LOS ANGELES -- Back in October, before the Iowa football season mushroomed from a sideshow in the Big Ten West to a tale of widespread curiosity, Tevaun Smith just wanted to sleep.

“Thank God, it’s my senior year,” said Smith, the big-play wideout, when asked midseason about Iowa’s still newly-altered practice schedule.

By now, Smith and the Hawkeyes don’t care about rest. They’re wide awake amid final days of a dream season, touring Disneyland and other southern California landmarks on a historic journey that ends Friday in the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual, (ESPN, 5 p.m. ET).

As fifth-ranked Iowa gets back to practice Monday afternoon at the StubHub Center ahead of its clash with No. 6 Stanford, take a step back and consider just how the Hawkeyes landed here in Hollywood.

More specifically, how did coach Kirk Ferentz and his staff get these players to believe they could get to a place that no Iowa team had traveled since 1990?

Can it be traced to the spring decision, met by the Hawkeyes with degrees of indifference, hesitancy and disgust, that they would start football activities this season before the August sunrise in Iowa City?

The early-morning practices, a significant departure from the Ferentz routine of the past 16 seasons, in fact, served as the perfect medicine for a program that needed a shock to its system.

Instituted partially in the name of biology -- Iowa’s braintrust determined the shift to mornings would allow for more efficient recovery and use of energy -- the change may have equally impacted Iowa’s chemistry.

Let’s be clear, this adjustment did not serve as the primary force behind the Hawkeyes’ 12-1 finish and their near miss in a stunning bid for the College Football Playoff.

But it laid a foundation. It helped forge a mindset. It started things right -- every day.

The move to mornings represents a masterstroke in motivation by Ferentz, the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year nationally, as named by the Football Writers Association of America.

Even if the teams on its 2015 schedule practiced as hard as Iowa, the Hawkeyes knew, nearly each time they hit the practice field, that their opponents were still in bed.

“As we got into a groove,” defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson said, “I liked it.”

This season has changed the path of Iowa’s program. From the January promotion of quarterback C.J. Beathard to a renewed focus on finishing everything it starts to the unwavering, next-man-up approach, no singular change reminded Iowa players more regularly of their sharpened attitude than the morning workouts.

Offensive tackle Boone Myers awoke early to lift weights in high school. He met the change this season with a shrug. But in teammates, Myers saw change.

Sleep through a morning class and you might escape notice. Sleep through practice and, well, you don’t want to sleep through practice.

“You have to get up and get ready to go for the day,” Myers said. “It holds the whole team accountable.”

A jump in accountability, Myers said, has helped Iowa immeasurably.

And Smith, who savors his sleep, overcame the early struggles.

“You could just see the growth in the team,” he said.

Looking back, guard Jordan Walsh laughed at the spring revelation. Few Hawkeyes -- perhaps even not Ferentz -- recognized the potential impact of morning practices when the staff left notes in the players’ lockers with details of the altered fall schedule.

“Some guys thought it was a misprint,” said Walsh, who regularly awoke at 5:20 a.m., starting in late August.

Walsh recalls that he got the news from roommate Henry Krieger Coble, a breakout senior talent at tight end.

Speaking with reporters Sunday in Los Angeles, Krieger Coble said the Hawkeyes’ focus and attention to detail improved exponentially over previous seasons.

Iowa’s record from 2011 to 2014 was 26-25. Its twelve wins this year set a school record.

“It was all just a matter of mindset for our team,” Krieger Coble said.

He didn’t mention the early mornings. Iowa players rarely mentioned it as their unbeaten streak reached November. What else was there to say? The change worked in ways they hoped it would -- and in ways likely never anticipated.

“We did a lot of good things this year,” Beathard said, “and we’re not done yet.”

Any chance the Hawkeyes get to start early, the more at ease they'll feel in tackling the final challenge Friday in Pasadena.