The traveling trophy Floyd of Rosedale returns to its perch at the Stew and LeNore Hansen Football Performance Center.
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Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz liked the resiliency he saw from the Hawkeyes.
This game was all about toughness, grit and persistence and that approach extended to the offensive side of the ball as well. “I thought the guys really pulled that off today”. With 5:30 remaining in the game, the junior accelerated left through a gaping hole and sprinted 54 yards to paydirt to put the Hawkeyes ahead 14-7.
MINNESOTA: Struggled all afternoon to sustain drives, let alone score, after totaling 86 points in the last two games against Iowa.
After a pretty average showing so far this season, Iowa’s defense got back to its dominant ways.
After Wadley’s score, LeShun Daniels Jr. ran in the 2-point conversion.
Minnesota made things interesting by driving into the red zone on its final series. Iowa fumbled once and senior quarterback C.J. Beathard threw two interceptions.
The Golden Gophers had three chances to rally, but were turned away each time by the Hawkeye defensive effort.
Instead of being sacked, Iowa executed its third-down plays and six conversions helped the Hawkeyes open up a almost 10-minute advantage in possession time. Freshman Manny Rugamba also had a pick – the first of his career – in the second quarter.
We said that after we escaped Piscataway with a 14-7 win over Rutgers. “We’ve got to do a good job of that, keep the ball”. “We weren’t 100 percent, but we were a lot better”.
MINN-S.Brooks 9 yard rush (E.Carpenter kick), 6:17.
He was held to one yard on seven attempts this game.
Wadley said the pieces seemed to fit together better as Iowa gained its 179 rushing yards. McCarron caught six passes for 62 yards, leading Iowa in receptions.
Perhaps it was fitting that a rivalry game between two physical teams was so ugly. Mitch Leidner had seven carries for one yard, which included two sacks. Unfortunately the Hawkeyes could not find the end zone and would have to settle for a Keith Duncan field goal which gave them a 3-0 lead.
On first-and-10 from the Iowa 42, Leidner found Smith for a 22-yard gain to the Iowa 20. The Hawkeyes haven’t gotten stronger, and it’s hurt them.
In my instant reaction podcast, I said that the Hawkeyes looked like they played true Hawkeye team defense on this day…where each man was doing his job, and the person behind him was doing his job and in the end, the whole was better than the sum of the parts. This new-look offense was supposed to have put those laughable games in the rear-view mirror, but on a day when Mitch Leidner was bad and the line was playing musical chairs because of injuries, the Gophers inexplicably went away from its best playmaker and dropped to 0-2 in Big Ten play. Here’s an interesting trend: By Offensive S&P+, a metric that measures efficiency and explosiveness, Iowa has had the No. 33 offense in the country in the first quarter, No. 60 in the second, No. 80 in the third, and No. 91 in the last.
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Dick Johnson, the assistant coach that Leidner and his teammates at Lakeville South High School light-heartedly called “Magic”, died of a heart attack last Saturday while Minnesota was on the road. The Gophers lost the field position battle and much of the blame for that lies with the offense, but Santoso didn’t help matters either.
