Saturday's highly-anticipated matchup between Iowa and Penn State had a bit of controversy to it. Some Hawkeyes fans decided to boo a number of Penn State players that suffered respective injuries. For his part, however, Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has decided to stir the pot even more.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Ferentz decided to take the side of the jeering Hawkeyes fans. In his mind, the Penn State players were faking their injuries and they definitely deserved to be booed (h/t Scott Dochterman of The Athletic):

If the Penn State players were indeed faking injuries in an attempt to influence the outcome of the game, then they were indeed exhibiting unsportsmanlike behavior. Nevertheless, Ferentz comments here are still controversial considering how he's pretty much accusing opposing players of play-acting. The fact that he used the term “rat” makes it even worse. This isn't exactly the type of comments you usually hear from an esteemed head coach.

Be that as it may, Ferentz's Hawkeyes were still able to manage to escape with a victory on Saturday. Penn State lost their starting quarterback Sean Clifford to an injury (it does not seem like he was faking it at all, ironic as it may seem) and this caused all sorts of problems for the Nittany Lions.   The Hawkeyes capitalized and they came out with a huge win.