Lions keeping an eye on Hawkeyes
Graham Zug had just gotten off the team bus after its flight back from Ann Arbor, Mich., when he settled into his apartment and turned on his television.
"It wasn't the ideal situation we wanted to see," Zug said.
"I saw Michigan State score and I knew the game wasn't over," Daryll Clark added.
That it wasn't. Ricky Stanzi hit Marvin McNutt on a seven-yard touchdown pass with no time left to defeat Michigan State 15-13 and keep Iowa's perfect season alive at 8-0.
"I knew something was going to happen. That's the type of team Iowa is -- never count those guys out until the clock strikes zero," Clark said. "Sure enough, they made it down to the goal line, Stanzi completed the pass, slant, right to the wideout and won the football game. I was like, 'Wow. They did it again.' That's why they're undefeated."
With just four games remaining, Penn State (likely) controls its own BCS fate. The same can't be said of its Big Ten destiny. Even if the Nittany Lions win out, they would need Iowa to lose one game just to tie the Hawkeyes and claim the "co-champion" title of the conference. (Remember how much you all made fun of Ohio State for that last year before you start to brag -- although making a BCS bowl is a very nice alternative.)
Zug said the team keeps its eye on what's happening around the country at this time of the season but it doesn't deter the players from the task at hand.
"We check every team. We keep tabs on people, but it's not our main focus," Zug said. "If we take care of things and we win the rest of our games and we're pleased with our performance and we can't control anything, then it's not up to us. So our main focus is controlling what we can control and that's winning the rest of our games."
Jerome Hayes said he watches as many games as he can from a fan perspective. Predictably, he was rooting for the Spartans on Saturday.
"It kind of broke my heart. Sad to say I'm not an Iowa Hawkeye fan this season," Hayes joked. "But they're doing everything they need to do to win games. Hopefully somebody can knock them off and give us a little help if we handle what we have to handle, but they're doing all the things that we were doing last year. They won the game fair and square. There's nothing you can do about it."
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Hayes also gave an update on fellow defensive end Eric Latimore, who was not in on any tackles on Saturday and was left off Penn State's participation report.
"Latimore is good. I think he just sprained his ankle or something like that," Hayes said. "I'm not a team physician or anything so don't quote me on that, but I think he rolled his ankle or something in the Michigan game.
"But he was out there practicing [Tuesday] and looking really good, so I look for him to play a lot more against Northwestern."