Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz prepares for Ohio State football team that's 'hard to simulate'
Ahead of his program’s first trip to Ohio Stadium in nine years, Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz couldn’t help but look back to that matchup in 2013.
It was a game Ohio State was able to dominate offensively, helped by a 149-yard and two-touchdown performance by running back Carlos Hyde along with 324 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns by quarterback Braxton Miller, leading the Buckeyes to a 34-24 win against the Hawkeyes.
“I remember it felt like they had 12 guys on the field with Braxton Miller and a first-round running back,” Ferentz said. “It was really tough.
“They just put the pressure on you.”
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Ohio State has dominated its history against Iowa, winning 46 of 64 meetings, including 13 of their last 15 matchups.
But ahead of Iowa’s next attempt to win at Ohio Stadium Saturday at noon, Ferentz said Tuesday the approach against the Buckeyes remains the same: try to hold the ball as long as the offense can and keep the ball away from Ohio State’s offense.
“That’s kind of what it takes,” Ferentz said. “You have to try and keep the score close and try to find a way, maybe, to create something, see what we can do.”
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It’s something Iowa’s defense has been able to do against its first six opponents in 2022.
The Hawkeyes have the No. 2 scoring defense and No. 5 total defense in the Big Ten, allowing 9.8 points and 264.7 yards per game, while coming into their seventh game as one of two conference teams, along with Illinois, to allow less than four yards per play.
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Now, Ferentz has to face an Ohio State offense that is No. 1 in scoring offense in college football, a unit that the Iowa coach said could “score points in a hurry” and was as explosive of a unit as the Hawkeyes have seen this season.
For Ferentz, the dynamic offense starts with Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud.
“Stroud looks like he’s 28 years old back there,” Ferentz said. “He’s a really good football player. Just total control. You know, really talented.”
For Iowa, what Ohio State does offensively is “hard to simulate” for Ferentz. He said he uses running backs and defensive backs that were quarterbacks in high school to replicate Stroud, but that the Hawkeyes don’t have the personnel to do what wide receivers like Marvin Harrison Jr. can do, and will, instead, focus on “smart technique” and keeping the ball in front of them.
“If you listen to our defensive guys, the thing that impresses them when you watch them… it is tough to knock them off the tracks,” Ferentz said. “It’s tough to get them behind in the count. Good defenses try to do that to offenses to try and make them go the long field, third-and-longs and those type of things. It’s not easy to do with this football team because they are just really adept at what they do.”
Defensively, Ferentz views Ohio State as “talented at all three levels” that is multiple in scheme and plays in sync, proving it tough for opposing offenses to get points or move the ball against.
To Ferentz, Ohio State poses the same challenges Michigan brought to Iowa, beating the Hawkeyes 27-14.
“It’s like the team we played a few weeks ago,” Ferentz said. “Every play you’ve got to be on top of your game or it can be sudden death real fast for you.”
Ohio State football's 2022 schedule
Sept. 3: Ohio State 21, Notre Dame 10
Sept. 10: Ohio State 45, Arkansas State 12
Sept. 17: Ohio State 77, Toledo 21
Sept. 24: Ohio State 52, Wisconsin 21
Oct. 1: Ohio State 49, Rutgers 10
Oct. 8: Ohio State 49, Michigan State 20
Oct. 29: Ohio State vs. Penn State, State College, Pa., noon
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Iowa's Kirk Ferentz prepares football team to face Ohio State
