Hawkeyes preparing for their first road test against an improved Scarlett Knights team

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - “There’s only one way to learn it’s like swimming you’ve got to get in the water and go.”

Kirk Ferentz said his veterans have been on the road in hostile environments before, but the youngest players have no choice but to learn on the fly.

The emphasis this week is on crowd noise, especially for a Saturday night kickoff.

“The biggest thing is just communication and guys naturally just talk louder and you end up screaming,” said quarterback Spencer Petras. “You adapt pretty quickly.”

Practices have been pumped with artificial crowd noise.

“It’s gonna be a great environment on a night game a Saturday night. Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” said offensive lineman Mason Richmond. “It’s still 120 yards of grass out there.”

The Scarelett Knights are 3-0, and while the Hawkeye s won convincingly back in 2019, this is a much better Rutgers team.

“It doesn’t look like Rutgers of past like Rutgers has struggled a little bit going back a few years this is not to me on tape a team that looks like maybe they did in the past.”

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