Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images
Iowa’s football program has not historically been known for its offensive prowess, but it was able to flip the script on a number of opponents during the most recent season. That includes Wisconsin, which is still using the loss as motivation thanks to the push-up routine the Badgers have adopted as they gear up for the 2025 campaign.
Kirk Ferentz has been the head coach at Iowa since 1999, and his lengthy tenure has been defined by a system that’s tailor-made for the Big Ten style of play by emphasizing lockdown defense and exceptional punting in a quest to win the field position battle and make life easier for an offense that has tended to be a bit of an afterthought.
That was especially true during the stretch where Ferentz’s son Brian served as the team’s offensive coordinator, a position he ascended to in 2017 before he was fired midway through the season in 2023 due to the team’s anemic scoring ability; the 15.4 points they averaged per game that year was good for 130th out of the 134 FBS teams in the country.
However, the Hawkeyes ended the most recent season at #67 after Tim Lester took over and breathed some new life into a program that saw that number rise to 26.7 with the help of the four contests where they scored at least 40 points.
That included the showdown with Wisconsin at the start of November where the Hawkeyes scored more points than any other game last year while coasting to a 42-10 victory over a Badgers team that finished with a 5-7 record during Luke Fickel’s second season at the helm in Madison.
That wasn’t the only time Wisconsin got pushed around (they lost to Alabama by the exact same score in September and gave up 44 points to Nebraska during their penultimate game), but they’re apparently taking it a bit more personally than the other losses based on what linebacker Darryl Peterson had to say about a regimen that’s been incorporated into every practice during the offseason.
The #Badgers have done 42 pushups at the end of every practice this spring, a nod to the 42-10 loss to Iowa last season.
When asked why that loss stood out among the three rivalry losses, Darryl Peterson responded:
“When have you ever heard of Iowa scoring 42 points, ever?” pic.twitter.com/Q4Hr5zEKwg
— Donnie Slusher (@DonnieSlusher_) April 9, 2025
Peterson says the team is doing 42 push-ups after each practice and threw a little bit of shade at the Hawkeyes while explaining why that loss sticks out, saying, “When have you ever heard of Iowa scoring 42 points, ever?”
Solid point.