Ten Thoughts on Iowa Football

There’s plenty to discuss regarding the game on the field as Iowa routed Washington on Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium, but the real story was Kirk Ferentz winning his 200^th game as Iowa’s head coach.

If you would have told any Iowa fan during the 1999 season that Kirk Ferentz would end up winning 200 games and counting as the head coach of the Hawkeyes, they would have called you crazy. And they probably would have been right to do so.

Heck, in the middle of the 2000 season, there was even more evidence that Ferentz wasn’t long for this job. Let’s not forget it took quite a while to officially sign him to a contract, so maybe by the end of 2000, both parties would say, let’s just move on and call it good.

But, a funny thing happened on along the way. They started winning. In 2001, they broke the rock. In 2002, there was no question that Kirk Ferentz was the right guy for the job. It’s been interesting covering him full-time since 2003, but really being there from the start. I always share covering his first conference win over Michigan State in 2001. I was stuck by the emotional response to what that first league win meant to him and how it wasn’t about him, but about his players and coaches who had worked for that moment. It was also the first time we saw the man known as “Emotional Kirk”.

Here were are in 2024 and Kirk Ferentz hasn’t really changed. Yeah, his hair is gray and he looks older (so do I, by the way), but he’s still the same guy with the same values and the same goals. That’s probably why while the world of college football has drastically changed, he’s survived and continued to maintain a high level of success.

Is Kirk Ferentz perfect? Nope. None of us are, but he’s been a great representative for the University of Iowa since 1999 and to see his emotions and the shared moment in the locker room with players who weren’t even born when Ferentz got his start at Iowa was a pretty special moment.

Now let’s get to ten thoughts on Iowa football

1. Kaleb Johnson continues to put together what could end up being the best season running the ball in Iowa football history. He’s now at 937 yards at the halfway mark of the season. The record in held by Shonn Greene, who ran for 1850 yards in 2008. I’m sure there will be a game or two down the stretch where some team takes him away a bit more than anyone else has, but right now he just seem to be clicking at a level we haven’t ever seen, really since Greene.

2. By the way, the single season rushing mark might not be the only record that Johnson ends up taking down. It was funny listening to Johnson speak after the win on Saturday. He said his goals coming into the season were 1200 yards and 12 touchdowns. After rushing for a pair of scores on Saturday, he has 12 touchdowns this year at the halfway mark. The all-time single season mark for an Iowa running back is also from Greene in 2008 when he rushed for 20 touchdowns. At his pace, Johnson might get there by early November.

3. Let’s stick with the offensive side of the ball where it was an interesting week. Kaleb Brown and Leshon Williams announced that they would be entering the transfer portal. One player’s departure is another player’s opportunity. That’s exactly what happened here. Williams loss was something because he was a very well respected player and led the team in rushing last year. But, he wasn’t going to play much with Johnson having the season he is this year. However, while Brown hasn’t played a lot, he was always going to be in the mix. So opportunity was knocking and it looks like Seth Anderson and Dayton Howard were answering. Anderson, who has struggled with a soft tissue leg injury since fall camp, played and caught a pass for 27 yards. Howard, who is a redshirt freshman, caught his first career pass and it turned out to be a touchdown reception of 33 yards.

4. We should probably salute the kicking game because they had a really good day on Saturday. After missing his first field goal of the season, Drew Stevens was a perfect 4-4 on field goal attempts, including one from 51 yards and another from 46 yards. He’s having a fantastic year and he even smoked a kickoff out of the back of the end zone and it was so hard that a fan trying to catch it wore it on his face. (More on him later). Also, there are times when Iowa has used their punter a lot. Saturday, Rhys Dakin didn’t even get to punt in the second half. He had a pair of punts, averaging 58.0 yards per kick. Both getting inside the 20 yard line. He was fantastic.

5. While we discuss the guys who are kicking the ball, let’s also mention the guy returning those kicks because he’s pretty good too. I often make comments about Kaden Wetjen during games when he is returning a punt or kickoff that I compare him to Evil Knievel, the 70’s daredevil stunt man. I do that in a good way because Wetjen just seems to be flying at full speed and we don’t really know the outcome, but we are going to be watching every second of him with the ball in his hands. He had a huge 37 yard punt return on Saturday.

6. One area of Iowa’s success on Saturday that is probably not being discussed very much is their pass rush. On Saturday, they not only ended up with four sacks, but they were credited with seven quarterback hurries. Leading that charge was Aaron Graves, who had a pair of sacks and forced two fumbles, one of which was recovered by Iowa. It was important that Iowa’s defense forced Washington quarterback Will Rogers to move around a bit and get pressure on him and they did just that as the game progressed.

7. There has been a pretty divided opinion on Xavier Nwankpa this season. He got pulled from the Iowa State game after giving up a long touchdown pass in that game. And he’s been subbed out quite a bit in passing situations since that point, which is limiting his snaps. But, Nwankpa played his best game of the season on Saturday. He was active and playing more physical in this game, resulting in ten tackles.

8. Sticking with the defensive backfield, Phil Parker may have made another change in the starting lineup. And that might just be how this goes this year where the player starting opposite of Jermari Harris could bounce in and out of the lineup depending on performance. This time it was Deshaun Lee being replaced by TJ Hall. It seemed like the Washington receivers were being pretty physical with Lee and Hall held up a bit better in those situations.

9. One last note on the defensive backfield. Later in the game when the Huskies were getting desperate and going for it on fourth down it was a pair of young defensive players that prevented first downs. First it was Zach Lutmer, who seems to be the guy in dime coverage for Iowa, who made a stop. Then it was John Nestor who stepped up and made a stop. Both have a promising future as Hawkeye players.

10. Ok, final note. I think we have all seen the clip of the Iowa fan who took one on the chin. Literally, he took one on the chin or face or forehead on Saturday. My friend Rob Brooks, who is the sideline reporter for Iowa football went over an interviewed Joe after the incident happened. Drew Stevens had drilled a low line drive kickoff that flew past the Iowa end zone. Joe thought it would be a good idea to try and field that kick on the fly. Bad idea Joe. He took it in face and down went Joe. He was a great sport about it in the interview and let’s hope Iowa does something to salute him at one of the upcoming home games, except don’t let the man field a kickoff.