This is one of those “Hey did you realize?’’ questions that Kirk Ferentz hates to get in mid-news conference. Fortunately, no one asked it Tuesday.

But hey coach, did you realize your career record against Indiana is worse than your won-loss mark against Penn State? And Wisconsin. And Michigan State. And Minnesota. And Illinois. And Purdue.

Indiana is a perennial doormat in the Big Ten. It has finished in the first division just once in the past 14 years, never has been higher than fourth over that span and has been ninth or worse nine times.
But the Hoosiers are 4-4 against Ferentz and that’s with three different Indiana coaches getting the best of him.

And you can tell Ferentz is worried about Saturday’s game, not only because he lost a couple of starters (Adam Robinson and Dace Richardson) to injuries last Saturday.

He knows his team needs to do a little more than just show up for this one. Indiana has a decent quarterback (Ben Chappell), a dynamite receiver (Tandon Ross), maybe the best return man in the Big Ten (Ray Fisher) and very good defensive ends.

“Those two guys wore us out two years ago in our stadium,’’ Ferentz said. “We couldn’t block them all day long.  It’s still kind of vivid in my mind right now.’’

Most of us wouldn’t pick the Hoosiers to win this game, but if you’re a betting person, that Las Vegas spread of 17½ points is pretty inviting. This Iowa team is equally capable of playing up or down to the level of competition. It’s hard to imagine the Hawkeyes beating anyone by 17½ points.