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Kirk Ferentz: Hawkeyes focused on getting ‘over the hump’ after back-to-back close losses

Paul Harvey

By Paul Harvey

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Close games are nothing new for Kirk Ferentz and the Hawkeyes, but losing close games will always leave a bad taste in the mouths of players, coaches, and fans.

That is the issue currently facing Iowa after an 0-2 start with both games being decided by a total of five points. After surrendering a touchdown late in the loss to Purdue, Iowa surrendered the lead after racing out to a 17-point lead early against Northwestern.

In the end, the offense fell flat in the second half as the team lost to Pat Fitzgerald’s Wildcats by one point. It’s not a new situation for Iowa, but Ferentz knows the team has to find a way to flip the results:

“The point about the close losses was our main point to the team today,” said Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. “It’s Big Ten play. Historically we have played a lot of close games, so the challenge for us right now is to find a way to get over the hump and make the outcome go a different direction – in our direction. It gets down to being a little more detailed and doing everything collectively a little bit better. We had a better week of practice. I thought that showed Saturday. We showed improvement yesterday, just not quite enough to beat a team that we knew would play well. They make you beat them.”

In Week 3, Iowa will face Michigan State with the Spartans coming off a huge upset of Michigan over the weekend. The big struggle for the Hawkeyes this time around will be a brand new coaching staff for Ferentz and his staff to try and get ready for:

“It seems like forever since we played Michigan State, and they have a new coaching staff so it’s a whole new round of research for us as a staff,” Ferentz said. “We’ve got two games from this year to have some idea what they look like and their personality. That’s a fresh challenge.

“One thing we have to do this week is match up against them. The other thing we have to do is make sure we focus on our improvement and take another positive step. That will get us over the hill here and get us in the victory column, that’s certainly what we need to do right now.”

Be sure to check out all of Ferentz’s comments from Sunday evening as the Hawkeyes try to move on from Week 2:

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.