Iowa Crushes Michigan State: Coach Ferentz Learns From Past Mistakes

Iowa was up 23-0 with 2:41 remaining in the second quarter. They had just gotten the ball back at their own 30-yard line.

This would be a typical ultra-conservative Kirk Ferentz end of the half, right? He would sit on the ball, and go into the half with an impressive and somewhat comfortable 23-0 lead.

Maybe, if Iowa busted a big run that got them over the 50-yard line, they might try to get into field goal range.

That is what it looked like after the first two plays of the drive. Iowa backup running back Marcus Coker rushed for six and three yards on consecutive plays, and the Hawks bled one minute off the clock.

At third-and-one, the Hawks lined up with one receiver, two tight ends, a halfback and a fullback; a typical short-yardage package. They ran the play after trimming 30 seconds off the play clock. It still seemed obvious that they were going for the first down and halftime.

However, at this point, Ferentz and offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe took the collective breath out of Kinnick Stadium.

Quarterback Ricky Stanzi ran a play action and completed a 56-yard bomb to tight end Brad Herman. The pass in question left Iowa on the Michigan State five-yard line with 1:08 to go.

After an MSU penalty, an Adam Robinson two-yard touchdown run and a Mike Meyer extra point, Iowa found itself up 30-0.

And Ferentz still wasn't done.

The Spartans took the kickoff with 54 seconds remaining. Once again, the typical Kirk Ferentz philosophy would have been to take a 30-0 lead into the half.

Instead, as Michigan State tried to run the clock out, Ferentz called for two timeouts, trying to force MSU into a mistake—one that they almost made with a Larry Caper fumble; a fumble that Caper wound up recovering.

In the end, Iowa won 37-6. More notably, as has always been the case throughout the Kirk Ferentz era, the Hawks and their head man have learned from their mistakes.

Last week, in a devastating one-point loss to the Wisconsin Badgers, Ferentz took some heat for failing to go for the kill shot against UW when the Hawkeyes had the lead for a substantial portion of the fourth quarter.

He took some of that same heat the week before in a 38-28 win against Michigan; a game that saw Iowa up by 21 points, before the Wolverines came dangerously close to mounting a successful comeback.

Typically, I am a strict adherent of Ferentz's conservatism. After all, with a record of 83-38 since 2001—including two Big Ten championships and two BCS bowl berths—it is hard to argue with his philosophy.

However, this season, it is apparent that he has an efficient, dangerous, high powered offense that can be trusted to score points and take care of the ball. Most notable is his senior signal caller who, coming into this week, was second in the country in passing efficiency. 

Combine that with special teams that have been inconsistent at best, a defense that is somewhat injury-plagued and has occasionally underperformed, as well as a schedule that has been and is chock full of powerful offensive teams. With all of that in mind, it just seems that by handcuffing his offense, Ferentz has been shooting himself and his team in the foot.

Now, it appears that the handcuffs are off.

Certainly, at heart, he is still the Kirk Ferentz that in 2004, took a safety against Penn State and allowed his defense to salt away a 6-4 win over Penn State.

But it appears that going forward this year, quarterback Ricky Stanzi has the proverbial keys to the car, and Ferentz, as usual, is not about to make the same mistake twice.