Someone please make it all make sense

By Todd Brommelkamp/1600 ESPN

MADISON, Wis. – There may not be a song and college football program more intertwined than House of Pain’s “Jump Around” and the Wisconsin Badgers.

Traditionally the unofficial Camp Randall Stadium anthem is played just once on Saturdays, between the third and fourth quarters.

Saturday night it was cued up a second time, this time inside the Iowa locker room after the Hawkeyes outlasted the Badgers for a 15-6 victory.

“I don’t know whose (idea it was) but it wasn’t mine, I can tell you that,” defensive back Sebastian Castro said. “It’s like … you’ve got to do that when you beat Wisconsin.”

Castro turned 23 on Saturday and while he may not earn Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors for his efforts in bringing the Heartland Trophy back to Iowa City, it seemed as the if the veteran was everywhere when Wisconsin had the ball. He forced a fumble that led to a safety and his interception late in the game sealed the win.

“I just see that white jersey flash (past me) and I know he’s coming down to do bad things to whoever has the ball,” linebacker Jay Higgins said. “He’s a playmaker.”

Castro was just four years old when Iowa clinched a share of the Big Ten title in 2004 with a victory at home over the Badgers. That game came late in the season and there’s still plenty of football left to be played for the 6-1 Hawkeyes but the 2023 Hawkeyes are starting to put off major ’04 vibes.

That season saw Iowa get off to a slow start with two losses in its first four games, including a blowout non-conference beating at the hands of Arizona State. Injuries began to mount, especially at the running back position. By the time Iowa squared off with LSU in the Capital One Bowl the team was down to its fifth-string running back in Sam Brownlee.

Fast forward 19 seasons and the injuries have been spread out among multiple positions but have been equally taxing. The Hawkeyes have lost tight ends Luke Lachey and Erick All Jr. as well as starting quarterback Cade McNamara, all likely out for the season.

The 2004 Iowa Hawkeyes did what they needed to do to win games, including a much-maligned 6-4 victory at Penn State which saw Iowa purposely surrender a safety late in the game. That team eked out one-score wins but also blew the doors off Top 25-ranked opponents like Ohio State (33-7) and the Badgers (30-7).

Don’t bank on the 2023 Hawkeyes following suit when it comes to the latter. They’ll continue to win games relying largely on special teams and defensive dominance. Iowa threw for just 37 yards against Wisconsin Saturday afternoon, buoyed offensively by 200 yards rushing. Eighty-two of those yards came in the second quarter on a Leshun Williams touchdown run.

“We wanted to show them we were tough, physical,” Williams said. “We wanted to take the heart out of them and I feel like that’s what we did.”

In doing so, they have positioned themselves in the driver’s seat of a lackluster Big Ten West Division. None of the five teams remaining on the Hawks’ schedule are above .500 in conference play. All but one remaining opponent – Rutgers – resides in the west.

“We knew this game meant a lot,” Higgins said. “It doesn’t mean anything if we start going downhill from here.”

Iowa has now won 11 of its last 13 games and its second by just one score in as many weeks.

“We don’t care what it looks like as long as we have the win at the end of the day,” said Higgins. “That’s what matters to us.”

The Hawkeyes should not be in the position they are in. It defies logic. Yet here we are.

Two weeks ago, I said there wasn’t a game left on Iowa’s schedule I would bet against them in. Of course, yours truly also put the Wisconsin game down as a loss before the team’s buses had even left campus. It made sense at the time and even though Iowa won Saturday night it still feels like it was the right side.

This team can’t score more than one or two offensive touchdowns a game most days. It’s defense isn’t as rock solid as last year’s stellar unit but still manages to pass muster on a weekly basis. Special teams can only take a squad so far, at least one would think.

We are seven games in to the 2023 season and the Iowa Hawkeyes are 6-1, 3-1 in the Big Ten and control their own path when it comes to a final divisional crown and resulting trip to Indianapolis in December.

Ferentz was asked after the game what has made this team so resilient if the face of injuries and struggles moving the ball.

“That’s a choice everybody makes,” Ferentz said. “Coming out of State College a couple weeks back, it was tough. You know, you’ve got two choices. I know we couldn’t have done three weeks ago what we did today. I know that. I don’t have a way to measure that or quantify that, but you guys watch the team.”

He’s right, by the way.

Iowa keeps finding ways to win. Ugly, logic-defying victories such as last week’s win over Purdue which saw not a single wide receiver catch a pass.

Nationally, regionally (and yes, locally) the Hawkeyes remain an easy punchline.

Laugh it up, they’re also atop the Big Ten West.

“The guys are growing and that’s what the season is all about, that’s what the sport is all about, that’s what life is all about,” said Ferentz, sounding every bit the “dean of college football coaches” he is. “It’s just looking at your situation (and asking) what can you do to get better, what can you do to give your team a chance to be competitive?”

Todd Brommelkamp is the host of “The Todd Brommelkamp Show” and can be heard weekday mornings on 1600 ESPN from 6:30-9:00 AM. He has covered Iowa football in various forms since 2000.