Iowa football: The history of the Heartland Trophy rivalry with Wisconsin

The Iowa football program has played Wisconsin 101 times since 1894. What is the history of this matchup and in what ways are these programs similar?

Since the Iowa football program began in 1889, they have only faced off against one college more than they have the Wisconsin Badgers (e.g. the Minnesota Gophers). Saturday evening’s contest will be the 102nd matchup between the Hawkeyes and the Badgers, and they will be battling for Big Ten West supremacy and the Heartland Trophy.

Although Wisconsin has had Iowa’s number recently winning the last two games and seven of the last ten, this series has pretty evenly matched throughout its history. Even in the last decade, when the Badgers have annually been ranked in the Top 15, the battle against the Iowa football team is always close. It’s a battle that isn’t often seen in the college football landscape, which is what makes this game so fun.

It’s a battle of the trenches, and both teams are perfectly fine playing an ugly game of football, controlling the clock, limiting turnovers, and capitalizing on the field position battle. That’s why in the 17 games that Kirk Ferentz has coached the Iowa football program against the Wisconsin football team, 11 have been decided by less than 10 points.

These aren’t close shootouts, these are one touchdown, five field goal games where one big play can make the difference. It’s Big Ten football at it’s finest.

The funny thing is, these two teams know each other so well because of the consistency the programs have had over the past two decades. Kirk shined some light on the situation in his press conference yesterday.

"I think the good news is, in this series, we know of know who they are, I think they know who we are. That’s the good news. Bad news is we know who they are. They give up 12 points a game or 10 points a game. That’s the challenge."

How similar these programs are shows in their series record. Currently, Wisconsin holds the series lead over the Hawkeyes 46-43 (there were also two ties in there). Iowa is also just barely losing to Wisconsin in conference championships 14-13, although with a good year this year that could change. Each team has the same number of former All-Americans and the Badgers hold a slight lead on the Iowa football program in draft picks 278-253.

The modern-day Heartland Trophy

It’s easy to see that these two teams have been pretty similar over the year, but most notably in the last two decades these two teams have become synonymous with one another in terms of style. One could say (and I would probably agree) that the Badgers have certainly done it better as of recent, but the style of football is incredibly similar. Even the type of guys each program recruits is similar.

Kirk had some words to say on the recruiting similarities Tuesday:

"Kind of yes and no. Barry’s first visions, I think like any smart coach, you’re going to try and control your state. But, yeah, I think we look for the same things I think probably in players. That’s probably fair. As far as getting the guys, they’ve done a pretty good job of that."

Why these programs are so similar can be traced by to the Hayden Fry era. Barry Alvarez, UW’s current athletic director, joined the Iowa football program as a linebacker coach in 1979 and would remain there until 1986 when he  moved on to Notre Dame. Four years later, he would head up the Wisconsin Badger football program.

Following Barry Alvarez’s successful run as head coach, Brett Bielema became the head coach of Wisconsin. Bielema, like Alvarez started off at Iowa under Hayden Fry as a graduate assistant (Bielema was a defensive lineman at Iowa), before working his way to linebackers coach from 1996-2001. He went on to join the Wisconsin program under Alvarez from 2004-2005 as a defensive coordinator before taking over as head coach in 2006.

To a casual fan, this series might not mean much, but to the players in each program this is one of the best games of the year. There is so much history and grit entrenched into this rivalry, it’s hard not to love the game. Although the Heartland Trophy has only been around since 2004, this is a game that has history dating back to 1894.

You better believe the Iowa football team is ready to win back that Heartland Trophy after an embarrassing loss last season 38-14 to Wisconsin. Only three days until the big game.