COLUMN: Pain is only temporary, but victory is forever

     I have no idea if the Hawkeye coaching staff used any propaganda to get the Hawkeyes fired up last Saturday when they took on the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes, but judging from post-game player comments, a strong, focused week of practice made all the difference in this game.

     Most Hawk fans I talked to prior to this game had written off the Hawks way before kickoff. Admittedly, I was among that group. The way Iowa played against Northwestern had me believing that this is indeed a rebuilding year with a rather young group of players.

     And the fact that their experience on the offensive line hadn’t met expectations, maybe the Hawks could salvage enough wins to become bowl eligible.

     So 8 seconds into the game the Hawks took the lead on a pick six and really never looked back. Sure, they traded scores throughout the first quarter and no way could you count out the sixth ranked Buckeyes and their ability to strike quick.

     But the Hawks kept slinging away, much liked many of us fans hoped they would do throughout the season. I like it when a team is able to finish strong and this team did.

     Sometime late in the third quarter I still felt that Iowa hadn’t scored enough points. Then I did the math and realized they had more than doubled the score on Ohio State, 38-17.

     For the Buckeyes to come back they would need to stop Iowa and score on every possession in the fourth quarter. That’s a lot of unanswered points. Well as we know, Iowa ran through and passed over the highly-rated Buckeyes to secure perhaps one of the top 5 wins in recent history.

     Effort and preparation. We keep hearing it post-game after every Ferentz press conference. It sounds like the old coach knows what he is saying.