What happened last year does not correlate to what will happen this year in college football. Venues change, players change, gameplans change and all that's left are either fond or forgetful memories.
That is the point that Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is stressing to his team as the Wolverines head on the road to face Iowa this weekend.
With the Wolverines beating the Hawkeyes 42-3 in the Big Ten championship game last year, Harbaugh is well aware that resting on its laurels and relying on last year's results is the fastest way to see his program get beaten on the road.
"There's no doubt that we have tremendous respect for what Iowa can do," Harbaugh said on the Inside Michigan Football show on Monday. "There's no thought in our mind that the game we had last year, the 42-3 victory in the Big Ten Championship Game, was—there's no word I am going to use other than there were 30-some plays where they just completely stoned us. We were able to hit a big run by Blake that got out, the one that J.J. was running down the sideline and blocking for him. Donovan hits a pass and we get ahead and force them into some situations that playing some football that they don't want to play.
"That's not the normal game and that's not the one we're going to prepare for. It's going to be a knockdown, drag-out kind of affair."
It's also no secret that the Hawkeyes' offense has struggled to begin the year as well. Harbaugh has heard the talk, he's read the headlines and he's certainly not allowing his team to buy into the talk, either.
It's clear that Harbaugh, and the rest of the program, hold the Hawkeyes in high regard not just on offense but on defense, too.
"The quarterback has got a big arm," Harbaugh said. "He can make every single throw. The offensive line is really well-coached, as the entire team is. They have a system, they know their system, they get good at their system. It's a national story every year, Iowa's offense is struggling. You read those articles. It's that way every single year and half the time they win the Big Ten West championship and they continue to improve every single week. That's what they do.
"They've got some players there. They've got a tight end—he's a big, tall player who is really good. They've got a safety that's going to be an NFL player, they've got a corner that's going to be an NFL player. They've got really good players, they're really well-coached. It's going to be a big task for our team."