AFM Home | Back Issues | Apr 2004 | If at First You Don’t Succeed

If at First You Don’t Succeed
After watching his Hawkeyes lose 38-17 to USC in the 2003 Orange Bowl, Kirk Ferentz looked to the coaches of those teams that DID have bowl game success.

By Steve Silverman

One nasty defeat gnawed away at Kirk Ferentz’s gut for a full year. When Iowa rolled through the Big Ten schedule in 2002 and won eight straight games without a loss, it was one of the top stories in college football. Ferentz, then in his fourth season as head coach of the Hawkeyes, figured his team would be competitive in the Big Ten, but critics saw them as a middle of the pack team.

With mobile Brad Banks at quarterback and Fred Russell getting the job done at running back, the Hawkeyes had one of the most versatile attacks in the country and also brought a hard-hitting and ferocious defense as well. The Hawkeyes exceeded all expectations.

Ferentz thought his team was well-prepared and ready for battle when the Hawkeyes went to Miami to play explosive USC in the Orange Bowl. The Trojans boasted QB Carson Palmer, lightning-quick RB Justin Fargas and freshman sensation Mike Williams at the WR slot. They kept relatively silent as they prepared for the bowl, while Hawkeye players talked openly of their own toughness winning out over USC’s speed.

It did not happen that way as USC took apart the Hawkeyes 38-17. Not only did the Trojans come at the Hawkeyes with a ton of speed, they also won the battle in the trenches.

After the game, Ferentz was not thinking about an undefeated run through the Big Ten or going 11-1 during the regular season. Instead, he couldn’t fathom how his team could come to the Orange Bowl and not play its best game.

“We had worked so hard and been so consistent during the year that to come down to Miami and not play our best game just didn’t make sense,” Ferentz said. “Once the game was over, it was too late to do anything about the results, but I was bound and determined that that would not happen again. We would change our preparation and change the way we got ready for the bowl game.

“Losing, you can handle, but not losing and playing poorly,” said Ferentz prior to playing Florida in the Outback Bowl. “I think we’ve done a better job from start to finish in terms of our preparation. But is it a good plan? Bad plan? We’ll know after the ballgame. It’s like anything, if you play well, that was great. If you don’t, you’re always looking for reasons.”

The reasons for Iowa’s poor performance against USC included the inability to get off the field on defense, an uncharacteristic failure to stop the run and 13 penalties.

The 21-point loss spurred him and his team throughout the 2003 regular season. But even before the year began, Ferentz started preparing for a potential bowl game. He knew the Big Ten had affiliations with seven bowl games, so he prepared itineraries and practice schedules for each bowl long in advance.

To make those plans, Ferentz got input from each one of his 10 assistant coaches. In the offseason, he had each assistant call another coach from teams who had been successful in their bowl games. If there were any earth-shattering ideas, he could incorporate them into his gameplan.

“It was just something that I thought made a lot of sense,” Ferentz told American Football Monthly exclusively. “The game had been so painful the year before and it stayed with me a long time. I knew I couldn’t guarantee that we would win if we got to go to another bowl, but I wanted to make sure our guys gave a great effort and left everything on the field. I wanted to get input from my staff and I wanted them to do some research on the subject.

“I was not about to be intrusive or cross the line, but I wanted my assistants to call people they were comfortable talking to and get a few ideas. Nothing overly radical, but I just wanted to take advantage of the fraternity of coaches. We don’t pretend to know everything and we just wanted to see if we were missing anything that we should have known.”

What Ferentz found is that the long break between the end of the regular season and a January bowl game is a major factor. To not gameplan for it is to make a mistake.

Ferentz had not pushed his players as hard after the 2002 regular season and he was not about to let up in practice the next time around. “You want to keep them as sharp as possible,” Ferentz explained. “Prior to the USC game, we practiced hard but there was quite a bit of time off as well. I think one of the things I learned and one of the things we gleaned from talking to other coaches was that the consistency of effort in practice mattered and it mattered a lot.

“I wasn’t going to keep the players from enjoying the bowl experience, but I certainly wanted to keep them aware of the reason they were there in the first place and that was to take care of business and win the game.”

Ferentz was able to put that plan into effect at the end of the 2003 season. While the Hawkeyes lost Big Ten games to Purdue, Michigan State and Ohio State, they had another fine year, going 9-3 and very deserving of the bowl matchup with Florida. Ferentz knew his team was not about to take the Gators lightly – they were the only team to beat the eventual national champion LSU Tigers.

Just like the USC matchup the year before, the Gators were a talented and deep team with plenty of speed. This time, though, the Hawkeyes were not about to open their mouths and talk about how hard they hit and how they would overpower the Gators. Ferentz was not interested in seeing his team give their opponents any bulletin board material.

At the same time, Florida players did not hesitate to woof a little bit and Gator head coach Ron Zook gave the Hawkeyes something to chew on when he referred to All-America PK Nate Kaeding as a “backup running back.”

“I’ll refrain from commenting on that,” Kaeding said. “My mom always said don’t talk unless you have something good to say.”

Kaeding’s teammates were not as quiet about the gaffe. “That was some motivation,” said junior right guard Pete McMahon, who spent most of the game winning his battle in the trenches. “It felt like they weren’t respecting us. That made us want to come out here right from the get-go and just pound it down their throat.”

Score one for the Hawkeyes. Insulting and therefore inspirational comments by opponents are nearly as old as the game itself and any time one team stays quiet and the other talks, it’s a big advantage.

