Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz defended his program’s fanbase when he met with the media on Tuesday afternoon.

When Ferentz was asked about the fans booing Penn State all game, he used the clever saying of “They smelled a rat” to describe how they were feeling during the game.

Ferentz’s reference comes as many Hawkeye fans speculated that Penn State players were faking injuries throughout the course of the game. After the game, Penn State’s James Franklin denied that accusation.

Ferentz also said that for as long as he’s been at Iowa, this was just the 2nd time that the opposing team has had injury timeouts with a few players returning quickly after.

He also knows that faking injuries is an ongoing practice around sports and again didn’t care that the fans booed.

That said, Ferentz did feel bad for the Nittany Lions players who were legitimately injured as some didn’t come back to the game (like quarterback Sean Clifford).

The Hawkeyes ended up coming back from a 14-point deficit to win 23-20 against the Nittany Lions. Iowa’s next test will come against Purdue this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET.