'Anything is possible' — Which new faces could emerge as playoff contenders?
Iowa? Cincinnati? BYU? Michigan? It's a brand-new College Football Playoff world, and we may be set to see some new blood this season.
Ferentz is in his 23rd season at Iowa, the longest run of any coach at a single school in the sport. And with No. 5 Iowa having won 11 straight games and hosting a top-five matchup against No. 4 Penn State on Saturday, it’s arguable that Ferentz may be amid his finest stretch as Iowa’s coach.
Certainly, no one would expect the consistently understated Ferentz to make a bold proclamation that Iowa is in the thick of the playoff race. But it’s clear that this Iowa team has the capability and trajectory to join the other gold-standard Ferentz teams – Orange Bowl teams in 2002 and 2009 and a Rose Bowl team in 2015. And by staying solid, there appears to be a potential path for a team like Iowa in a year when few programs are spectacular.
“Anything is possible,” Ferentz said by phone on Saturday, calling after he’d slept a few hours and watched the Maryland film. “Certainly, we were close in 2015. With the system the way it is now, we’d have been in the discussion in 2002.
“For us to be in that discussion, things have to fall right and we have to take every game like it’s our last game. That’s the world we live in. We’re used to that.”
And Iowa’s surge into the top five and Iowa City looming as the center of the sport’s universe next week is indicative of a new reality in a college football season that’s unfolding like a giraffe on roller skates.
