Coker's career day ended a quarter too early

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Marcus Coker rushed for 252 yards and two touchdowns. It was the third most in a game in Iowa history. It put Coker's name up there with Ed Podolak and Tavian Banks, Nos. 1 and 2 on that list.

And yet, no one with Iowa seemed to care. Really, in the wake of Iowa's shocking 22-21 loss at Minnesota, no one was in the mood to celebrate life much less 252 yards by the running back.

"I don't even think about it," said Coker, whose career-high topped the 219 he put up in the Insight Bowl last December. "I just want to win football games. It's what I came here to do."

All Iowa running back records were on the table when Coker smashed in from the 1 for his second TD, giving Iowa a 21-10 lead with 13:51 left in the fourth quarter.

Banks set Iowa's record with 314 yards against Tulsa in 1997. Podolak held it for 29 years after rolling up 286 against Northwestern in 1968. As Iowa's radio analyst, he might've thought about what he would tell Coker in the postgame.

Alas, that was Coker's last carry.

Minnesota went 80 yards for a TD, pulling within 21-16, and then surprised Iowa with an onside kick that eventually turned out to be the game-winner.

By the time Iowa had the ball again, it couldn't use the running back who had 252 yards and two TDs. The Hawkeyes trailed with 2:48 left in the game and a first down at their 26.

"He's getting better," coach Kirk Ferentz said of Coker. "Certainly, today it was a really good performance and that's what you hope young players do, improve."

Coker set up the Hawkeyes with a season-high 50-yard run to Minnesota's 14 in the first quarter, but that drive fizzled when sophomore kicker Mike Meyer went wide left with a 24-yard field goal, the first of his two misses.

That was emblematic of Iowa's day. Coker, Coker, Coker and then fizzle.

"It didn't matter what we did, we didn't do enough," said Coker, who now has 969 yards and should become the first Iowa back to eclipse 1,000 for a season since Shonn Greene in 2008. "We took a loss, that's all we took."

The fourth quarter tilted wildly toward the Gophers. Time of possession went 13:25 to 1:35. The Gophers piled up 102 yards on 23 rushes. Iowa had 12 yards on three carries, with the longest gain coming off quarterback James Vandenberg's 9-yard scramble on fourth-and-15 on Iowa's last-chance drive.

"This was hard on everybody," Vandenberg said. "We left some plays out there. It all comes down to execution."

In the end, Cokers' 252 yards were as hollow as the Hawkeyes' fourth quarter.

"We'll take this loss as motivation for next week," Coker said. "We still have another four games, so we can't afford to let something like this beat us twice."