But you know, teams that are successful typically find a way to come out on the right end of those close scores and teams that don’t do that have records that aren’t where you want them and that’s kind of our circumstance right now. So we continue to work on that.

“You just never know from game-to-game what aspect is going to play a critical role, so that’s what’s important. Everybody is doing as well as they can.”

On if his team takes any confidence in the recent success it has had against Michigan:

“You know, I think every team is different and every game is different. It doesn’t hurt, obviously, but it doesn’t guarantee us anything. You know, as we look the tape, they’ve got an excellent football team. They were very good last year, in my opinion, and I think their record bore that out and they won the Sugar Bowl. So that was a very good football team that we competed against last year and they’re a little bit different. I would suggest they’re improved from a year ago and we’re certainly not the same as we were a year ago, either.

“But it just comes down to this week, who can handle the circumstances the best. The one thing we know is we’re playing in a tough venue and playing against a very, very good football team.”

On the challenges Michigan’s defense will present Iowa’s offense this week:

“The challenges of playing their defense are similar to last year. You watch the film, they’re extremely sound, very well-coached. They’ve got good players and they play hard. I think that’s what I associated with them for awhile, going back to the ’80s. I think that’s one of the first things I’ve always thought about when you think about Michigan.

“They line up with a good scheme. It’s usually not overly exotic, but these guys give you some challenges that really can keep you up at night with their schemes. But the big thing is they play extremely hard and that’s where playing good football starts.

“The other thing is their offensive line does a really good job. They’re big, physical guys that really block well and again, I could be talking from 1985 and saying the same thing, so there are some real parallels. The faces are different and the schemes are different, I’m not suggesting it’s exactly the same. Then on top of it, they’ve got good skill players to go with it. It’s just a really good football team.”

Every Monday, we will be running a weekly series titled “State of the Big Ten,” which will be made available to all members of HawkeyeDrive.com. This series of columns will focus on one major headline regarding the conference and go in-depth on the subject at hand.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

The start of the 2012-13 college basketball season had an unusual start to it. Not because there were three different games scheduled for its opening day on aircraft carriers (plus one game on an American Air Force base in Germany), but because all three of the mainland games on those aircraft carriers were either delayed or canceled altogether.

Sure enough, one of those games involved No. 4 Ohio State, who was scheduled to open its season against Marquette last week on the USS Yorktown in Mount Pleasant, S.C.

After Ohio State’s women’s squad played Notre Dame right beforehand, the men’s game featuring the Buckeyes and Golden Eagles was originally delayed 30 minutes due to condensation on the court since this game was being played outdoors. Time passed, temperatures dropped, and the moisture was still there, prompting the decision made by all parties involved to just cancel the game.

Kudos have to be given here because the decision to cancel the game was the correct one. Is it a shame these teams can’t reschedule this game, possibly to be played in another venue? Sure it is. But let’s be real here. Canceling this game isn’t going to affect either Ohio State or Marquette in the big picture.

Both are going to be tournament teams come March barring absolutely disastrous seasons beyond anyone’s imagination. It isn’t as though either team is going to be on the bubble and needing a win over the other to pad its NCAA tournament résumé in the eyes of a selection committee. Ohio State is coming off playing in the Final Four and still has games against Duke and Kansas on the horizon. As for Marquette, it plays in a Big East conference that might be as difficult as the Big Ten, so plenty of opportunities still remain for the Golden Eagles as well.

But let’s get to the bigger issue here — player safety. The last thing either of these teams needed was a significant injury to one of its star players because the hardwood isn’t adequate enough to deal with moisture stemming from cool temperatures and being on a carrier.

Look, it’s great that college basketball teams are taking the initiative to recognize those who serve the country on Veteran’s Day weekend. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. As far as these games themselves are concerned, Michigan State and North Carolina showed last year this could be done accordingly if every possible scenario is planned out.

Those involved should’ve known something like this could happen, though. It’s understandable why teams want to be associated with games like these because the publicity is through the roof (especially for teams like Ohio State, Marquette and anyone else involved in carrier games last weekend). But at the same time, there’s enough time for events like this to be planned properly.

Clearly, this particular game wasn’t and the decision made was one that had to be made, period.

