By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Eight games into his his 27th season as the Iowa football coach, Kirk Ferentz is doing some of his best coaching right now.

Iowa crushed Minnesota 41-3 on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium to extend its winning streak to three games.

A game that looked competitive on paper between two teams with identical records instead was a mismatch from the opening kick.

Iowa took the opening kick and marched 75 yards for a touchdown on nine plays.

Graduate quarterback Mark Gronowski started the scoring flurry with a 2-yard run to cap the opening drive of the game. It was Gronowski’s 11th rushing touchdown this season.

Gronowski also connected with sophomore receiver Reece Vander Zee for a 29-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter.

Iowa also scored touchdowns in the first half on a pick-six by defensive back Zach Lutmer and on a 50-yard punt return by Kaden Wetjen.

Those four touchdowns, combined with a Drew Stevens field goal from 34 yards in the first quarter gave, Iowa a 31-0 lead at halftime.

It felt as if the game was over at halftime because it was as Minnesota never mounted any kind of threat.

The Gophers avoided a shutout by making a 34-yard field goal with three seconds left in the third quarter.

Instead of going for it on fourth down, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck chose to go for three points even though his team was trailing 34-0 at the time.

What seemed like sort of a weak move by Fleck was more so a testimony to Iowa’s dominance in all three phases.

Kirk Ferentz obviously had his team ready to play, while Fleck didn’t.

The same Iowa team that was 3-2 after a hard-fought 20-15 loss to Indiana on Sept. 27 at Kinnick Stadium has now won three straight games and is arguably playing better than every team in the Big Ten except for Ohio State and Indiana.

Iowa now heads into the second of two bye weeks this season and will have an extra week to prepare for its next game against Oregon on Nov. 8 at Kinnick Stadium.

The Ducks already have lost at home to Indiana and only led lowly Wisconsin 7-0 at halftime on Saturday.

An Iowa schedule that looked brutal heading into the season now looks way more manageable.

As miserable as the Iowa players, coaches and fans felt after the 16-13 loss to Iowa State on Sept. 6 in Ames, the circumstances have changed considerably for both teams since then with the Cyclones having lost three games, while Iowa has won five of its last six games.

The season could have easily derailed when Iowa was 3-2 and struggling to throw downfield.

The doubters and naysayers were chirping and there was concern that Kirk Ferentz wouldn’t have a solution.

But now as you look back at the Indiana game, it might have been a turning point for the Hawkeyes because no team has challenged Indiana the way Iowa did last month, and that includes Oregon.

Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers were lucky to escape from Iowa City with a win.

Iowa has a history of playing better as the season progresses, especially in the month of November, and the current team is certainly trending in that direction.

“To me, if you’re doing it right and if the team’s really doing it right and thinking right, then they are improving as the season goes on,” Kirk Ferentz said in his post-game press conference on Saturday. “Injuries can complicate that. There are other factors that can mix in there. Just in general terms, you like to think everybody’s improving. You’re not just winning games, you’re getting better and developing as a team.

“We try to prioritize that and emphasize that in our approach, and we’ve been really fortunate, we’ve had guys that have been very receptive to that.

“The other part to me, November is kind of mental toughness month, if you will. There’s a lot of stuff going on. Weather, you name it. There’s a lot of — you can come up with a million excuses why you can’t do well, but really no one cares. It’s about pushing the thing forward. Our guys have done a really good job responding to that.”

Kirk Ferentz, who turned 70 on Aug. 1, is a master at living in the moment and he never gets too high or too low during the peaks and valleys that make up a season.

He just keeps pushing forward and trying to find ways to get better.

And while Iowa’s passing game still is very much a work in progress, it showed some growth in Saturday’s win over the Gophers.

The Hawkeyes didn’t do much offensively in the second half, but they also seemed to take the foot off the gas a little bit with the outcome all but decided.

Iowa’s execution in the first half of Saturday’s game was close to flawless in all three phases.

Wetjen, a former walk-on from Williamsburg, continues to shine as a return specialist, and he’s getting more involved with the passing attack.

And with Lutmer’s pick-six in the first quarter, Iowa has had at least one pick-six in 18 straight seasons, which is incredible.

Kirk Ferentz’s doubters probably keep waiting for his age to become an obstacle. But it was the 44-year-old Fleck who was out-coached on Saturday as Ferentz won his Big Ten record 210th game as the Iowa head coach.

Kirk Ferentz has given no hint that he is even considering retirement, though, it’ll happen sooner than later given his age.

Right now, though, Kirk Ferentz’s only concern is winning the next game on Iowa’s schedule, which happens to be the Oregon Ducks.

A game that appeared to be a long shot for Iowa to win about a month ago now suddenly looks winnable.

That’s a tribute to Kirk Ferentz’s coaching and to his ability to stay the course.