I can’t believe I forgot to talk about the flashback game 9.2 had on Saturday morning before the South Dakota State game.
It’s one of my favorite Hawkeye games of all time.
It took place at Kinnick Stadium September 21, 1974.
The Iowa Hawkeyes snapped a 12 game losing streak, their longest ever at the time, by beating 12th ranked UCLA 21-10. That was not only the first home game for me as a football manager, it was the first time I had ever seen Iowa win and the first time I saw the Hawkeyes score a touchdown.
In 1970, my first game at Iowa stadium (It was named Kinnick Stadium in 1972) was a 48-0 blowout by USC.
In 1972, I came down twice to see Iowa lose 24-0 to Purdue and 31-0 to Michigan.
Iowa opened the 1974 season losing at Michigan 24-7.
The Hawks were 34 point underdogs.
That was my first game as manager and Alex Karras, Bob Commings, teammate at Iowa in the in 1956-57, came into the locker room.
In 1974 against UCLA, Rob Fick threw touchdown passes to Dave Jackson and Mark Fetter.
Mark also scored on a four yard run in the fourth quarter to ice the game.
I still have a picture of Joe Devlin and Dan McCarney leading Rodney Wellington on a sweep.
Andre Jackson, Earl Douthitt and Lyn Heil starred on the defense.
Oh yeah, UCLA had a 34 year old rookie head coach … Dick Vermeil.
Iowa would finish 3-8 that year with wins over Northwestern and Illinois.
The flashback game this week was the first game of the 1986 season with the Hawkeyes beating the Cyclones 43-7.
The win made Hayden Fry the all-time winningest coach with his 53rd win.
Mark Vlasic, a fifth year senior, went 15-24 for 286 yards and two TD passes.
Jim Mauro, a walk-on receiver from Dowling high school, tied an Iowa record with three touchdown catches.
David Hudson gained 120 yards on the ground.
Rick Bayless had a 32 yard touchdown run and George Davis led the defense with 11 tackles.
The Hawks would finish 9-3 that year beating San Diego State 39-38 in the Holiday Bowl.
CY-Hawk Game Iowa State 10, Iowa 7
Six years is a nice long streak to beat an archrival.
Seven years would have been better.
This is tough to talk about because for the second straight week the Hawkeye defense and special teams played well enough to win the game but the offense stubbed its toe once again.
Start with the Clones had 21 first downs, the Hawkeyes 11.
313 total yards for State, 150 for Iowa.
79 plays for State, 52 for Iowa.
Clones were 10-20 on third down conversions, Hawks 3-11.
The most glaring stat for me, at least, was State had the ball for 38:15, Iowa 21:45
No wonder the defense wore down in the fourth quarter giving up a 99 yard dive that started with Iowa fumbling on the one.
I watched the replay a few times and I thought Monte Pottebaum had the ball over the end zone line before it came out.
That ended up being a big turnaround as Iowa would have led 14-3 and I would have bet the farm the Hawks would hold on for the win.
Iowa defense
The Hawkeye defense wasn’t as dominant as usual but came up big twice when the Cyclones were knocking on door for a score.
The first one came early in the second quarter when the Clones had a second and goal on the Iowa one yard line.
Jirehl Brock, who actually committed to Iowa before they got Tyler Goodson, was hit by Kaevon Merriweather, the ball popped up and Logan Kemp recovered it in the end zone for a touchback.
At the end of the first half, Spencer Petras threw an interception that the Clones picked off at the Iowa 18 with 1:33 left.
Two plays later, Cooper DeJean picked off his first pass as a Hawkeye in the end zone and the Hawks dodged another bullet.
Cooper led the team with 11 tackles and two pass breakups.
“It’s been a big learning experience for me understanding the speed of the game and what all goes in different situations,” said Cooper. “It’s been a little bit of a change but I’m starting to get used to it.”
Seth Benson had ten stops, while Riley Moss, Jack Campbell and Quinn Schulte all had nine stops.
“It’s just a lack of execution on our part on third downs and trying to get off the field,” said Quinn. “They had too many chunk plays that we gave up.”
John Waggoner got the only Iowa sack and Terry Roberts picked off a pass in the third quarter.
Iowa special teams
Tory Taylor punted six times for a 50.7 yard average with two punts inside the 20, but Lucas Van Ness tied a school record with two blocked punts.
“Coach Woods dialed that up all week,” said Lucas. “I was able to get there a couple of times but it wasn’t enough.”
There were two things that I was concerned about before the season started and they both showed up last Saturday.
I was hoping the offensive line would come together and they haven’t so far.
Also, I was concerned about the kicking game and Aaron Blom missed a 48 yard field goal that would have tied the game as the clock ticked down zero.
The rain didn’t help.
Iowa offense
Spencer Petras is a fifth year senior.
Spencer started all eight games in 2020, threw nine touchdowns with five interceptions, and completed 57% of his passes.
That season, Spencer was named honorable mention all-Big Ten.
Last year, the senior from California played in 12 games with 11 starts completing 57% of his passes with ten TD’s and nine picks.
This year Spencer has completed 45% of his passes, has no touchdowns, and two interceptions.
Petras was 10-26 for 92 yards and a pick against the Clones.
It doesn’t help to have Keegan Johnson and Nico Ragaini, the two top receivers, out but someone else needs to step up.
Sam LaPorta was targeted ten times and had eight catches while Arland Bruce was targeted 11 times with one catch.
Is it all on Spencer?
No, but maybe a change by putting Alex Padilla in at QB couldn’t hurt.
Wrap up
Another not so pretty of a game, but this one ended in a loss.
I thought Iowa’s offense would look better this week but it didn’t.
The Hawks need to get it together or it’s going to be a long season.
