Time to Fall for Cinderella Hawkeyes

Even for Iowa, this was a tightrope walk on dental floss, Russian roulette with a double barrel shotgun, riding the demolition derby on a dirt bike.

Even for Iowa, the team that three times has trailed after the end of the third quarter only to rally, that has won games both with a touchdown and a blocked field goal as time expired, a team that must have a separate equipment truck just to haul all its rabbits' feet, this safely qualified as flirting with disaster.

Even for Iowa, Saturday's 42-24 win over Indiana safely qualifies as a comeback.

"Bottom line," said Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz, speaking awfully clearly for a man whilstling past the graveyard, "the guys are finding a way to get it done."

And when it was over, the backlash against the team everyone loves to bash came fast and furious . Even for Iowa.

Saturday, the Hawkeyes again dusted off a few plays from Halas and a few from Houdini.As the fourth quarter began, the Hawkeyes had already muffed a punt inside their own 5-yard-line leading to an Indiana touchdown, suffered quarterback Ricky Stanzi throwing five interceptions (yet Stanzi still managed to be more accurate than the bungling Big Ten replay crew), and trailed 24-14 after generally making a mess of things (even for Iowa).

But the bounces had already started for Iowa, in ways improbable even for the Hawkeyes. With Iowa trailing 21-7 in the third quarter and with Indiana on the 2-yard line, the Hawkeyes finally got a break. Five of them.

It wasn't a football play. It was a curiosity of physics, Minnesota Fats on Iowa faux-grass. Blitzing Iowa linebacker A.J. Edds yanked back the arm of Indiana quarterback Ben Chappell, popping the ball up in the air. It then deflected off the back of Tyler Sash's helmet, off of Indiana tackle James Brewer, then Iowa tackle Christian Ballard, once more off Chappell and into the waiting arms of Sash, who sprinted 86 yards for a sorely needed touchdown.

Got it? If so, read it back to us. The magic bullet theory was easier to follow.

And then Iowa scored 28 points in the fourth quarter tor an 18-point victory. Two touchdown passes from the previously erratic Stanzi, coupled with tackling that wouldn't have even elicited a foul call in Big Ten basketball, and the rout was on.

Just like that, the thrill-seeking Iowa Hawkeyes had just bungeed their way from defeat to victory

"It's clearly just two different ballgames," Ferentz said about his team. "They were totally in charge of the game for quite a while. And then the game turned," Ferentz said. "So, you know, just can't say enough about our players. They continue to battle and fight and find a way to be successful. One thing they'll do, they'll play the entire game."

And as it became obvious Iowa would win its ninth straight game of the season in the most cringe-worthy fashion possible, the hand-wringing began in earnest.

From the sheer volume of hysterics about the team, which vaulted to No. 4 in the BCS rankings Sunday, you'd think they the French national anthem be played before games and beaujolais replace Budweiser at the pre-game tailgate.

So, if we may, what the heck is so bad about Iowa?

Certainly, they're not the most talented team, even their coach will admit to that .Ferentz talked about his team being ranked at the top of the computer polls the previous week in a mystified tone and meant it, not simply the usual keep-the-hype-down coachspeak.

But the Hawks never say die and find ways to win, which, before the college football came down to polls and decimals points, used to the point of the game.

Surprising, we know. But there was a time when games were played for victories, rather than entertainment value, and Iowa's 9-0 record would have meant more than its sex appeal.

If this were college basketball, we'd call them a Cinderella team, when not breathlessly blabbing about grit and determination and other clichés, In college hoops, they'd be on the front of Sports Illustrated.

In college football, they're an affront to the sport.

What's unclear, exactly, is why.



The Hawkeyes won't sneak into the BCS title game, so don't cry into your spread-option playbook about that possibility. Two-thirds of the BCS ranking belong to poll voters and they're three-thirds tired of the Big Ten stinking up the high holy week of college football (The Big Ten, of course, hasn't won a BCS game since taking both the Orange and the Fiesta after the 2005 season, and none of its entrants in that time frame, all losers, have been as unexciting as Iowa).

Even if the Hawks finish with an unblemished record, they would likely be passed over in favor of an undefeated Texas, Cincinnati, and possibly TCU and Boise State. One-loss Oregon will likely finish ahead of the Hawkeyes if the poll voters are forced to decided between the two.

And Iowa probably will lose a game before season's end. Like most Cinderella teams, the Hawkeyes are coming into their own depth problems. The punt fumbled just before halftime was muffed by their third-string punt returner, while they're burning through running backs like Spinal Tap changed drummers. True freshman Brandon Wegher became the thid No. 1 running back this season, counting back to Jewel Hampton's season-ending injury in August. (Wegher, a highly touted recruit, performed well against Indiana, but wait on the coronation -- the Hoosiers gave up 295 yards rushing to Virginia, the nation's 107th-ranked rush attack and a team that has now lost to both an FCS team and Duke).

No team makes it through a college season healthy, and unlike Florida or Alabama that throw four-and-five star replacements by the shovel full. Iowa is a much thinner team and these things matter by the final weeks of the season.

If depth doesn't catch up to them, these slow starts certainly will. Even if you're Iowa, the old Western star that time and time again falls off a cliff only to find a root conveniently protruding from the rocks, you can only spot a team a lead so many times and rally.

But for the moment, they're winning in ways parts improbable and parts exciting.

What's not to like?

Sure, they're not as glamorous as the NFL-laden rosters of USC or Oklahoma two teams, by the way, long since eliminated from title contention. But did anyone get this offended when George Mason beat Connecticut in the 2006 NCAA tournament, a Huskies team that would send a record-tying four first-round draft picks into the NBA that June?? Does anyone look back at the 1983 men's basketball national championship game and crack one-liners at N.C. State's boring basketball because Thurl Bailey and a bunch of never-weres beat a team featuring Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler? Did anyone call Tampa Bay a fraud when that perennial loser ousted the Red Sox on the way to the 2008 World Series?

Or did we just cheer, like you're supposed to do when a team finds a way to win against all odds? Isn't that precisely what makes watching sports great? When David steps between the lines with Goliath and gives the big fella a giant-sized headache? (Note to Ferentz: Don't let Stanzi hurl your rock.).

Only in college football can the wonderful unpredictability of sports, the whimsy of the litte-team-that-could, become a reason to pillory a program..

They don't win pretty, and they don't win easy, but they win every week.

And that's something worth cheering.

Even for Iowa.