OFFENSE:

WR 6 Davis, 81 Smith

LT 60 Tobin, 76 MacMillan

LG 59 Boffeli, 65 Walsh

C 53 Ferentz, 59 Boffeli

RG 63 Blythe, 50 Clark

RT 70 Van Sloten, 76 MacMillan

TE 86 Fiedorowicz, 82 Hamilton

QB 16 Vandenberg, 15 Rudock

WR 11 Martin-Manley, 83 Staggs

RB 32 Bullock, 4 Garmon

FB 92 Gimm, 41 Reisen

DEFENSE:

DE 99 Gaglione, 95 Ott

DT 54 Bigach, 71 Davis

DT 90 Trinca-Pasat, 97 Cooper

DE 79 Alvis, 49 Spears

OLB 20 Kirksey, 39 Perry

MLB 44 Morris, 52 Alston

WLB 31 Hitchens, 36 Fisher

LCB 19 Lowery, 2 Castillo

SS 21 Law, 13 Donatell

FS 5 Miller, 37 Lowdermilk

RCB 18 Hyde, 7 Draper

SPECIAL TEAMS:

P 98 Kornbrath, 14 Wienke

PK 96 Meyer, 1 Koehn

LS 61 Kreiter, 54 Bigach

HOLDER 14 Wienke

PR 18 Hyde

KR 23 Cotton, 81 Smith

Iowa vs. Michigan Game Notes

Every week, we will post the TV schedule for all games featuring Big Ten teams. Here is where and when you can watch them this week:

Nov. 17:

Iowa at No. 23 Michigan, 11 a.m., ESPN

Northwestern at Michigan State, 11 a.m., ESPN2

Indiana at Penn State, 11 a.m., BTN

Purdue at Illinois, 2:30 p.m., BTN

Minnesota at No. 16 Nebraska, 2:30 p.m., BTN

No. 6 Ohio State at Wisconsin, 2:30 p.m., ABC/ESPN2

*All times listed are Central Standard Time.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

Check out all of these links to content posted on Saturday after Iowa’s 27-24 loss to Purdue at Kinnick Stadium. Please note, anything with “premium” in parentheses are links that can only be accessed by those logged in as either a paid subscriber or three-day free trial member to HawkeyeDrive.com:

RECAP: Last-second kick lifts Boilers past Hawkeyes

COMMENTARY: Problems not going away (premium)

VIDEO:

Zach Derby

Kevonte Martin-Manley

Jordan Cotton

Kirk Ferentz

James Vandenberg

Dominic Alvis

Micah Hyde

James Morris

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — When the Iowa Hawkeyes eventually reflect on this 2012 season, losses such as the one they suffered Saturday at Kinnick Stadium will be the ones that sting the most.

As sloppy as Iowa looked at times, it managed to come back from a 10-point deficit in the second half to tie the game, only to lose 27-24 to Purdue following a 46-yard Boilermaker field goal as time expired. The Hawkeyes have now lost four straight games and have lost four games at Kinnick Stadium.

At 4-6 overall, any small hope that existed of Iowa playing in a bowl game is practically gone. The Hawkeyes now must win both of their remaining games against Michigan and No. 18 Nebraska just to become bowl-eligible.

“We’re feeling it,” sophomore wide receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley said.

Purdue struck first when running back Akeem Shavers rushed for a 3-yard touchdown to put the Boilermakers up 7-0. Iowa would tie the game in the second quarter when sophomore running back Damon Bullock scored from one yard out following a fumble recovery by redshirt freshman defensive tackle Darian Cooper.

But the game wouldn’t be tied for long. Purdue quarterback Robert Marve threw the first of two touchdown passes on the day to Gabe Holmes from 9 yards out to put the Boilermakers back up 14-7. Purdue had a chance at the end of the half to extend its lead to 10 points, but hooked a 22-yard field goal that occurred on an untimed down following a holding penalty called on Iowa.

After Purdue would eventually make it a 17-7 game, the Hawkeyes responded offensively when senior quarterback James Vandenberg threw his fifth touchdown pass of the season, a 5-yard pass to junior tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz. The touchdown reception was Fiedorowicz’s first in 2012.

The Boilermakers would go up by 10 points again when a 56-yard run by Ralph Bolden was immediately followed by a Marve touchdown pass to Gary Bush.

In total, the Boilermakers compiled 490 yards of total offense, a lot of which was in part to poor tackling by the entire Iowa defense.

“That’s a pretty objective observation,” junior linebacker James Morris said in reference to the poor tackling. “Anybody would say that.”

Iowa would get a spark defensively from the play of senior cornerback Micah Hyde. First, he recovered a Purdue fumble and returned it nine yards for a Hawkeye touchdown in the final seconds of the third quarter to cut Iowa’s deficit back to three points. There was then another play in the fourth quarter where Purdue back-up quarterback Rob Henry would eventually be ruled down after a review, but initially, the call was a fumble that Hyde picked up and nearly returned for a second defensive touchdown.

“After a loss like this, it doesn’t really matter because you don’t think about the positive plays,” Hyde said. “More about the negative plays and how you could’ve helped your team out better.”

Iowa would get something going again on offense as it used a double-pass to Martin-Manley to set up what turned out to be the game-tying field goal by junior kicker Mike Meyer, making it 24-24 with 3:32 remaining.

Following a Purdue punt, the Hawkeyes would have a chance to win the game in regulation. A 20-yard scramble by Vandenberg jump-started the final drive, which got Iowa into Boilermaker territory and ultimately down to their 35-yard line.

