IOWA CITY, Iowa – While we always look forward to speaking with Don Patterson each Monday during the football season, it’s even more enjoyable following an Iowa victory.

This Monday’s segment had a positive vibe as Patterson looks back at Iowa’s 40-16 victory over Washington this past Saturday at Kinnick Stadium and forward to this coming Saturday’s night game at Michigan Sate.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz won his 200th game this past Saturday to move into second place by himself on the Big Ten’s all-time wins list. He trails only Woody Hayes’ 205 wins for Ohio State.

Patterson said Monday that he believes Iowa will avoid having a letdown in any of the six remaining regular-season games because the players, especially the graduate players who chose to come back for another season, are determined to get Kirk Ferentz the record this season.

That would take Iowa winning its final six games against Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin, UCLA, Maryland and Nebraska.

Iowa is favored by 6.5 points against Michigan State, and there is a chance Iowa could be favored in all six games left on the schedule.

Patterson, who coached under Hayden Fry for all of Fry’s 20 seasons at Iowa from 1979 to 1998, had high praise for Iowa junior strong safety Xavier Nwankpa, who had 10 tackles against Washington, including seven solo stops, most of which were in space.

“I thought it was maybe his best game as a Hawkeye,” Patterson said of Nwankpa, a former five-star recruit from Southeast Polk.

Patterson also singled out backup strong safety Koen Entringer, who had seven tackles against Washington.

As for Cade McNamara’s performance, Patterson said he managed the offense and made throws when he had to make them.

In addition to his two decades coaching for Iowa, Patterson was also the head coach for Western Illinois from 1999 to 2009, and an assistant coach for Connecticut and Buffalo.

We always appreciate his unique insight.