When the Iowa Hawkeyes made their unexpected climb to the Big Ten championship last season, a motivational theme emerged: breaking the rock.

Every time the players turned around, head coach Kirk Ferentz, strength coach Chris Doyle or somebody else barked at them about working hard, as a team, and busting through the myth that the Hawkeyes were pushovers.

Now, after an 11-2 season, a Big Ten championship and No. 8 final ranking, the school's highest since 1960, there comes a new slogan, geared towards establishing the Hawkeyes as a legitimate Big Ten program.

Building the mountain.

	Kirk Ferentz is focusing on building a consistent winner at Iowa.

"Breaking the rock was just the first step," quarterback Nathan Chandler said. "If you break a lot of rocks, you get a mountain. And that's what we're trying to do -- build this program into a mountain."

It all sounds good, but three of the last four teams to win a share of the Big Ten title were .500 or worse the next year. The most drastic tumble came last season, when Illinois, after going 10-2 in 2001, went 5-7.

"Sometimes, guys get a little complacent. They lose that chip on their shoulder," Illinois head coach Ron Turner said. "And in this league, you can't afford to do that."

Prior to last season, Iowa had never won 11 games. They had never finished a Big Ten season 8-0. They hadn't played in a New Year's Day bowl game since the 1991 Rose Bowl. Thus, a sense of satisfaction for breaking the rock would be more than understandable.

But this year's fifth-year seniors remember their early years, when the Hawkeyes won just two of Kirk Ferentz's first 20 games. It's the memory of those seasons that the veterans say will prevent a plague of complacency from emerging.

"I try to remind some of these younger kids -- this doesn't happen," senior offensive lineman Robert Gallery said. "You can get real good and you can get real bad in a hurry.

"Some of them get caught up in the success we've had. We're celebrities in Iowa City and all this. But that doesn't mean a whole lot on Saturday afternoons."

Like most of the Big Ten champions before them, Iowa has a host of holes to fill in 2003. Gone are AP Player of the Year and Heisman runner-up Brad Banks, Mackey Award winner and first-round draft pick Dallas Clark and four-fifths of the offensive line, including first-team All-Americans Bruce Nelson and Eric Steinbach.

Yet the Hawkeyes seem unfazed. They point to a year ago, when nobody knew who they were and nobody gave them any respect. Their own marketing department didn't plan for the emergence of first-year starter Banks, putting the No. 34 on replica team jerseys. That player, Aaron Greving, left the team midway through the season.

Now, they say, there's another crop of unknown stars ready to emerge.

"We like to think we've got the program up and running and we've got some strength," Ferentz said. "Having said that, we've got a lot of work to do. And there isn't much margin for error. The guys know that."

A lot of the pressure will rest on the 6-foot-7 frame of Chandler, who will replace Banks. They're vastly different quarterbacks. While Banks was a fleet-footed, 6-1 dual-threat that could both run and pass, Chandler is a more conventional drop-back passer known for a strong arm and impressive accuracy.

The senior originally signed with Texas Tech out of high school, but transferred to Pasadena Community College when Spike Dykes retired. In limited action last year, he completed 12-of-20 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown.

"If you go step by step, you couldn't find two guys that are more different in styles," Chandler said. "But he emerged as a real field general. And that's one aspect of his game that I hope I can learn from."

Though Chandler won't have Clark at tight end, wide receiver Maurice Brown returns, as does 1,200-yard rusher Fred Russell. Groza Award winner Nate Kaeding is also back to do the placekicking duties, as is safety Bob Sanders, who Michigan quarterback John Navarre believes is one of the most feared defender in the Big Ten.

"He's a brickhouse and he can run," Navarre said. "When you go into a game, he's a guy you have to account for."

Yet not many of the experts are accounting for Iowa in this year's Big Ten race. The common preseason forecast has them somewhere in the conference's bottom half, behind the Michigans, Ohio States and Wisconsins of the world.

Essentially, they're telling the Hawkeyes they were a one-year wonder.

"They expect us to fail," Chandler said. "But we don't mind. That's what build the mountain is all about. It actually brings a little bit of a smile to our faces to prove ourselves again. We were in this exact same spot last year and, if I'm not mistaken, things turned out pretty well."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at wayne.drehs@espn3.com.