Iowa-Purdue video: James Vandenberg

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa senior quarterback James Vandenberg completed 19-of-36 passes for 190 yards and one touchdown on Saturday in the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa-Purdue video: Kirk Ferentz

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz addressed the media in a postgame press conference following the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. As a result of the defeat, Iowa fell to 4-6 overall and 2-4 in Big Ten play.

Iowa-Purdue video: Jordan Cotton

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa junior wide receiver Jordan Cotton had two catches for 25 yards receiving and finished with 108 all-purpose yards in the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa-Purdue video: Kevonte Martin-Manley

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa sophomore wide receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley hauled in four catches for 63 yards receiving on Saturday in the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue at Kinnick Stadium.

Iowa-Purdue video: Zach Derby

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Iowa senior tight end Zach Derby had four catches for 38 yards receiving in the Hawkeyes’ 27-24 loss to Purdue on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

11/9/2012: I-Club breakfast video

Iowa senior defensive lineman Steve Bigach handled the invocation duties at the Johnson County I-Club Breakfast on Friday, Nov. 9, 2012, at the Sheraton Hotel in Iowa City. Bigach was one of 19 seniors recognized at the event.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — As he does every Friday morning before a home football game, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz spoke at the Johnson County I-Club Breakfast inside the Sheraton Hotel. This week, he discussed the Hawkeyes’ upcoming game against Purdue.

While Saturday’s game isn’t Iowa’s home finale, the Hawkeyes’ senior class of 19 players was recognized for their achievements at Friday’s breakfast since their final Kinnick Stadium contest against Nebraska falls on Nov. 23, the Friday after Thanksgiving. Ferentz was introduced by Iowa radio play-by-play man Gary Dolphin.

Below are videos of speeches from both Dolphin and Ferentz, as well as Ferentz introducing the 2012 senior class:

Iowa vs. Purdue (What to expect)

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

To get you all ready for Saturday’s game between Iowa and Purdue, I put together a list of things you ought to know before these two face off at Kinnick Stadium.

At the end, I’ll provide what I think are three keys to an Iowa victory.

Iowa Hawkeyes (4-5, 2-3) vs. Purdue Boilermakers (3-6, 0-5)

Kinnick Stadium; Iowa City, Iowa

Nov. 10, 2012

11 a.m. Central

TV: BTN (Josh Lewin, Chris Martin, J Leman)

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network (Gary Dolphin, Ed Podolak, Rob Brooks)

Weather: 71 degrees, maybe rain, 15-20 MPH winds

Brendan’s Three Keys to the Game:

1. Don’t surrender big plays

Defensively, Iowa has been carved apart the past three weeks because it has given up big plays both on the ground and through the air. Purdue has the speed at the skill positions where big plays could materialize. This is something the Hawkeyes have to avoid the Boilermaker offense from doing. This means they can’t afford to miss any open-field tackles, otherwise Purdue will have players off to the races. This same key could also be applied to kickoff and punt coverage as well because the Boilermakers have made plays this season in the return game.

2. Aggressive play-calling offensively

If there was ever a game for Iowa to open up the playbook offensively, it’s this weekend against Purdue. Teams like Michigan and Wisconsin had success against the Boilermaker defense because they gashed Purdue on the ground every which way. Regardless of whether or not Mark Weisman can play, Damon Bullock has emerged as a big-play threat and could be a real key to the Hawkeye offense on Saturday. That being said, Iowa should look to be aggressive in the passing game as well. If the Hawkeyes do this, they not only should be able to win, but this could give them some confidence to build off of going into those final two contests against Michigan and Nebraska.

3. Go for the knockout early

Purdue has lost five straight games and needs to win out just to reach bowl-eligibility. Given recent performances against Minnesota and Penn State, it’s fair to question whether the Boilermakers are even going to have the right psyche mentally for playing Saturday. Which is why Iowa needs to go for the knockout early. The longer the Hawkeyes let Purdue hang around, the more vulnerable they’re setting themselves up to be as the game progresses. Even though Iowa has lost three straight itself, the Hawkeyes are at home and have the intangibles in their favor Saturday. If they can build a big lead early like they did last weekend at Indiana, let’s just say the odds of them holding a lead this Saturday at home against a reeling squad are better than the circumstances last week.

