Beathard is Iowa's first B1G offensive POW winner since 2011

Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard threw an arm load of brilliant passes in the Hawkeyes' victory last weekend at Iowa State. You don't have to pick your favorite.

Let's talk about that 14-yarder to wide receiver Tevaun Smith for a second. It tied the game at 10-10 and sort of ignited the Hawkeyes offense, which was sort of stuck in neutral until this drive.

The throw itself, let's go there. Beathard took a shotgun snap and hopped back to the Iowa State 21-yard line. From there, he unleashed a rocket ball that beat the Iowa State defender by a nanosecond.

It was a back-shoulder throw to Smith, along the sideline and into the left corner of the end zone. The Iowa State defender was right there. His right hand probably felt the breeze from the pass.

Beathard put that ball in the clown's mouth. You know, you've played mini-golf. You've had to putt the Day-Glo ball along the fake turf and through the clown's mouth.

'Clown's mouth? What's that?' Beathard asked.

You know, like from mini-golf.

'Oh yeah,' he said with a laugh. 'I gotcha.'

Back to the throw . . .

'I saw the way the safeties rotated, Tevaun was one-on-one over there and I wanted to give him a shot,' said Beathard, who completed 15 of 25 for 215 yards and three TDs in Iowa's 31-17 victory. 'He made a great catch. Either our guy is going to make that play or it's going to go incomplete.'

The Big Ten announced Monday morning that Beathard was named conference co-offensive player of the week. Beathard, a junior from Franklin, Tenn., is the first Hawkeye to earn the offensive award since Marvin McNutt Jr. in 2011. Beathard is the first Iowa QB to earn this since James Vandenberg in 2011.

Beathard drove an Iowa rally from a 17-10 halftime deficit with 21 unanswered points in the second half. He rushed 10 times for 77 yards, including runs of 44 and 57 yards. His scoring strikes covered 3, 14, and 25 yards, with the 25-yard score giving Iowa the lead with 2:14 remaining in the fourth quarter. (The 3-yarder is from the 25-yard completion to tight end Henry Krieger Coble, who fumbled at the ISU 3 with Iowa wide receiver Matt VandeBerg recovering and scoring.)

Beathard hit junior wide receiver Riley McCarron on a 25-yarder (while rolling out on a naked bootleg) to give the Hawkeyes the lead with 2:14 remaining.

Beathard completed 10-of-13 pass attempts for 159 yards and two touchdowns in the second half.

Beathard is the first Iowa quarterback during head coach Kirk Ferentz's 17-plus seasons to record more than 400 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in the first two games of a season.

Beathard also was one of eight quarterbacks named to the Manning Award star of the week list. (You can vote for that here, by the way. Voting closes on Friday at 11 a.m.)

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com