Facing a 4th-and-3 from the Purdue 35-yard line, Iowa called timeout and ran a play where the receivers ran hitch routes and senior tight end Zach Derby would be out in the flats. Vandenberg threw a completion to Derby, but it wound up being short of the first-down marker.

“We knew what we were going to get. They were going to blitz us and play man coverage,” Vandenberg said. “We’re kind of running what you kind of consider a rub. We’re kind of causing a traffic jam and we were trying to leverage a guy who we had leverage on. The guy got through clean, made a good play.

“It’s quite possible there might have been somebody else open, but that’s kind of how I interpreted the call and how we worked it. The guy made a better play than I made.”

Purdue then got the ball and in two plays, Marve threw a pair of completions that got the Boilermakers to the Iowa 29-yard line and Purdue called timeout with five seconds remaining to set up the game-winning kick by Paul Griggs.

The kick sailed through the upright and the rest was history.

“We just had to keep our composure,” junior defensive end Dominic Alvis said. “That’s what we were saying. Unfortunately, they were able to drive it on us and that’s life.”

Iowa’s second-to-last game comes Nov. 17 at Michigan, with kickoff scheduled for 11 a.m. Central from “The Big House” in Ann Arbor, Mich. The game will be on either ESPN or ESPN2. The Wolverines are coming off a 38-31 overtime win Saturday over Northwestern.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Yes, the Iowa Hawkeyes lost their second game inside Kinnick Stadium on a last-second field goal. Yes, they were in position to beat Purdue on Saturday instead of losing 27-24.

But the reality is this: The Boilermakers were more deserving of winning than the Hawkeyes and the reason is because the same problems that continue to plague Iowa resurfaced again Saturday. Not only that, but with this team now 10 games into the 2012 season, it’s beyond the point where these can be fixed.

The Hawkeyes are 4-6 now. They’re not going to a bowl. Any miraculous hope of this that existed during the past week was deflated as the seconds ticked off the Kinnick Stadium scoreboard.

This was a complete team loss. Well, O.K. Maybe special teams was decent. But the offense and defense were equally horrid on Saturday. Offensively, the biggest problem stemmed from failing to pick up conversions in short-yardage situations. Whether it was 2nd-and-1, 3rd-and-3 or 4th-and-5, it just seemed like Iowa couldn’t get anything going in these instances. Against a team like Purdue that was reeling coming in, having lost five straight games itself, this is bad. Perhaps even borderline unacceptable.

While we’re on the offense here, let’s get one other thing out of the way: There were two instances Saturday where Iowa faced fourth down, opted to go for it, and wound up turning the ball over on downs. As far as the decisions to go for it are concerned, both were correct calls by head coach Kirk Ferentz. I was as critical as anyone of him during Iowa’s fourth-down situations against Northwestern and Indiana the last two weeks, but here, I have to defend him to a degree.

On both occasions, Iowa was going against a wind that was blowing as much as 20 MPH. Both plays, coincidentally, were 4th-and-3s from Purdue’s 35-yard line, so if junior kicker Mike Meyer is sent out to try field goals, he’s kicking 52-53 yard attempts against a strong wind.

If you want to be critical of the actual play calls that were made on fourth down, that’s fair game, in my opinion. But at least they tried. The second one in particular, on the Hawkeyes’ final possession of the game, had to be done. The play call was bad, but I can’t fault Ferentz for taking the gamble there on fourth down given those circumstances.

But let’s get to what was actually a bigger sieve Saturday — the defense. Purdue compiled 490 yards of total offense against Iowa’s defense. The same Purdue that scored nine points last week against Penn State. It didn’t matter if the Boilermakers were running or passing the football, either, because the Hawkeyes’ tackling was horrendous the entire game.

It’s already problematic enough when Iowa’s barely using any nickel or dime against a team that’s spreading it out like Purdue was. But when you also can’t tackle on top of that, that’s a problem. And this is something that has become more and more apparent over the past month.

Also take into account that the Hawkeyes forced three turnovers (one of which was a fumble recovery returned by Micah Hyde for a touchdown) and the Boilermakers missed a chip-shot field goal at the end of the first half. My point here is this game could’ve been a lot worse. It probably never should’ve came down to Purdue needing a last-second field goal to win in regulation.

So yes, the Hawkeyes could’ve won and yes, losing in the final seconds like that is going to be gut wrenching for any player at any time. But again, it’s not like Iowa had this game stolen from it either.

The problems, the failure to execute, whatever you want to call it, hasn’t changed. As Ferentz said in his postgame, they have to play with who they have and there’s no quick fix in sight. At least not for these last two weeks.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa junior linebacker James Morris tied for a team-high 11 tackles on Saturday in the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue at Kinnick Stadium.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa senior cornerback Micah Hyde tied for a team-high 11 tackles and had a 9-yard touchdown return off a fumble recovery in the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa junior defensive end Dominic Alvis recorded four solo tackles and one sack on Saturday in the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue at Kinnick Stadium.