11/8/2012: Talkin’ Hawks podcast (Iowa vs. Purdue)

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

Every Thursday during the 2012 football season, HawkeyeDrive.com will feature “Talkin’ Hawks,” a podcast to get you ready for the Hawkeyes’ upcoming game and other college football action.

This week, we preview Iowa’s game on Nov. 10 against the Purdue Boilermakers at Kinnick Stadium. Former Iowa defensive back Chris Rowell joins me to provide insight on the Hawkeyes and share his thoughts on all the games featured in this week’s HawkeyeDrive.com Pick ‘Em. Rowell will be a part of the podcast every week all season long.

Joining as a guest this week in the podcast’s middle segment is Mike Carmin, who covers Purdue for the Lafayette Journal and Courier. This week’s edition is approximately 80 minutes long, so enjoy:

Talkin’ Hawks podcast (Iowa vs. Purdue)

Twitter handles:

HawkeyeDrive.com – @HawkeyeDrive

Brendan Stiles – @thebstiles

Chris Rowell – @Crowell34

Mike Carmin – @carminjc

*Intro sound byte credit to my former Daily Iowan colleague Ryan Young for putting that together.

11/6/2012: Iowa football notebook

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz discusses the Hawkeyes’ upcoming game against Purdue during his weekly press conference held Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2012, at the Hayden Fry Football Complex in Iowa City.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The clock is ticking on the Iowa Hawkeyes’ 2012 season.

With three games left, Iowa sits at 4-5 overall (2-3 in the Big Ten) and needing to win two of those last three contests in order to become bowl-eligible. The Hawkeyes, however, have lost three straight games and still have yet to play a ranked opponent this season.

Not to mention that after Saturday’s contest at Kinnick Stadium with Purdue, Iowa still has to close out its season playing Michigan and No. 18 Nebraska, both of whom are tied atop the Legends Division at 4-1 in conference play.

“We’ve just got to keep fighting, keep playing,” senior wide receiver Keenan Davis said. “It’s not work ethic. We all want to be out there. We’re all playing hard.

“We just need to execute better in these last three weeks.”

As far as elaborating on the team-wide “lack of execution” cliché used following every loss, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz simply said it was a matter of everyone being in better sync.

“We win as a team typically and lose as a team,” Ferentz said. “We’re not quite there. Then the other part of that discussion is consistency.”

Revisiting another fourth down decision

For the second straight week, the Hawkeyes found themselves facing a fourth down where the coaching decision made by Ferentz drew vocal criticism from the fan base. In a 28-17 loss to Northwestern, it was going for it on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal late that could’ve made it a one-possession game.

Last weekend in Iowa’s 24-21 loss to Indiana, it was Ferentz deciding to punt on 4th-and-1 late and count on his defense to get a stop despite getting carved apart throughout the game by the Hoosier offense.

The Hawkeyes had 4th-and-1 on their own 28-yard line following a seven-yard reception by Davis. Iowa was looking to catch Indiana off guard by running up to the line to run a QB sneak with Vandenberg on 4th-and-1.

“We were in our stances all ready to go fly on the ball,” senior left tackle Matt Tobin said, who described everyone on the offensive line (including himself) as being “geeked up” about going for it in that spot.

But the element of surprise evaporated into the Bloomington air when the officials stopped the clock to review the spot where Davis was hit out of bounds. Ferentz defended his decision Tuesday by saying the play would’ve been ruled dead even if Vandenberg had gotten the snap off and executed the play for a first down.

He also came to the defense of offensive coordinator Greg Davis, saying it was him, not Davis, that made both the initial decision to go for it on fourth down and later the decision to punt instead while the prior play was being looked at.

“At that point, I had made up my mind,” Ferentz said. “Don’t be mad at Greg on that one. If anyone is mad at Greg, be mad at me. Just to clear the air.”

Hyde renamed team captain

Ferentz announced Tuesday that senior cornerback Micah Hyde was renamed a team captain for Saturday’s game against Purdue. Hyde served as one of the Hawkeyes’ four captains for the first five weeks of the season but had the title taken from him following Iowa’s bye week last month when Hyde was arrested on charges of interference with official acts and public intoxication (Hyde pled guilty to the interference charge and not guilty to the public intoxication charge).

