The ninth ranked Iowa Hawkeyes face their most difficult test of the young season when they visit 24th ranked Arizona. After lopsided wins over Eastern Illinois and Iowa State coach Kirk Ferentz is expecting a tougher challenge. Ferentz says they haven’t been behind yet in a game, so that’s a good starting point, but they’ll learn more about themselves this week.
Iowa beat Arizona 27-17 at home in 2009 but Ferentz says the Wildcats have a more wide open attack with quarterback Nick Foles. Ferentz says last year they were more concerned about the quarterback running, and this year the quarterback will throw first before running. It was six years ago to the day that the Hawks traveled to Arizona State and got throttled 44-7.
Ferentz says they were all a little full of themselves going into that game and probably underestimated what the game was going to be, and they got an education that night.
Speed is always a factor when taking on a team from the Pac-10 and Ferentz says this is no different. He says they are fast at linebacker and in the back end of the defense, so they will have to be sharp and precise in what they are doing.