Iowa’s bowl hopes came crashing down on Saturday as the Hawkeyes suffered a humiliating loss to a Western Michigan team that was just 3-7 heading into the game. The Broncos dominated from the outset and jumped out to a 19-0 lead in the opening half.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says it’s hard to put a positive spin on things, other than they fought back and made a game of it. He says his team can’t afford to get behind and expect to win a game.

With now bowl trip the coaching staff will have some added time to figure out what has gone wrong with the program. Ferentz says the big focus will shift over toward recruiting and they’l be going at it hard for three weeks.

Iowa State finished 3-9 in Gene Chizik’s first season as coach after being hammered at fourth rated Kansas 45-7. Chizik says they were able to overcome some hard times early and finish with two quality Big 12 wins that he says they can build on.

Chizik expects the Cyclones to make progress next season. He says they have so far to go that it is unbelievable. Chizik says they will start with reviewing the coaching staff and everything they did.