Iowa 31, Illinois State 14

IOWA CITY — Drew Ott grew up on a Nebraska farm, and, yes, they slaughtered animals. But no, he didn't compare that to the gusher of a bloody nose he had in the third quarter to that.

'Irrigation well, I guess,' Ott said.

LeShun Daniels is from Warren, Ohio, it's just north of Youngstown and, no, he didn't grow up on a farm. He has no idea how he ended up with a bloody nose.

'It was a little cut earlier in the game,' Daniels said. 'I don't even know how it happened. It was just a regular cut, I guess.'

Those weren't the only two bloody noses in Kinnick Stadium on Saturday.

After an offseason of questions and doubts and general negativity, the Hawkeyes (1-0) came out swinging against Illinois State (0-1) and landed blow after blow.

Hlas: Hawkeyes use aggressive thinking in aggressive thumping

Junior running back LeShun Daniels rushed 26 times for 123 yards, quarterback C.J. Beathard, who completed 15 of 24 for 211 yards, rushed for two TDs and threw for another and Iowa's defense sacked quarterback Tre Roberson five times and held the Redbirds to just 35 rushing yards in a 31-14 victory before a crowd of 59,450.

Yes, Illinois State is an FCS school, but the Redbirds were the national runner-up last season and returned Roberson, a former Indiana QB who put up nearly 300 yards as a true freshman at Kinnick in 2011, and running back Marshaun Coprich. (And, yes, the FCS part likely figures into the Kinnick attendance, which dipped below 60,000 for the first time since Aug. 30, 2003 against Miami (Ohio), when the attendance was 54,128.)

There was blood, outside zones that went for 27 yards, screen passes that set up field goals just before halftime, bubble screens that looked like bubble screens and a 99-yard drive. To be clear, it was a 99-yard drive for Iowa, so you know the Hawkeyes didn't just pick up where they left off last season.

'We talked in January about how it's a new season, a new year, and we talked to (players) last night,' Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. 'This is the first chapter in that story.'

The Hawkeyes, who piled up 431 yards total offense, started typing on their first drive, a 13-play, 81-yarder that Beathard finished with a 6-yard QB draw. Then, the Hawkeyes penned their 'Infinite Jest,' a 577,608 novel. with Beathard's 2-yard QB sneak pushing a 12-play, 99-yard drive off the dock and finally into the end zone on running back Jordan Canzeri's 5-yard run.

'We practice situations in camp and one of them was a 99-yard drive,' said wide receiver Matt VandeBerg, who led Iowa with six catches for 59 yards. 'We just grinded it out, good, old Iowa football, ground and pound. It pays off when you go 99 yards, it boosts everyone's confidence.'

The 99-yarder tied a record, with Iowa last pulling it off at Miami (Ohio) in 2002. More than that, it was a statement of purpose. Everything Iowa wasn't on offense toward the end of 2014, it was on this drive that gave the Hawkeyes a 14-0 second quarter lead.

By the way, the 99-yard drive only worked in camp against Iowa's defense when Ferentz dictated that it worked.

'That's hard to do for any offense against any defense,' said Beathard, who hit VandeBerg for a 17-yard gain to convert the one third down the offense saw on the 99-yarder. 'It was big.'

Any hope of dragging itself off the 120-plus degree FieldTurf for Illinois State was punched in the face by Ott on the next drive. First down, the senior defensive end sacked Roberson for an 11-yard loss. On third-and-14, Ott pulled off the sack and strip.

Ironically, Ott ended up with the bloody nose, not on that play but later. A poor student-trainer had to pinch his nose on the bench for a little while. With Ott, there always seems to be a comic touch, but not far behind is something pretty good on the field, too.

'Ott was a handful, I don't know what else there is to say,' ISU coach Brock Spack said. 'We tried to put a tight end over there, but he ran by or ran through him a few times.'

Maybe the most popular play of the day was the fake field goal that Marshall Koehn tried in the second quarter. He was tackled two yards short of the first down, but it didn't matter. Kinnick cheered it.

If this felt like a different Iowa, it was because it is, or at least might be. Ferentz made another reference to January and some of the talking that went on then.

'We tried to go through everything as thoroughly as we possibly could, and I think that's (the fake field goal) probably the creation out of that think tank a little bit,' Ferentz said.

Maybe Iowa is doing a little writing and a little erasing.

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