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College Football Playoff

Iowa is Iowa, the 12-0 team America loves to doubt

Paul Myerberg
USA TODAY Sports
Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard looks downfield in the Hawkeyes 28-20 win Saturday.

LINCOLN, Neb.— On the crown of each Iowa helmet, largely hidden from view, is a yellow decal inset with a three-letter acronym: ANF —America Needs Farmers.

At halftime here at Memorial Stadium, after Nebraska’s late field goal drew the Cornhuskers within four points and breathed life into the home crowd, Iowa players spoke to each other about the year since last season’s rivalry loss. That was strange Iowa, bizzaro Iowa, a collection of individuals rather than a family, players said.

Remember, they said: Football is an 11-man game. We are a 105-person family. Keep together, and let’s win as a team. “We feed off each other,” cornerback Desmond King said.

Thirty minutes later, Iowa beat Nebraska despite not converting a third down, despite running just 44 plays, despite being out-gained by nearly 200 yards, despite being dominated in time of possession. Iowa … well, Iowa played its game and so did Nebraska, and the better team won.

“We said back in August, our goal is to be a championship-level team, a Big Ten championship-level team,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “So today we moved one step closer.”

No. 3 Iowa beats Nebraska to move to 12-0 for first time

The helmet sticker. The style of play, simplistic when compared to the trendy, offense-first teams joining Iowa atop the national polls. The mentality, unchanged since Ferentz’s debut 15 years ago. The schedule, lacking in one high-profile, draw-eyeballs opponent — though not Iowa’s fault, however. The résumé of wins, for the same reason.

The traditional offense, familiar if tweaked slightly by coordinator Greg Davis. The same defense as last year’s, and the year before that, and the decade before that. There is nothing flashy about Iowa — nothing, not one thing, not even an iota. Iowa is Iowa.

Oh, but there’s something undeniably flashy about this: Iowa players and coaches screaming their way through the southwest tunnel of this stadium to a serenade of "12-0!" cheers from its loyal fans, to chants of “Let’s Go Hawkeyes!” amid stunned Nebraska silence.

The Heroes Game Trophy is another notch on Iowa's belt.

That’s flashy, though contained. Tomorrow will bring a new day, and with it a familiar tune from America: Iowa isn’t stylish. Iowa is predictable. Iowa isn’t one of the nation’s best. Iowa couldn’t beat Clemson, or Alabama, or Oklahoma, or even Michigan State, the Hawkeyes’ likely pairing in next weekend’s Big Ten Conference championship game.

“We’re not trying to be pretty, we’re just trying to be productive,” Ferentz said. “This has been our goal from day one. Football is not gymnastics. Here it’s about having one more point than your opponent.

“They’ve been tough-minded really since the season began. They believe in each other and care about each other, and that’s a pretty good combination.”

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But Iowa is 12-0. Iowa is a win away from winning the Big Ten, and a win away from reaching the College Football Playoff. Iowa is three wins away from winning a national championship. Like it or not — and most don’t — Iowa is here, and on its own terms, playing its own style. The Hawkeyes may have lost the battle of perception; they’ve won everything else.

Besides, for a team driven by a bunker mentality — that nothing is more important than the team — there’s energy to be found in doubt. “It still seems like there’s a lot of critics out there,” linebacker Cole Fisher said.

There are critics bemoaning Iowa’s place in the national conversation, and there are doubters questioning the Hawkeyes’ ability to beat the best teams in college football — let alone Nebraska. The Hawkeyes were just one-point favorites against seven-loss Nebraska, even though the Cornhuskers entered Friday on a two-game winning streak. But let this speak for the team’s reputation: Iowa was barely favored against a losing team.

Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard (16) calls a play in the fourth quarter Saturday.

Said linebacker Bo Bower, “You know where you’re at, you know how good you are, and you just go show it on the field. That’s where it counts. It doesn’t count when people are talking on TV and that stuff. Probably drives us more, honestly.”

You know it’s there, said quarterback C.J. Beathard. We try and tune it out, safety Miles Taylor said. Hearing it even now would be a surprise, said Fisher.

“It does fire us up a little bit when you hear some guys saying that stuff, but you keep proving them wrong,” Beathard said. “It’s just … it’s funny to me, it’s funny to the guys, and all you can do and do what we’ve done so far this season, win 12 games.”

In Iowa fashion, the season has been built on that cliché: One game at a time, this one first, next one next, survive and advance. Before the game, Ferentz reminded his team that Nebraska was important, but so was Illinois State, the Hawkeyes’ matchup in the season opener — since Friday wouldn’t have been as important without a win against the Redbirds of the Football Championship Subdivision.

Ferentz has been stressing this idea, “day after day, week after week,” he said. “That’s a challenge. These guys are 12 for 12. You can’t do anything better than that.”

You don’t need to. The Playoff era is young, but this much is already evident: There’s always a place in the four-team field for an unbeaten major-conference champion — regardless of style points or reputation, two nitpicked hallmarks of the Bowl Championship Series. From the start, Iowa has always controlled its own destiny — along with the rest of the Power Five landscape.

Iowa merely came from a distance. The Hawkeyes were nowhere to be found in the preseason Amway Coaches Poll; even Illinois and Maryland received votes. Last season ended on a three-game losing streak, with a shared low point between an overtime loss to Nebraska and a lopsided bowl defeat to Tennessee.

Why is Iowa one win away from a national semifinal? Players grew up. The team came together. Wins developed, and so did confidence. But Iowa never changed, stressing the same basic concepts central to Ferentz’s entire tenure with the program. Iowa is Iowa. Learn to live with it.

“That’s what makes this fun,” said Ferentz. “The highs and the lows. If you’re going to be involved in that you get both. Just to look at our players and what they’ve accomplished, it’s a pretty good feeling.”

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