Tim Brewster hopes to say, “That swine is mine”

Gophers coach Tim Brewster is 0-8 in trophy games; 0-7 in games against ranked opponents. He lacks a signature win and in year No. 3 has yet to win a conference game in November.

All those negatives can go away with a win Saturday in Iowa against the Hawkeyes (13th in the BCS standings). It needs to be noted that Iowa in eight of its nine wins this year has trailed. They also have turned the ball over 13 times over the last three games. In other words, they are a team with flaws.

With the Floyd of Rosedale on the line, we get a breakdown of the Hawkeyes from Andy Hamilton, beat reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen.

GH: For the Gophers, Iowa is the co-main rival along with Wisconsin … How do the Hawkeyes view this rivalry?

AH: Minnesota is in the upper-tier on Iowa’s rivalry list with Iowa State, Wisconsin and Illinois. How those four are arranged depends on who you ask and where they live. The interest in the Iowa-Iowa State series has been amplified in the last decade with the programs splitting the last 10 games. There’s a trophy at stake now with the Wisconsin game and the Hawkeyes have had some recruiting battles with the Badgers, there have been some things bubbling near the surface with the Illinois series since Ron Zook took over there, but there’s more than 60 years of history with Floyd of Rosedale. I’d like to see how Iowa fans would rank their biggest football rivals.

GH: Is a majority of the talk this week centered around this: Saturday is a must-win game because of the BCS at-large bid factor?

AH: Certainly that’s what the fans are talking about, but Kirk Ferentz wanted no part of the bowl talk at his news conference this week. It was the last thing he wanted to talk about. A couple questions came up about bowls and Ferentz made it clear he wasn’t interested in the subject and said he hopes nobody in the Iowa camp is thinking about bowl games.

GH: Put on your defensive coordinator hat … how would you scheme to contain Iowa’s offense?

AH: Iowa seemed to attract a barrage of blitzes in the past. The Hawkeyes haven’t faced as much pressure this season. They’ve made enough big plays in the passing game to keep defenses from teeing off. Even though Iowa is 98th in the country in rushing, I think you still have to take that away. So much of what the Hawkeyes do offensively ““ bootlegs, play-action ““ is derived from running the football effectively, or at least making you honor the run. A lot of teams that have had success against Iowa have had safeties coming up aggressively in run support. If you make the Hawkeyes thrown, you have a chance at an interception ““ Ricky Stanzi and James Vandenberg have thrown 18 picks this season ““ but you better have some corners who can match up with Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Marvin McNutt or you run the risk of giving up touchdowns of 92 and 66 yards on consecutive plays like Indiana did.

GH: Iowa’s new quarterback … give us a comprehensive breakdown of his strengths and weaknesses

AH: James Vandenberg’s play was probably the biggest positive for the Hawkeyes leaving Ohio State. I don’t think anyone in the Iowa camp could have expected more out of a freshman making his first college start in front of 105,000 with the Big Ten title on the line. From a strength standpoint, he was decisive last week, he gets back quick in his drop and the ball comes out in a hurry. Vandenberg has good arm strength and the accuracy was there last week. He made a couple tough completions on Iowa’s first touchdown drive against Ohio State that thrown right where they had to be against good coverage. The offensive line protected him pretty well, so I think the jury is still out on how he’ll handle throwing under duress. We’ve seen Vandenberg for an extended period in two games ““ one was really shaky (9-of-27 for 82 yards against Northwestern) and one was really impressive (20-of-33 for 233 yards and two TDs against Ohio State) ““ so the sample size is still small.

GH: Same ideas as question as No. 3 … put on your offensive coordinator hat … how do you scheme to score on Iowa’s defense?

AH: I think it’s vital to have a quarterback who can make plays with his feet. The teams that have had the most success against Iowa’s defense this season ““ Ohio State, Northwestern, Michigan, Arkansas State, Northern Iowa ““ have had quarterbacks who could pull the ball down and run when there wasn’t an open receiver. And most of the time, you’re probably not going to find too many open receivers against this defense. The Hawkeyes will test your patience. You might go 80 yards against this defense, but Iowa will dare you to do it on a dozen plays without making a drive-killing mistake somewhere along the line.

***The following are questions from the GopherHole community … some may have a similar tone to those above, but are more specific … in other words, the readers trump me when it comes to intellectual questions

GH: The Hawkeyes defense leads the nation in interceptions and Adam Weber has thrown more picks than TDS. Is this matchup as much of a nightmare as I think it is?

AH: It certainly doesn’t look good on paper. The thing that catches my eye with Minnesota is the 34 sacks allowed. Chances are, Weber is going to be throwing somebody ““ most likely Adrian Clayborn ““ in his face. To make you feel better, though, the Hawkeyes have only notched one interception during the past two weeks.

GH: In 2007 after the Purdue game, there were screams for head coach Kirk Ferentz and/or his offensive coordinator to go. Last year there were still people screaming for the offensive coordinator to go after the Michigan State game. Is this stuff just “internet based” or was there really an uproar?

AH: The stuff about Ferentz was almost comical to me. I think most of that chatter about his job being in jeopardy was coming from two sources ““ people who were detached from the situation and a faction of the loud minority on the message boards. Where is Iowa going to find a better coach than Ferentz? There’s probably a faction of Iowa fans who totally support Ferentz but want to come down on somebody, and those people usually go after the guy in charge of play calling. Ken O’Keefe has been Iowa’s offensive coordinator since Ferentz arrived and I think he’ll be Iowa’s offensive coordinator as long as Kirk is here.

GH: What is the primary element of Iowa’s game that Minnesota needs to take away for a chance to win at Kinnick (all 3 elements in play)?

AH: The Gophers need to come out ahead in the turnover category. Iowa was plus 11 in turnover margin during the first eight weeks. Since then, the Hawkeyes are minus 9. They turned it over six times in three quarters against Indiana and opened the door for defeat. Four more turnovers against Northwestern were fatal, and three more last week against Ohio State were too much for Iowa to overcome.

***Back to 2 final questions from me

GH: Half-joking … the 2nd most memorable note from last year’s debacle (the score is No. 1): The Iowa fans — random encounter — having sex in a Metrodome bathroom … is there any talk of that in Iowa City? Any plans for a 1-year look back story?

AH: There’s a thread on HawkeyeReport.com about that story with more than 500 posts and 35,000 views. I don’t think Iowa fans will forget about that story anytime soon.

GH: If Notre Dame, presuming Charlie Weis is out, called Ferentz and said, “Money is not an issue … what would it take to bring you to South Bend?” How closely would he listen?

AH: Notre Dame really doesn’t move the arrow for me on the Ferentz watch. There was some speculation Notre Dame was interested in him before Charlie Weis wound up with the job. Ferentz has 20 years invested at Iowa now ““ nine as an assistant, 11 as the head coach, and his son, James, is a freshman offensive lineman with the Hawkeyes. He seems content here. He’s paid well, he has job security and comfort here. He hasn’t shown interest in making the jump to the NFL to work with some of his closest friends in professional football. On top of all that, Ferentz’s mentor, the late Joe Moore, was fired by Notre Dame and involved in a messy age discrimination suit.

GH: Who wins, and why?

AH: I think Iowa wins in a game that remains close for three quarters. I have a hard time getting past Minnesota’s offensive inconsistencies, the Gophers’ struggles to run the football and the 34 sacks allowed. I think the Gophers are going to have a hard time moving the ball and scoring points.

Talk about the match-up on Brew’s Crew message board.