But not nearly as big an advantage as simply staying home and taking care of business. Well, maybe not at home, but staying in the team hotel. While the Hawkeyes regularly got out in Miami and went out with friends and family members prior to the loss to USC, the preparation and the routine was much stricter in Tampa. Ferentz wanted his players preparing for the Gators by studying film and gameplans. His players had plenty of enjoyable activities, but they had no problem with eschewing some of them in order to take care of their primary business.

Iowa’s itinerary for the Outback Bowl included a day at the beach, a trip to an amusement park, a night watching hockey and an evening playing video games. “There were plenty of things to do, but guys did go back to the hotel to rest,” Iowa defensive tackle Jared Clauss said. “We know from experience, the fresher our legs are, the better.”

Linebacker Grant Steen said the Hawkeyes learned a huge lesson in the loss to USC. “A lot of guys stuck around the hotel and watched film instead of going out,” Steen said. “I think we learned a lot from last year’s experience from the coaches all the way down through the players.”

Players’ families were well aware of the difference. They noticed that players were much more fatigued prior to the Florida game than they were heading into the USC game. Hard practice sessions are known to do just that.

While the Hawkeyes did take some time away from practice because of university-wide final exams, Ferentz got his team back to work as quickly as he could.

“I thought it was very important to get back to the practice field as quickly as possible,” Ferentz said. “I wanted to make sure we were sharp and we were on top of our game. You do that by practicing and building on your strengths and improving all aspects of your game. You don’t want to overwork your players – and I don’t think we did – but you want them to understand why you are there in the first place and what your goals are.”

The lessons came across very well as the Hawkeyes overwhelmed and overpowered the favored Gators 37-17. Iowa gave up a 70-yard TD pass to Florida QB Chris Leak for the first score of the game, but there was no sense of panic and no lack of belief in the Iowa gameplan. After the Hawkeyes tied the score on a Nathan Chandler TD pass on the following possession, it was all about following through and executing Ferentz’s gameplan. The result was a memorable and somewhat shocking performance.

Even before the game started, Iowa players knew that something special was on tap. “I did sense it, and you could just tell during the week that everyone was prepared and ready and focused and determined and dedicated,” senior strong safety Bob Sanders said. “And when you get a group of guys who have all those key things, how can you lose?”

Ferentz said the primary lesson learned during his offseason preparation was that the football game would not just take care of itself. Practice and gameplanning had to be the major focus – not the hype surrounding the postseason appearance. “We let them know we were going to come down prepared to win a football game,” Ferentz said. “That’s the thing that was hardest to live with against USC. We didn’t play our best. When you don’t play in a way that is representative of your football team, that’s not good. I think that was our number one goal.”

It was not a hard sell to his players. They all remembered the pain of the defeat to USC and the experience had helped steel them during the year. When Ferentz increased the intensity level in preparing for the Gators, his players were not about to protest.

“I knew that everyone was on the same page as we got ready for Florida,” Ferentz said. “And that’s what I believe is the most important aspect to playing in a bowl game or any big game. Everyone understood why the preparation was a little bit different than it had been the year before. We weren’t ready to play our best game and that bothered me – but more importantly, it also bothered them.

“As a coaching staff we did whatever we could to study the situation, figure out a solution and turn it around. But all of that preparation would not have mattered if the players had not bought into it and given their best. We all responded to the challenge and I couldn’t have been happier.”

That’s why Ferentz is one of the most respected coaches in the game and one who is often on the “short list” for NFL teams who have head coaching openings. He knows how to respond to defeat and put in a winning gameplan.

Preparing for the Postseaon Experience is always the best teacher. When Kirk Ferentz took the 2002 Iowa Hawkeyes to the Orange Bowl to face a powerful USC team, he thought his team was well-prepared and ready to play a great game. He thought so, but he couldn’t be sure. Iowa had not won a January bowl game since the end of the 1958 season when legendary head coach Forest Evashevski led the Hawkeyes to a 38-12 win over California in the 1959 Rose Bowl. Since that game, the Hawkeyes had played in three January bowl games - and had lost them all. Going into the USC game, the Hawkeyes had been off for six full weeks since defeating Minnesota 45-21 on Nov. 16. While the team had finished the regular season with a nine-game winning streak, that was not going to be enough to stop USC. The Trojans defeated the Hawkeyes 38-17 in the Orange Bowl and the defeat left a bitter taste in Ferentz’s mouth. Throughout the offseason, he came up with a scheme and a plan so that his team would come up with a better effort if they were fortunate enough to get to a January bowl game again. The effort paid off when they defeated Florida in the Outback Bowl 37-17. “The postseason is the big payoff in coaching, whether it’s in high school, college or the professional level,” said Ferentz, who has coached at all three levels. “A great effort in a bowl game or a high-school playoff game is not going to come about because you want it to, you have to build to that level.” “When games are played every week, you have your normal schedule and rhythm,” Ferentz said. “But when there’s a lot of time off between games, I believe you have to build to a peak effort. That comes about as a result of sharp practice sessions that are designed with specific goals.” Finding those goals may be the key toward making every practice count. When a game is 10 days or two weeks away, it may be hard for some players to keep their focus. Another aspect appears to be an obvious one, and that’s not giving an opponent bulletin board material. Year-in and year-out, players will taunt and mock their opponents prior to a big game, only to turn around and get hit in the mouth. Football is a game of hitting and collisions – and there’s no reason to give an opponent additional motivation. But nothing helps a team more than experience. “Getting prepared to play USC in the Orange Bowl really helped us against Florida the next year,” Ferentz said. “We knew what we did wrong and what we needed to improve on. The previous year we didn’t have anything to lean on. Experience is always the best teacher.”