Hawkeyes football: How unlikely walk-off wins are baked into the November cake

IOWA CITY — If Friday’s ending to an improbable Iowa football victory was a one-off, you’d say the Hawkeyes got lucky.

However, this was not even. Ending a game with a field goal for the win after scraping a field just to stay close is Iowa’s calling card. Lucky? Seam Department RickeyThe Brooklyn Dodgers president and general manager said in a comment he made famous in 1946, luck is the residue of design.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz had a different saying on his mind as he walked off the Kinnick Stadium field after his team’s last-second 13-10 win over Nebraska, its second win over the Huskers by that score in the last two seasons.

“An Albert Einstein quote struck me,” Ferentz said, “about not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

“I think that sometimes explains how things go in sports … as much as you want to analyze it, slice it, dice it, cut it up, all that. I know that stats are important, but sometimes you just have to find a way to win and our team did that.”

Most of the stats were tilted against the Hawkeyes all night Friday. They were outgained, 334 yards to 164. They had five first downs to Nebraska’s 20. But Ferentz pointed to three program staples that his men again delivered:

Very few penalties (1), turnovers (none, to two by the Huskers) and great special teams play.

If you handle these areas, you can survive until you finally make other winning things happen. Like Kaleb Johnson’s incredible 72-yard run in the fourth quarter after catching a short pass from Jackson Stratton. As defensive end Max Llewellyn sacked Husker quarterback Dylan Raiola at the Nebraska 36 with 20 seconds left and the game tied at 10.

Like Drew Stevens’ last second field goal from 53 yards.

“I looked at it and I said ‘What’s that, 53?’ He’s got it,” Iowa senior linebacker Nick Jackson said.

Of course he did. This does Iowa, especially as November approaches December. Since 2018, Iowa has had six Big Ten wins by the margin of either a last-second field goal or in the final 30 seconds.

That includes Miguel Recinos, Keith Duncan, Marshall Meeder and now Drew Stevens winning the walk-off against Nebraska.

Stevens’ nearly hugged the right goal post. He then led a team sprint down the field for the travel trophy in this series before being hugged a hundred times by his teammates.

It was the difference between an 8-4 record and 7-5 in the regular season. More importantly, 23 seniors could feel comfortable for good in their final home game.

“It was just an end of story,” Jackson said.

“You’re about to cry,” teased his linebacking partner, senior Jay Higgins. “I don’t even know this boy.”

Jackson and Higgins held court together in a Kinnick interview room. You could listen to them for hours. Higgins noted how the fans booed when the team turned it on offensively in the first half, scoring instead of going 4th-and-1 at the Nebraska 49 in the first quarter.

You know, Ferentz stuff. He said he would go to the yard himself, but he wasn’t sure enough that his team could get it.

Besides, he always plays the long game. Once the attack is locked down, just continue to play about the field position. Stay in striking distance, be ready to strike at moments you get to materialize.

“That’s Iowa football,” Higgins said. And he loves it.

“Honestly,” Ferentz said, “at halftime there wasn’t much to get excited about just in general. But nobody let it get to them.

“You just have to keep finding ways to win. And it all starts with guys playing hard and they have to play with a lot of effort. And you have to have some belief in that as well.”

Oh, and one more thing. At this level, you need a great talent to reach that moment, which Johnson has done all season.

Nebraska led 10-3 early in the fourth quarter when Johnson took his big bite. The pass from Stratton to Johnson was shorter than most journeys from their living room to their refrigerator. And then…

“He trucked a guy over, he boned a guy, he ran over a guy,” Jackson said. “I don’t know what else you can do on that run.”

Johnson threw off the efforts of everyone between Ogallala and Omaha. It was sublime and ridiculous.

Then Llewellyn rose to his moment. Stevens stood up. And a team that had led in total zero seconds in this game was ahead when the clock showed all zeros.

No matter how you slice it, dice it, slice it up, the team without all the yards and first downs had the most points. Warm hearts on a cold night.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; [email protected]