"With only five teams on your schedule that reached a bowl game last year, this doesn’t look like one of the nation’s toughest slates. Are there any positives that come from having a perceived weaker schedule?
Every time I look at our schedule it looks hard to me. I guess I’ve been around long enough to know that’s the nature of college football. Flip it around: Our opponents look at us right now and the way we finished and are probably saying the same thing, like ‘Well, we play Iowa at least this week,’ that type of thing. I think there’s a real danger in doing that. I always go right back to 2007, where that year because of scheduling we didn’t play Ohio State or Michigan. Everybody had us having a waltz of the season and we ended up not playing in a bowl game. That’s a slippery slope. I look at it and see 12 very challenging games. The biggest thing is getting us ready to play."
So... A couple of things here. One is that he admits that Iowa's opponents are going to look at their upcoming game against Iowa as a win, or at least one of their easier games.
Two is that despite only playing 5 bowl eligible teams, Ferentz thinks it is a "very challenging" schedule. This is going beyond refusing to give out bulletin board material, which he could have just done by acknowledging Iowa will play every game 100%. This is setting up a downplaying of expectations and is meant more for fans' consumption rather than other teams.
Three is bringing out the catchphrase: "that's (the nature of college) football."
Four is the answer to "Are there any positives that come from having a perceived weaker schedule?" is No, no there is not.
