Hawkeyes’ Orlando history: One game, one transcendent moment

The Play of the Week was made on an elementary school’s courtyard playground in Washington, D.C.

A teacher at Holy Trinity School named Ms. Fitz promised her third-graders hot chocolate if she made a Hail Mary of a very long basketball jump shot. The shot was perfect. The kids and their teacher went wild with joy.

A video of it went viral on social media, and Scott Van Pelt opened his SportsCenter with it on ESPN Wednesday night.

It was the essence of sports at its best, actually. People witnessed a crazy, wonderful thing that gave them something to merrily remember for a long time.

Saturday, Iowa plays football in Orlando for the first time in 17 years. That’s a long time, yet it isn’t if you’re an Iowa fan who was watching the Capital One Bowl that New Year’s Day 2005 afternoon.

That the Hawkeyes were Big Ten co-champions was more than enough of a triumph that season.

Before that was achieved, Iowa absorbed a 44-7 drubbing from Arizona State in Tempe that September, with the Hawkeyes outgained 511 yards to 100.

Iowa followed that with a 30-17 loss at Michigan that seemed like a moral victory because it was competitive despite the Hawkeyes rushing for minus-15 yards.

It was ridiculous how depleted Iowa’s running back corps got during the season. Jermelle Lewis, Albert Young, Damian Sims, Marcus Schnoor — all suffered season-ending injuries at some point.

The team’s leading rusher in 2004, with 227 yards and just 2.4 yards per carry, was a gutty walk-on named Sam Brownlee from Emmetsburg. He wasn’t the Next Man In. He was the Next, Next, Next, Next Man In.

Yet, Iowa won its final seven regular-season games. There was a 33-7 home mauling of Ohio State. There were back-to-back 2-point wins over Purdue and Minnesota to set up a season-ending home game with Wisconsin. Needing a win for a title-share with Michigan, the Hawkeyes bulldozed the Badgers, 30-7.

Michigan got the Big Ten’s Rose Bowl bid because it beat Iowa head-to-head. The Hawkeyes went to the Capital One Bowl to play the previous season’s national-champion, Nick Saban-coached LSU.

Saban’s men were 7-point favorites, but entered the fourth quarter trailing 24-12. They rallied, scoring with 46 seconds left for a 25-24 lead.

Iowa returned the ensuing kickoff to its 29, then completed two passes for a total of 20 yards. The Hawkeyes needed just a field goal, and had two timeouts left to try to get into field goal range.

Iowa quarterback Drew Tate spiked the ball after the second completion of the drive. He thought he stopped the clock, but the Hawkeyes had been penalized for a false start. Once the ball was spotted, the clock started running. Iowa’s coaches and players were caught unaware.

Tate took the snap from the Iowa 44 with seven seconds left. There would be no field goal try. It was do or die, and “do” was overwhelmingly the least-likely result.

Tate fired a perfect bomb to Warren Holloway. Fellow receiver Ed Hinkel cleared out an LSU cornerback trying to make the tackle, and Holloway hustled into the end zone for the walk-off win and his first career touchdown in his final college game.

The running clock had LSU’s defense even more disorganized than Iowa’s offense. A timeout would have allowed the Tigers the chance to make personnel changes and take better inventory of the situation.

“Warren’s defender went to the flats to play cov 3,” Tate messaged me last week, “and everyone else on the field was playing cov 1. So it seems the confusion got the best of both teams. The ball just bounced our way on that play.”

The game wasn’t a Rose Bowl, wasn’t for a championship, and didn’t alter college football history an iota. It certainly didn’t set back LSU or Saban. The Tigers went on to win national-titles under Les Miles and Ed Orgeron. Saban is pursuing his seventh at Alabama.

But Iowa got a moment for all-time.

Now, the Hawkeyes are headed back to Orlando. It’s where they had their Hail Mary for hot chocolate 17 years ago. You never know when the next sports prayer will be answered.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com