Iowa Hawkeyes: 2015 ascent microcosm of how team is built

The 2015 Iowa Hawkeyes are a microcosm of how the team is built from the ground up, from two and three star athletes to a well-rounded team of overachievers.

It doesn’t require the number one recruiting class in the nation. It doesn’t require the exposure of the SEC. It doesn’t require the allure of playing under the lights or in the national spotlight all the time.

This is a roster full of two- and three star athletes that have made their way to the Big Ten Championship game undefeated, unscathed, and unafraid heading into just the second year of the CFB playoff existence.

Head coach Kirk Ferentz deserves a ton of credit. His team didn’t even have but one first-team All-Conference player this season, but they still have a chance at the Big Ten title and a chance at a National Championship. Despite what people have been saying, the road for the Hawkeyes hasn’t been easy.

They have faced adversity just like every other team in the country, despite the fact that they haven’t played a top 25 team every week. Their strength of schedule has been a major question mark for outsiders all season long, but as consistent as the Hawkeyes have been, it’s impossible to disagree with the CFB playoff committee for having them ranked in the top four at this point.

The Hawkeyes are just consistent.

That lone first-team All Big Ten player is Desmond King, the Hawkeyes’ star cornerback and future top NFL draft pick. King was — you guessed it — a three-star recruit by Rivals.com coming out of high school. He ascended into a starting role as a true freshman, earning the trust of the coaching staff, and now as a junior, he earned defensive back of the year honors in the Big Ten.

The Hawkeyes started off this season as an unranked afterthought in the mind of college football analysts, and if everyone was being honest, Iowa fans as well. Nobody knew what they would have in quarterback C.J. Beathard, a three-star from Franklin, Tennessee. Nobody knew how the running back position would unfold, or how the offensive line would respond to losing two bookend tackles to the NFL.

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The lack of a ranking and slow ascent into the top four of the CFB playoff rankings is exactly the type of slow development the Hawkeyes see from their team. It’s not an overnight process, but Iowa develops their talent as well as any school in the country. They have an NFL caliber head coach in Kirk Ferentz, top of the line facilities, and are generally one of the most underrated football schools in America.

They bring in talent from all over the place, sometimes guys that aren’t wanted by anyone, and that has burned them in recent years. In 2014, Iowa looked like a sorry excuse for a Big Ten team and more like a middle of the road MAC team than anything else. They were absolutely horrid, but that had a lot to do with the quarterback position and the confidence the coaching staff had in the game plan on a weekly basis.

This year’s Hawkeyes are playing loose, and they are winning games by a wide margin. They win in so many different ways with so many different players, you never know what poison you’re going to get when you play this team.

And still, pundits across America want to discredit them. They don’t want to give credit to Iowa because the way they have built this team isn’t sexy. They weren’t the pre-season pick to win the Big Ten. They aren’t the glamorous Ohio State Buckeyes, fresh off of a National Title with a whole host of NFL prospects.

They are just Iowa, and for this season, that’s better than anyone else in the Big Ten. They have an opportunity to make school history against Michigan State in the Big Ten championship game, what will ultimately wind up being a play-in game for the CFB playoff.

If Kirk Ferentz can get this crew of overachievers to the dance, there’s no doubt in my mind he’s the National coach of the year and perhaps Iowa will finally start to get some of the respect they deserve.

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