By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Maybe the only thing more alarming than the Iowa’s football team’s performance against Purdue last Saturday was the explanation for it.

Sophomore quarterback Nate Stanley was the first to raise eyebrows when he told the media after Saturday’s 24-15 loss at Kinnick Stadium that Purdue played harder and wanted it more.

It was easy to dismiss his explanation as just a convenient excuse for not playing well because athletes often use that line.

But then senior defensive tackle Nathan Bazata, who rarely says anything beyond just normal clichés, caused a few jaws to drop on Tuesday with his explanation for what went wrong against Purdue.

“I thought during the week we were doing good just flying around and stuff like that, but when it came to Saturday, it just wasn’t there,” Bazata said. “The enthusiasm wasn’t there. So we’re just focusing on that during practice and then doing our job.”

Bazata was asked to be more specific about what he meant in regard to the enthusiasm not being there. His answer continued to paint a disturbing picture.

“Just being happy for each other, like the defense being happy for the offense when they make a play or the other way around, special teams,” Bazata said. “We were just kind of flat.”

When asked how that could happen on Senior Day, Bazata finally ran out of answers, which might be a good thing from Iowa’s standpoint.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know how to explain that.”

Bazata said Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker addressed the lack of emotion with team on Sunday. Parker supposedly noticed it while watching tape of the Purdue game.

It’s hard not to think the worst when an Iowa football player says they came out flat on Senior Day and that the players on offense and defense weren’t happy for each other. Especially when that player is somebody like the soft-spoken Bazata, who hardly ever says anything that is close to being controversial.

His remarks won’t matter nearly as much if Iowa wins at Nebraska on Friday to close the regular season.

But if the lowly Cornhuskers win, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz will have some explaining to do because you can’t just dismiss what Bazata said.

The players often say that being a Hawkeye football player is an honor and a privilege, but they apparently didn’t treat it that way against Purdue if we are to believe Bazata.

And why would he lie about something so serious?

You wonder if it could be a case in which the defensive players are getting frustrated with the offense, which has produced just two touchdowns in the last two games combined. 

Ferentz painted a more positive picture on Tuesday when describing the attitude and performance in practice so far this week.

“I thought their spirits were good yesterday,” Ferentz said. “I thought our execution was better today than yesterday. And that's a positive.”

The concern after listening to Bazata is that the current Iowa team isn’t unified and its performance level is being impacted by that.

You then wonder why a team would drift apart instead of unifying during tough times.

It would go against everything that Ferentz stresses by having the team take the field in a traditional swarm in which the players hold hands as a sign of unity. 

Team chemistry changes from year to year, with some teams probably closer than others. But it almost sounds as if the current team has some sort of disconnect that is causing the season to unravel.

It’s hard to know for sure when you interact with the players and the head coach just twice a week in a very controlled environment.

But Bazata didn’t have to say what he said. He could’ve kept it to himself or given Purdue all the credit instead of volunteering the information.

Senior linebacker Josey Jewell was told what Bazata said about the lack of enthusiasm and then asked if he noticed or felt the same thing against Purdue.

"Maybe I could see a little bit on a couple plays that we had, big plays," Jewell said. "But for the most part, I thought most of the guys were going out there and working their butt off and tried to stay enthusiastic.

"But sometimes there aren't the greatest amount of plays that you can be enthusiastic about. You need to create those plays. You need to execute."

Jewell brings up a good point because it's easy to be enthusiastic and unified when things are going your way.

Iowa hasn't had much go its way in the last two games. But it's impossible to know if the lack of enthusiasm is contributing to the losing or if the losing is contributing to the lack of enthusiam.

This wouldn’t be the first time that internal strife has caused Iowa to struggle under Ferentz. The 2006 squad lost six of its last seven games and Ferentz used the phrase “fat cats” to describe a sense of entitlement that some of the players on that team apparently had.

If what Bazata said is true, then Ferentz has a serious problem that has to be corrected in a hurry.

It’s disheartening to think this would even happen barely two weeks removed from a historic victory over Ohio State.

But how can you ignore what Bazata said?

Some fans probably will blame the media for trying to create a controversy or for blowing Bazata’s words out of proportion.

But then how do you explain Iowa’s listless and lackluster performance against Purdue on Senior Day?

Something caused the Hawkeyes to lay an egg at a time when the players should be unified.