This time, Hawkeyes less likely to maul Ball

IOWA CITY - Those who have held Iowa football season-tickets for the last 10 years may not have been enthused to learn Iowa had again scheduled Ball State.

The first two games between the two teams were dreadful. Unless you enjoy seeing your team kick an underdog like, well, a dog. The Hawkeyes mauled the Cardinals 56-0 in 2005, then muffled them in 2010, 45-0.

But the times have changed. For one thing, those games in ‘05 and ‘10 were sellouts of 70,585 fans. Iowa had 7,500 tickets left for Saturday's Ball State-Iowa bash as of Tuesday noon.

For another, the Cardinals are good. In fact, if there are such things as 'trap games,” this may qualify as one. Iowa spent ample time telling itself to take Northern Iowa as seriously as a computer virus, and now must do the same thing all over again this week with Ball State.

Of course, all Hawkeye coaches need to do is say 'Men, we lost at home last year to Northern Illinois. Ball State went 7-1 in Northern Illinois' conference. Any questions?”

But for those who witnessed the first two Cardinals-Hawkeyes games, it might be hard to accept that the visitors are to be taken seriously.

Brady Hoke, now Michigan's coach, was in his third season at Ball State in 2005 and didn't yet have the pieces in place for a good Mid-American Conference team.

'I'm going off memory, but that was a pretty thorough beatdown on them,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. 'They just didn't have a very good football team.”

It didn't help that the day before the Cardinals played Iowa, the school suspended 13 of his players including his top returning running back, top returning wide receiver, top offensive lineman, and three starting defensive linemen.

The players improperly used a book loan program to obtain textbooks not required for their own courses or received improperly obtained textbooks from other players. So far, no '30 for 30” film has been made about the episode.

Iowa led 28-0 at the end of the first quarter, 49-0 at halftime. It completed 19 of 20 passes. Drew Tate threw for two touchdowns and Jovon Johnson returned a punt 90 yards for a score. Both are still playing today, in the Canadian Football League.

Freshman running back Shonn Greene rushed for 118 yards. He had just 55 yards the rest of the season. Three years later, he had 100-plus yards in all 13 games.

Joey Lynch quarterbacked for Ball State and had a rough day. He is now BSU's offensive coordinator.

In 2010, Hoke was at San Diego State (after coaching Ball State to a 12-1 season two years earlier) and Stan Parrish was the coach. Again, the Cardinals weren't great.

Iowa outgained Ball State, 562 yards to 112. The game was instantly forgettable.

'We caught them in ‘10 where they had dipped again,” Ferentz said, 'and now Coach (Pete) Lembo has come in, and to me I would compare them to where they were in ‘07, ‘08 in that upward swing. (Winning) seventeen games out of the last 19, that's a pretty good percentage.”

The Cardinals aren't likely to get annihilated Saturday or any other day this season. And tickets are still available.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com