By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – This week began with me convinced that the Iowa football players were on a mission to make Penn State running back Saquon Barkley eat his words on Saturday.

I was convinced that for 10 months the Iowa players had been seething while waiting for a chance to show Barkley that there is no quit in this Iowa team.

Penn State’s star running back made a bad situation much worse for Iowa last season when he sort of accused the Iowa players of quitting in the second half of a 41-14 drubbing in State College, Pa.

Of course, the media made a big deal of it because it isn’t often that an Iowa team is accused of quitting. The fact that it was Penn State’s star running back who made the accusation only added to the drama and to the controversy.

Or, so I thought.

It turns out Barkley’s criticism affected the media more than the Iowa players.

My first hint of that came on Monday when I asked former Iowa defensive back Anthony Gair how he thought Barkley’s criticism would impact Saturday’s game at Kinnick Stadium.

Gair seemed bewildered by my question.

I then reminded him what Barkley said, but still no reaction.

Gair said he wasn’t aware of Barkley’s post-game comments despite being a senior for Iowa last season. Gair didn’t hear anything about it in the days immediately after the game, which was played on Nov. 5, 2016, or since then.

I figured Gair was an exception, and that Tuesday’s press conference with the Iowa players would be different.

But it was more of the same.

“I didn’t really know about it,” Iowa senior linebacker Bo Bower said of Barkley’s comment.

Really?

“Last year is last year,” Bower said. “We got our teeth knocked in so his words don’t mean anything.

“As a team, we’ve got to look at ourselves and say did we come out mentally prepared for that game? And that’s something that we need to correct and we’re going to correct it for this game. And his words, honestly, they mean nothing.”

It would be easy to dismiss Bower’s words as coach speak and to question whether he was being totally truthful, but sometimes, you can sense when a person is being sincere, and Bower seemed sincere.

And why would Gair be less than truthful or hide something when he isn’t even on the team anymore?

Some will read this and react with skepticism because using Barkley's comments as motivation seems like a no-brainer. 

And maybe the players are putting on a act, but if so, it's arguably the best acting by a group since the cast from the Godfather.  

I assumed that the Iowa players were so humiliated by the Penn State loss and by Barkley’s comments that they used it as motivation to upset Michigan the following Saturday.

But that only seems to be half true.

The Iowa players certainly dug deep into their souls after the Penn State loss and bounced back in spectacular fashion against Michian the following Saturday.

But the current players say it had nothing to do with Barkley’s post-game comments, but more so it was pride and personal acountability that fueled the upset.

“Today, might have been the first time I’ve hear about his words,” Bower said Tuesday.

So is this a case of the media not necessarily blowing something out of proportion, but rather making the wrong assumption about how the Iowa players would react? I just assumed that Barkley’s comments spread throughout the team like a wild fire and had served as bulletin board material for the past 10 months.

“I know there's been a lot of talk a little bit about avenging last year's game or revenge factors, that type of thing,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz. “The reality is we have a lot of players that are playing for us now that weren't on the field. Many of them weren't even on the trip last year.

“That really is not a topic of conversation. Our focus right now, our motivation is basically to play our best for 60 minutes, and that's what it's going to take to be victorious.”

Under different circumstances, I might dismiss what Ferentz said as being vintage Ferentz because he despises any kind of distraction or side show.

But it seems apparent that the media, at least myself, made a much bigger deal out of Barkley’s comments than the Iowa players or coaches ever have.

Some of the Iowa players, including junior defensive end Parker Hesse, were aware of Barkley's comments, but downplayed the significance.

There is enough motivation just from circumstances surrounding Saturday's prime-time matchup at Kinnick Stadium, most notably Penn State being favored by 12.5 points and ranked fourth nationally.

"For me personally, I don't really like to get into that stuff too much," Hesse said. "I know a lot of people talk about pre-game, postgame, bulletin-board material type stuff. Personally, I don't look to that stuff for motivation, rellay. I try to focus on what I need to do each week to prepare, and what I need to do to help the team win.

"As far as I know, I don't know of any guys that are really caught up in that. That was last year. That's two different teams. This year is totally new challenges."

What the players seem to be saying is they don't need extra motivation in the form of bulletin-board material because there is enough pride within the program to rally behind just getting your butt kicked.

The loss at Penn State still bothers the Iowa players more so because it was embarrassing and humiliating than because of anything that was said after the game.

Bower, obviously, wasn't pleased to hear what Barkley said, but it was a case again on Tuesday where the media made a bigger deal out of it than the players. Bower kept being asked over and over if it bothered him what Barkley said. He finally gave in just a little, but still made it more about the loss than about Barkley's comment.

"If it doesn't bother you, you shouldn't be playing the game, obviously, because you get your teeth knocked in like that " Bower said.