Tuesdays with Torbee
I remember exactly where I was when I first felt that maybe - just maybe - this Kirk Ferentz fella might be the right guy to replace Hayden Fry after all.
It was just below the spillway of the Coralville Dam on Nov. 4, 2000 – an unseasonably warm day and perfect for walleye fishing. My buddy James and I decided not to stay home and watch the 1-8 Hawkeyes get trounced like they always did to the mighty Penn State back then and go fishing instead. Sure, Iowa had looked passably competitive and even managed to beat a pretty average Michigan State team. But c’mon, a team that lost at home to Western Michigan going into Happy Valley and winning? Hah!
We are big Iowa fans, though, so we kept the radio on just in case. And before you knew it, the fishing rods were put down and our full attention was on the unfolding upset in Beaver Stadium. The post-game interview was the first time I’d heard the “emotional Kirk” that we have come to know and love – and it was at that exact moment my skepticism about his coaching prowess disintegrated.
It was fitting, at least to me, that Coach Ferentz notched his historic 100th Big 10 victory once again at Penn State. The game was not one of the classics in the series. Indeed, Penn State looked more like 1999 Iowa than any Nittany Lions team of recent recognizable vintage much of the day. But nothing has come super easy for Ferentz at Iowa, so celebrating a milestone in an agonizingly quiet cavernous stadium due to a raging pandemic seems somehow fitting. If there’s one thing that is a common thread through two decades of the Ferentz tenure, it is facing and subsequently conquering adversity.
Since he’s a Pennsylvania native, it’s easy to see why beating Penn State is important to Ferentz. Truth be told, it’s always been one of my favorite series as well. I was a sophomore at Iowa the year Penn State joined the Big 10, and my boss at the time had transferred from State College to Iowa City. Like our friends to the west did a few years later, this Penn State fan loudly and proudly announced that the Lions would dominate the Big 10 and lowly Iowa for the foreseeable future. That put a chip on my fan shoulder, especially as PSU proceeded to win the first three games it played against Iowa as a fellow conference member.
The fact Ferentz went on to win seven of the next eight against the Nits only helped solidify my affinity for his coaching.
So many of the games are memorable for one reason or another. The 6-4 slobber knocker with the “F-U safety” is the most beautiful ugly football game I’ve ever seen. The coach’s tears after, a few days after losing his father, was especially moving. “The Kick” by Daniel Murray to sink PSU’s national championship hopes in a frigid Kinnick is another indelible memory. As is Adrian Clayborn’s primetime punt return to help seal the road victory in 2009.
If beating Penn State is like getting the best of your preppy, snobby cousin from out East, brawling with Nebraska is like fighting off a scruffy hoodlum who tries to jump you in the Dollar Store parking lot in Grand Island with an eye on stealing your six pack of Busch Light. Sure, you’re going to knock him out eventually, but he might try to knee you in the groin first. And you just know he’s going to take off his shirt to show you his 1991 Citrus Bowl tattoo.
It is entertaining in a different way, but still satisfying. Especially as Nebraska – players and fans – seem to never stop talking smack even while getting beat.
After the last two meetings with the ‘huskers, I should probably be more concerned about the pending Black Friday contest. But I watched the entirety of Nebraska-Illinois and Iowa-Penn State and frankly, I’m having trouble seeing how the Cornhuskers can stand up to Iowa. Nebraska was manhandled on both signs of the line of scrimmage by the Illini. And with the way Iowa plowed through the Lion lines, one can expect to see more of the same Friday.
I know the name McCaffery still comes with a trigger warning for Iowa fans who remember the 2016 Rose Bowl, but the younger brother is a pale comparison. The kid has wheels, but doesn’t throw much better than Tommy Armstrong and likes to put the ball in harm’s way. In the past, even if the team seemed a little soft overall, Nebraska skill position players passed the eye test. I don’t really feel that way in 2020. Their roster overall looks more like Illinois or Rutgers than Iowa or Wisconsin.
I may have to eat my words after I eat my Thanksgiving bird, but I feel a big Iowa beatdown of Nebraska coming. Let’s make it 101.
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