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Kirk Ferentz ‘incredibly proud’ of Iowa’s performance vs. Penn State
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Everyone donning the black and gold on Saturday inside Kinnick Stadium wishes they could have those four seconds back. The players, coaches, fans all wish the outcome had been different in Iowa City.
Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, they dropped their first game of the year, falling to 3-1 and opening B1G play with a loss. And while everyone was disappointed with the outcome, head coach Kirk Ferentz said he was incredibly proud of his team’s performance against No. 4 Penn State.
"I am incredibly proud of the effort and the toughness our guys played with. They just did a heck of a job." — Kirk Ferentz #Hawkeyes
— HawkeyeFBNotes (@HawkeyeFBNotes) September 24, 2017
Iowa looked like it might pull another upset under the lights at Kinnick on Saturday, but 1:42 proved to be too much time as the Nittany Lions drove down the field quickly and Trace McSorley found Juwan Johnson for the game-winning touchdown with no time remaining on the clock.
Saturday’s game drew a huge crowd, which was electric and excited for most of the evening. Ferentz appreciated the fan support that night, too.
"Night games in Kinnick are always very special, and the crowd was unbelievable tonight. We're very appreciative of that." — Kirk Ferentz
— HawkeyeFBNotes (@HawkeyeFBNotes) September 24, 2017
There’s still plenty of B1G football to be played, so if Iowa continues to play as well as it did against Penn State, it could have a real chance to play in the B1G Championship in Indianapolis for the second time in three seasons.
Next Saturday, the Hawkeyes travel to East Lansing for another cross-division game against Michigan State.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB