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IOWA CITY, Iowa – Two of them are city kids, one from St. Louis, one from the Twin-Cities.

One of them was raised in a college town, Lawrence, Kan.

One of them grew up hunting (and eating) squirrels in the Wild Turkey Capital of Minnesota — Caledonia (population 2,965).

Together, they have come together to form one of the best defensive lines in the Big Ten. But it only happened after a lot of soul-searching and a little yelling at a meeting two weeks ago.

That’s when Adrian Clayborn, Christian Ballard, Broderick Binns and Karl Klug recommitted themselves to becoming the engine that drives the defense for the Iowa football team.

“The coaches thought we could have played much better than we did,” Binns said of the first two games of the season. “We were out there being lazy and not chasing the ball, not doing the things that Iowa defensive linemen do.”

This was after a 35-3 victory over Iowa State, which followed an unimpressive 17-16 escape against Northern Iowa.

The group met with position coach, Rick Kaczenski, on that Sunday and cleared the air.

“In weeks 1 and 2 we didn’t have very much energy,” Ballard said. “We weren’t playing up to our potential.”

The group played much better in a 27-17 victory over Arizona. And they took things to a whole new level last Saturday at Penn State, helping to rally the Hawkeyes from a 10-5 deficit in the fourth quarter to claim a 21-10 victory that caught the attention of the entire college football world.

Binns, who turned the game around with a second-quarter safety, was named the ESPN.com Big Ten defensive player of the week. Clayborn, who blocked a punt and returned it for a go-ahead touchdown, was named the Big Ten special teams player of week. Ballard and Klug played exceptionally well, too.

It was linebacker Pat Angerer who won the most player of the week honors following the victory, but when Angerer was asked this week to name his MVP for the Hawkeyes at this point in the season, he said “the whole D line.”

No one would have said that after the first two games.

Despite what the scores indicate, Klug said he thought the defensive line performed even more poorly against Iowa State than it had against UNI.

“After Iowa State, we were all embarrassed with the way we played,” he said. “We weren’t really moving around the way we need to. We came out the next week and stepped it up.”

Head coach Kirk Ferentz has noticed.

“The guys up front are starting to jell,” he said. “We’re certainly way ahead of where we were three weeks ago, four weeks ago. The last two weeks we’ve started to look like a cohesive group out there and that’s a good thing.”

Ferentz said he expected it to take awhile for this group to come together.

While the back end of the Hawkeyes’ defense is virtually unchanged from a year ago, the defensive line was reshuffled. Binns, a sophomore from St. Paul, Minn., and Klug, the Caledonia kid, are new to the starting lineup. Ballard, a junior from Lawrence, Kan., has moved inside from end to tackle. Even Clayborn, a returning starter at end, took some time to get going.

“Adrian has really found his gear this past two weeks, which was great to see,” Ferentz said. “I think we’re starting to get there and that’s encouraging.”

Ballard said inexperience was one factor, but he admitted there also was some complacency early. He said he thought some players let a No. 22 preseason national ranking go to their heads. The early struggles brought them back to reality.

“It was a good wake-up call,” he said. “We looked at the film after that and saw we weren’t a ranked team at all.”

Of course, now they are ranked again. They’re No. 13 in the latest poll after knocking off Penn State. But the complacency is a thing of the past.

“We’ve got a little bit of chemistry going now,” Ballard said.

Arkansas State (1-2)

at No. 13 Iowa (4-0)

- When: Saturday, 11:02 a.m.

- Where: Iowa City (Kinnick Stadium)

- TV: ESPN2

- Radio: WOC-AM (1420); KMCS-FM (93.1)

- Line: Iowa by 21 1/2 points

- Series: First meeting 

- Last week: Iowa upset then-No. 5 Penn State on the road, 21-10. Arkansas State, a member of the Sun Belt Conference, dropped a 30-27 decision to Troy.

- Iowa’s remaining schedule:

Oct. 3 — Arkansas State, 11:02 a.m.

Oct. 10 — Michigan, 7:10 p.m.

Oct. 17 — at Wisconsin, 11:05 a.m.

Oct. 24 — at Michigan State, 6 p.m.

Oct. 31 — Indiana, 11 a.m.

Nov. 7 — Northwestern, TBA

Nov. 14 — at Ohio State, TBA

Nov. 21 — Minnesota, TBA