IOWA CITY -- Following Iowa's 32-20 loss to Michigan State on Saturday, the preseason dream of reaching the College Football Playoff ended not with a bang, but a whimper. With a record of 4-3, it'd take a miracle for Kirk Ferentz and his team to reach the promised land.
Despite those goals effectively being off the table, Ferentz and the team are determined to stay focused on the remainder of the season ahead.
"We have to move on, and that started yesterday morning," Ferentz said in his opening remarks at Tuesday's media availability. "[The rest of the season] has to be about improvement, and that's each and every week. You have to try to do a better job, and we certainly had some things off the tape that we've got to work on."
Some of the veterans and leaders of the team echoed much of Ferentz's sentiment.
"I think Coach Ferentz does a good job of just keeping us focused on improving," senior quarterback and captain, Cade McNamara said. "The results are the results, but if we're not getting better every day, the results aren't going to add up. ... Win or lose, whatever the results are, we're just trying to get better every day. As competitors, as football players, that's all we can do."
"We always talk about big, lofty goals," fellow senior and captain Luke Lachey added. "At the end of the day, we're just trying to win each game. You can't look to far ahead, we've just got to worry about what's ahead of us."
Defensive lineman Deontae Craig was willing to acknowledge that moving forward with the season won't exactly be easy for him, or the other older guys.
"Honestly, I think it's more challenging for the older guys, because we don't have as much time left as some of the younger guys on the team," Craig said. "After Iowa State, hearing Coach Ferentz say, 'We're not going undefeated. We're not going undefeated at home,' that was obviously difficult. Here, with three losses, our chances for a Big Ten title might not be there anymore, and it's tough."
Craig continued though, noting his gratitude for the remainder of the season and the opportunities that lie ahead.
"At the end of the day, we're still playing for something," he said. "We play for the guys next to each other. We've still got a chance to get nine wins, hopefully ten if we make a bowl game. We've got a lot of memories left to make. ... All you can do is try to make the best of it."
Sixth-year cornerback Jermari Harris chimed in with a similar message.
"We have five opportunities left, and we have practice tomorrow," he said. "It's simplifying things down to that -- having a goal of making today the best day possible. If we look at it like that, we have a lot of goals ahead of us still. There's a lot of goals to achieve and a lot of work to be done."
"There's always an opportunity to play and go block somebody," said starting right tackle Gennings Dunker. "That's what I'm playing for, and I'm playing for Coach [George] Barnett, Coach Ferentz and the guys [on the team], so there's always an opportunity on Saturday, even if we're 1-8 or whatever."
Ferentz is effectively in a wait and see mode to watch how his team responds to the hole they've dug for themselves part way through the season.
"It depends on the team. Every week is a new game," he said. "Clearly we weren't in a place Saturday where we need to be if we're going to start by winning just a game and then beyond that."
Over the last eight years, Iowa has gone 4-4 against Northwestern, and that trend will be put to this test this weekend in a game where they opened as 14.5-point favorites.
"We're playing a team that we've got a lot of respect for, and they've proven they're certainly capable," Ferentz said. '[They got a] really good win a couple weeks ago at Maryland, and Maryland just had a big win [over USC]. It's week-to-week, and you really have to stay focused on that, and the teams that do that the best probably are the teams that are going to be most successful."
