ESPN’s Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, and David Pollack offered their thoughts on No. 4 Iowa’s contest with No. 5 Michigan State on Dec. 5.
By Danny Payne
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INDIANAPOLIS — Hello, hello, hello. ESPN talking heads Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, and David Pollack met with the media Friday afternoon to discuss the Big Ten Championship game featuring No. 4 Iowa and No. 5 Michigan State.
Below are the best things they had to say about a variety of subjects.
On Iowa’s national perception
Herbstreit: I don’t think there’s a slight I think people are excited to see them play a big-time team in a challenging atmosphere. I think we’ve been saying about the last six, seven weeks for Iowa is it’s all in front of them whether you think they’re great or you don’t think they’re great, whatever it is, they control their own destiny … If I’m a Hawkeye fan, I say we beat Michigan State, we’re in the final four.
Pollack: I think you’ve heard it all year long, people doubting Iowa. They’re very efficient offensively and defensively. You turn the tape on and don’t really see that singular guy who stands out that you go, ‘That guy is a superstar or a stud.’ They have some guys that are really good players.
Davis: They have a lot of wins against teams that didn’t finish well in terms of record, they’ve got really good wins. It’s hard to go undefeated, really hard. To not have a stumble somewhere along the way — they may not have played great teams, but they’ve played some good ones — is admirable and difficult … They’ve earned their way here; I don’t know what else you want.
On quarterbacks Connor Cook and C.J. Beathard
Herbstreit: [Beathard] is just a gamer, he’s just a scrappy dude that runs, throws, does whatever he has to do. He’s not making decisions, his feet have been important to complement the running game. I think the other big thing is that they believe in him. There’s something to be said about that.
Then you have Connor Cook, who is the winningest quarterback in the history of Michigan State; he’s seen every defense you can throw at him, he constantly puts the ball on the money — just a guy that the moment never gets too big. The two of them, you’d probably give Cook the edge just because he’s played so many games.
On Michigan State
Herbstreit: These last three weeks, it’s back to Dino being Dino [head coach Mark Dantonio] … they look like the team we anticipated all year, playing with an edge on defense, they’re another team that’s really good at the line of scrimmage … I just love their mentality, they’re so aggressive — they challenge you.
Pollack: Michigan State hasn’t really been challenged a ton, they’ve played some close games, but they didn’t lead against Michigan, and they somehow won, that’s all that matters. They didn’t lead against Ohio State and somehow won — to the last second, they weren’t winning.
Davis: That victory we saw in Columbus in the rain that we saw was very impressive. I’ve thought from the very beginning that they were a terrific team. In fact, I picked them in the preseason to go to the College Football Playoff.
On the Iowa fan base
Herbstreit: They’re vocal. What’s funny is I’ve been a Kirk Ferentz and Iowa fan for a long time, I picked them last year to be a surprise team and make a run; I was a year off. Every fan base has a portion of fans that feel disrespected and slighted, they’re the same fans that if they lose, they’ll want to fire Kirk Ferentz and C.J. Beathard’s terrible — they always are right.
It’s fine, every year there’s a fan base that, for whatever reason, gets fired up, and this year it’s Iowa’s.
Davis: Here’s the great thing to me about fans: Fans are under no obligation whatsoever to look at anything through any prism other than how it affects their team. That’s how they should look at it; it’s fun and great. Sometimes, those views don’t align — an Iowa fan looking at something through how it affects Iowa and some of us, including me, might say on GameDay about our perception of the situation.
They get loud, and everybody has a voice now, and it’s great — you just have to roll with it and understand that people are going to make their feelings known, and if you don’t say their team is the greatest of all time or deserves to be No. 1, they’re going to get mad at you. That’s OK; that makes it fun.
On Kirk Ferentz
Herbstreit: He’s right up there [for national Coach of the Year]; how could he not be? … Kirk Ferentz sitting at 12-0 in the Big Ten Championship game, best record they’ve ever had at Iowa; if he wins this game, I think it’s pretty much a done deal.
Pollack: I heard him talk about it, and I thought it was pretty interesting when he mentioned looking at the press conference a year ago and looking at himself. I think he said he did some soul searching. Note: Ferentz is on record saying he didn’t like his demeanor in press conferences following the Heroes Game and TaxSlayer Bowl.
Davis: It takes a really smart guy and a really self-aware guy to not only recognize [the media demeanor] but to [change] it and figure out how to implement it. I think one of the hardest things to do in our sporting culture right now is to take a program that’s gotten a little sideways or that’s lost its momentum as, candidly, Iowa had, and turn it back around. Ferentz has done it twice.
On the Rose Bowl
Herbstreit: It depends how this game plays out. I think it’s hard to sit here and say Ohio State definitely deserves it. If this game is a 3-point, last-second-field-goal type of game, then you say the loser of this game should go. If it’s a blowout, it’s pretty obvious, but if it’s not, I’d like to see how it plays out.
On a four-team College Football Playoff
Davis: I like the exclusivity of the four right now. I think it really keeps a premium on the regular season, creates a lot of interest, but doubtless, at some point in the future, the appetite to move to eight will be there, and that’s good for the sport. When they do that, they’re going to have to figure out a way to cut the players in on monetary action, and that could delay it more than anything else.