Hyde didn’t learn of the honor until Tuesday afternoon as he entered the Kenyon Practice Facility.

“It’s an honor, especially after what happened,” Hyde said. “I could keep working hard and everybody could put it past them and continue to keep working.”

For the last four games, junior linebacker Christian Kirksey had filled in as a team captain in place of Hyde. Ferentz said the decision to make Hyde a captain again had nothing to do with Kirksey and everything to do with Hyde getting back in good graces.

“That was one of the penalties he faced. He had several,” Ferentz said. “So that part has been paid, now he’s eligible again. It’s kind of a no-brainer. Micah is a tremendous young guy, a tremendous football player.”

Special uniforms being worn Saturday

When the Hawkeyes take the field Saturday morning, they’ll be coming out with a much different look than anything they’ve ever worn inside Kinnick Stadium.

The uniforms being worn are of the Nike Pro Combat variety, but Iowa is adding a twist to them in honor of Veteran’s Day.

“I’m excited,” senior center James Ferentz said. “Anytime you get to honor the real heroes of this country, obviously you want the servicemen and women of this country to know how proud and thankful we are for them and everything that they do. It’s really an honor to try and pay tribute to them.”

In the past, Kirk Ferentz was always hesitant about experimenting with Nike Pro Combat uniforms and that he had always preferred the traditional look Iowa has when playing at home. On Tuesday, he said the idea for what the Hawkeyes will do this weekend stemmed from Paul Federici, who is the team’s director of football operations.

When the plan first came about, players were given the choice in fall camp for which branch of the Armed Forces it wanted to individually honor. Vandenberg said he would be paying homage to the Iowa National Guard. Hyde will honor the U.S. Army and more specifically, a friend from his hometown who lost his leg while serving the country.

“I just want to commemorate him now for doing his service over there,” Hyde said. “I know we’ve got a lot of people fighting for our freedom, so I just wanted to do that. It’s a big honor.”

Bigach In ’32?

With over 100 players on a football team, there’s certain to be a political divide as to who should be President of the United States in 2012. But when asked about which one of their teammates would most likely be a presidential candidate 20 years from now, one name stood out from the rest — senior defensive tackle Steve Bigach.

“Every Monday, we work out and while we’re stretching, you just hear Bigach yakking away about politics,” junior cornerback B.J. Lowery said. “Everybody’s turning around like, ‘No! Please! Stop, Bigach!'”

Now, Bigach wasn’t the unanimous name. Tobin said his first guess would be Vandenberg because of the leadership he has displayed in the football program throughout his career. Strangely enough, the first name that came to mind for both Bigach and Vandenberg (as well as junior linebacker Christian Kirksey) was junior linebacker James Morris.

“He’s extremely intelligent,” Vandenberg said of Morris. “He certainly comes off as a future governor, a future presidential candidate.”

But aside from those exceptions, every other player who spoke to the media Tuesday, back offensive and defensive players, answered the question with Bigach’s name.

“He’s a bulldog,” junior defensive end Dominic Alvis said. “He’ll confront you with his beliefs and try to debate you. He’s always looking for a good debate.”

When told about being “the clubhouse leader” among his peers, Bigach said he couldn’t see himself ever running for president, even despite his passion for discussing politics.

“I would be a terrible presidential candidate and I could tell you that with 100 percent certainty,” said Bigach, who one teammate of his confirmed was a Mitt Romney supporter in this year’s election. “I’m more slanted one way than the other, so I’m not sure that’d be a good decision for me.”

11/6/2012: Iowa player audio with photos (premium)

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — On Tuesday, 10 members of the Iowa football team spoke with the media to discuss the Hawkeyes’ upcoming game on Nov. 10 against Purdue.

Below is audio from each of the following players — senior wide receiver Keenan Davis, senior defensive tackle Steve Bigach, senior quarterback James Vandenberg, senior center James Ferentz, junior linebacker Christian Kirksey, senior left tackle Matt Tobin, senior cornerback Micah Hyde, junior cornerback B.J. Lowery, sophomore wide receiver Kevonte Martin-Manley and junior defensive end Dominic Alvis: