Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says he knows the noise surronding the program is high right now but the Hawkeyes can’t let it effect them as the look ahead to the final four weeks of the season. The criticism of Ferentz and the program has jumped several notches the past couple of weeks after losses to Penn State and Northwestern.

“Noise is not uncommon to sports I think, it’s just a matter of where the noise is, back in the old days it used to be in taverns and pubs, coffee shops, and now…you don’t have to go as far or look as far to find it,or hear about it I guess it’s part of sports,” Ferentz says.

“People are going to talk about anything, whether it’s going good, bad, or indifferent. If you’re involved in it, you’d better — we all like riding in parades. I’ve said that before. It’s a lot more fun. But when you do things competitively, it’s going to go both ways. What you need to focus on is what’s in front of you, and try to make it go the right way.”

Ferentz says it has always been a part of coaching.

 “You know I would say this, it was tough coaching 30 years ago if you had rabbit ears. Marv Levy said it pretty well, I heard him at a seminar one time. If you spent too much time listening to the people in the stands, you’re going to be sitting right up there with them. It’s true. It’s anything you do in life. You have beliefs in what you do, and you try to be as smart as you can. Anybody who makes decisions isn’t going to be 100 percent, if you’re making decisions, especially regarding people, it’s impossible to be 100 percent. So you do what you think’s best, and you try to approach things in a smart way, and then you go,” according to Ferentz.

The Hawkeyes are 4-4 as they prepare for this week’s visit to Indiana and they need two more victories to become eligible for a bowl. Ferentz says the best thing they can do right now is to take care of this week and the other stuff will fall into place.

The Hoosiers are making progress under second year coach Kevin Wilson. They are 3-5 overall and posted their first Big Ten victory at Illinois this past weekend. Ferentz says the most impressive thing is how they’ve played, even in their losses.

Iowa’s defense has struggled the past two weeks and that unit must play much better this week. Ferentz says it is not just one thing that is hurting the defense right now and it all comes down to playing team defense.

Indiana coach Kevin Wilson says while the Hoosiers are making progress there is still a long ways to go to build the team as they have only had short success and are trying to keep it small and simple with daily improvement.

With quarterback Tre Roberson out with an injury the Hoosier are using Nate Sudfeld and Cam Coffman. Wilson says both need to make more progress. Wilson says both will play against Iowa.