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Northwestern and Iowa jostling AGAIN for Big Ten West supremacy?
– Said no one, ever.
In recent years (for Pat Fitzgerald) and in recent forever (Kirk Ferentz), folks have wondered why the Northwestern and Iowa football coaches (respectively) aren’t having more success than they are.
At least for 2015, you can go ahead and get some warm milk, honey, and just to make sure, some codeine for those opinions. They need some rest.
Iowa won a sloppy 10-6 affair over Wisconsin that was pretty much whatever a bad hangover would look like if it were a football game.
The Hawkeyes had nearly 100 fewer yards, threw for fewer than 80, and were horribly inefficient on third downs (33 percent). Meanwhile, they held Wisconsin to under 3 yards per carry and forced four turnovers as the Badgers pretty much looked like a guy who’s had a few too many fumbling through his keys trying to get in the apartment at 3:30 a.m.
It was Iowa’s first win over a ranked opponent in 10 games.
Meanwhile, Northwestern, who needed an EKG last week in dispensing Ball State, played fatal-mistake free ball (in spite of three fumbles they recovered for themselves) while destroying Minnesota, 27-0.
These are strange times in the Big Ten West, where when Nebraska came over by way of the Big 12, it was assumed to be the yin to Wisconsin’s yang. For the most part, it’s gone to form, with the yang getting a whole lot more bang for their buck than the yin.
Now, don’t get me wrong … Wisconsin isn’t out of it and neither are the Huskers, but it’s fair to say at this point that neither have looked the part and obviously, have those “loss” things hanging over them.
It’d be disrespectful to say Northwestern and Iowa came out of nowhere. We all know the potential that has been there, but I don’t think most outside of those locker rooms assumed they would be the teams to beat in the division and rapidly distancing themselves by midseason.
From here on out, Iowa has the much easier road. They somehow miss Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State from the East. Northwestern, meanwhile, goes to Michigan next week before returning home against that Iowa team. They also play Penn State, whom the Hawkeyes miss, though it’s still undecided as to what PSU really is.
That being said, there is likely to be new, in-uncharted-territory blood in the Big Ten championship game, which is great for the conference. Fitzgerald and Ferentz have taken more grief than they deserve, probably, but that’s the nature of the beast when you get paid what coaches do these days.
The turnaround has been immediate and fortuitous in terms of the schedule. It seems like the path to success in the West is the one that goes through the gravel road around Columbus and East Lansing, and if you’re Iowa … Ann Arbor.
Avoidance is en vogue.
And so … for half the marbles … Northwestern versus Iowa, just like we (none) thought.
