Kinnick is no picnic. That said, Ohio State coach Ryan Day says his team will be better for going through the experience — if the No. 5 Buckeyes are able to leave Kinnick Stadium with a win over No. 14 Iowa on Saturday.
“This is a big opportunity for our team, I think, to go into a tough road environment against a very good team and go get a win,” Day said. “That certainly would build a lot of momentum for our season as we move forward. This is a huge week for us.”
Ohio State (3-1, 1-0 Big Ten) will make its first trip to Iowa City since 2017. The Hawkeyes won in a blowout that day and eliminated the then-No. 3 Buckeyes from College Football Playoff contention. The Buckeyes won the last two meetings by a combined 89-17 at the Horseshoe in Columbus.
Kinnick is a tough environment for visiting teams because the crowd is raucous, fans are in close proximity because the benches are close to the stands and noise is held in because of the steep vertical rise.
“Have we talked about teams that have gone into Kinnick Stadium and had a hard time and been in absolute dogfights and they play really good at home? Yeah, that's a huge message,” Day said. “But that’s been a message for a long time when we got this schedule. Going on the road this year, we knew this would be part of it, some of the toughest stadiums in the country, and this is one of them.”
On top of the surroundings, there's the way Iowa plays.
The Hawkeyes have a knack for knocking opponents out of rhythm, capitalizing on their mistakes and forcing them into their style of game, which usually is low scoring and rarely pretty. A few years ago, fans wore T-shirts reading “Punting Is Winning.”
Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz was reminded this week his team's name has become part of college football parlance. An opponent that loses despite holding an advantage in most statistical categories is said to have gotten “Iowa'd.”
Ferentz takes it in stride. He and his staff develop mostly three-star recruits to be able to consistently win eight, nine and sometimes 10 games a year. Ohio State brings in bunches of five-stars and chases national championships.
“We’re all in different situations, especially in college football,” he said. “It’s not the NFL. So I think you figure out where you’re at and what you can do and what’s realistic and then go from there. But I talked to our players about that Sunday. We’re not in the entertainment business; we’re trying to win.”
Ferentz isn't worried about his team letting down emotionally after its 20-19 win at Michigan last week. Hank Brown's winning touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee came on the final play.
“I didn’t have to give a talk about trap game because just look who we’re playing,” he said. “That kind of took care of that. That made it easy.”
Day acknowledged he enjoyed watching the way the Hawkeyes took down Ohio State's archrival.
“I thought it was very typical of an Iowa win, where they're very comfortable late in the game like that, punting and playing field postiion and getting the ball back,” he said. “You have got to give them a lot of credit to go down the field in a two-minute drill.”
Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker's biggest challenge will be to come up with a plan to keep star receiver Jeremiah Smith under control. Smith caught 12 passes for 217 yards, both career highs, and tied the Ohio State record with four touchdowns last week in the Buckeyes’ 42-19 victory over Illinois.
“No. 4, we saw him a couple years ago as a freshman, awfully impressive then, and now he’s two years older and more experienced,” Ferentz said. “Probably, I’m guessing, would be in the argument for maybe the top player in the country. If he’s not, he’s certainly in the top handful.”
Apollo Payne, a 6-foot-3, 214-pound second-year receiver, played the role of the 6-4, 222-pound Smith on the scout team at practice this week.
“He’s doing a great job, but it’s still not the same,” Ferentz said. “We’d have to get him platform shoes. I don’t know if they still make those. They certainly don’t in spikes. How do you duplicate that guy unless you get a guy off the basketball team maybe who’s got that kind of quickness and mobility?”
Ohio State FS Jay Timmons, who sustained a lower-body injury against Illinois, was listed as questionable on Wednesday night's availability report, as were TE Bennett Christian and OT Phillip Daniels.
Iowa FS Tyler Brown was listed as out and CB Darion Jones and LB Derek Weisskopf were questionable.
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