The Iowa Hawkeyes can take another step toward a perfect season with a victory over Northwestern. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says the Hawks have gotten to this point by treating each game like it is the biggest of the season and this one is no different. ferentz says the team understands they are going to be “up against it” week in and week out. He says he can’t imagine any games being tougher than the last two emotionally and physically.

Ferentz says that’s conference football and the teams that handle it will do well and the teams that can’t it shows up eventually. Northwestern quarterback Mike Kafka is expected to play. He suffered a pulled hamstring in last week’s loss to Penn State. Ferentz says if Kafka can’t go, they have a talented back up, and he says Northwestern always seems to have talent at the quarterback spot.

Ferentz says there is no way the Hawks are looking ahead to next week’s visit to Ohio State. He says it’s easy because all they have to do is look back to the last game and see how tough it has been. “If we’re lucky, we’ll all put our feet up over Thanksgiving and says ‘this is a good year, this is a good year’, but we’re not there yet,” Ferentz says.