It was Hawkeye football’s strangest season, and here are 10 examples

It was the weirdest football season in Iowa history, and only the most-argumentative of humans would dispute it.

Here are 10 pieces of evidence:

1. Iowa's defense outscored its offense in the season-opener, 4-3. The Hawkeyes still won the game over South Dakota State, 7-3.

So much for scheduling yourself an easy opener. The Jackrabbits, who will meet Missouri Valley Football Conference archrival North Dakota State for the FCS national title on Jan. 8, had just six first downs and 120 total yards. Yet, they were in this game to the end.

It was 3-3 at halftime. The Hawkeyes recorded safeties in the third and fourth quarters to finish with seven points. An Iowa touchdown, it was called.

Iowa had just 166 yards itself and punted 10 times, once less than SDSU.

2. Iowa State had just one touchdown drive at Iowa, but it went for 99 yards in the fourth quarter and the Cyclones got a 10-7 win.

Iowa’s score came on its first possession, a 16-yard drive after the first of two Lukas Van Ness blocked punts. How often does a team block two punts and lose?

Monte Pottebaum fumbled at the ISU 1 in the third quarter, and the Cyclones went on their game-winning drive that used a whopping 11 minutes and 49 seconds.

Brock Purdy, who is now the toast of the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, was 0-3 against Iowa and didn’t look like a pro quarterback-to-be against the Hawkeyes. Hunter Dekkers, whose team went on to a 1-8 Big 12 record, got enough done to win at Kinnick.

3. The Hawkeyes played a game that ended 6 hours and 59 minutes after it began.

It was a September Saturday night game at Kinnick against Nevada. Iowa’s 27-0 win was largely forgettable. The night wasn’t.

There were three weather delays totaling 236 minutes. The contest ended at 1:39 a.m.

The crowd at that time was minuscule, but fired up. Some had come from bars, some from card games. A few had been at a Cedar Rapids wedding reception and hustled down to Iowa City when they heard the game was in a delay and would restart for a third time.

Kirk Ferentz’s postgame press conference ended at 2:30 a.m.

“It’s unusual for sure,” Ferentz said.

Nevada, by the way, didn’t win again the rest of the season. That night may have left it broken.

Iowa athletics staff set off a flurry of fireworks from the scoreboard above the north end zone minutes before midnight. They had to be fired before the permit expired, a team spokesman explained, and it’s unsafe to not ignite them after they’re loaded.

4. Iowa played in a game without a touchdown, its 9-6 loss at Illinois on Oct. 8.

After games against Rutgers and Michigan in which the expected happened, the Hawkeyes headed to Champaign.

Illinois made three turnovers, but Iowa only converted them into a total of three points. The Illini muffed a punt at their 5-yard line, yet prevailed.

It ended Iowa’s eight-game win streak over Illinois. When they beat South Dakota State, the Hawkeyes were the first Big Ten team to win a game without scoring a touchdown since 2018. Then the Illini did it to them the following month.

5. The Hawkeyes held Ohio State 145 yards under its season average … and lost 54-10.

It took quite a while for eventual Heisman-finalist C.J. Stroud and the powerful Buckeyes’ offense to get going Oct. 22 against Iowa. In fact, the Hawkeyes held a brief 7-3 lead after Joe Evans returned the fumble he forced of Stroud for a touchdown.

The Buckeyes had 360 yards, far below the 505 they averaged against their other 11 opponents. Yet, 54 points.

After the game, Ferentz was asked pointed questions about nepotism by the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Doug Lesmerises, who wrote this.

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The following Tuesday, Ferentz called the questioning an “interrogation.”

“It dawned on me coming home, you know. I said ‘Man, as bad as today was, it could have been worse. I could have been that guy and have his job and act like he did.’

“It could be a hell of a lot worse.”

The next day, the Iowa football office released a Ferentz statement saying “I tell our players to take the high road and yesterday, I did not do the same thing.”

That night on his weekly radio show, Ferentz said “I was not appreciative of the tone in which the questions were delivered so I’ll stand by that.”

6. The over/under for the Oct. 29 Northwestern game was 31.5 points, the lowest total since over/unders were posted in Nevada sportsbooks.

Here is how ESPN opened its telecast of the contest:

So what happened? Iowa and its criticized offense got off the deck and covered the 31.5 by itself in its 33-13 win.

7. After being held under 200 total yards on four occasions, the Hawkeyes got 200 rushing yards from freshman Kaleb Johnson in a 24-3 win at Purdue Nov. 5.

It was the first time the Boilermakers had been held without a touchdown since 2017, covering 62 games. Purdue gained just 255 yards, 190 below its season average.

Charlie Jones, the former Hawkeye, had 11 catches for 104 yards. But the players with the TD catches were Sam LaPorta and Nico Ragaini of Iowa.

8. Iowa did what really isn’t easy to do. It gained a paltry 146 yards and won a game by two touchdowns.

It’s good to have a great defense. That carried the Hawkeyes to a 24-10 home win over Wisconsin on Nov. 12. Cooper DeJean had his second pick-6 of the season, and Badger power-runner Braelon Allen was held to 40 yards on 17 carries.

Some fans booed Iowa’s offense in the first half. They were cheering after the game as Hawkeye players held the Heartland Trophy.

9. After being 1-3 in the Big Ten and an afterthought in the Big Ten West race, the Hawkeyes got their fourth-straight win to get on the cusp of repeating as West champs.

Something else that isn’t easy to do: Have an opposing player rush for 263 yards and still defeat his team.

Iowa beat Minnesota 13-10. Mohamed Ibrahim rushed for 263 on 39 carries for the Gophers on a 17-degree day in Minneapolis.

With the score 10-10, Hawkeye linebacker Jack Campbell knocked the ball away from Ibrahim at the Iowa 5 for a turnover with 5:07 left. They then drove to the Minnesota 3 and Drew Stevens kicked a game-winning field goal with 28 seconds left.

More weirdness: Ibrahim was named the Big Ten’s Offensive Player of the Week in a game in which his team lost and scored just 10 points.

Even more weirdness: There wasn’t a single penalty, the first time that an FBS game had gone without one since 1986.

10. Needing a home win over a Nebraska team with a 3-8 record and an interim head coach to get a repeat trip to the Big Ten title game, Iowa fell 24-17 to the Huskers.

Against the No. 108 defense in the nation, Iowa scored just 17 points, none of them until it fell behind 24-0. Coincidentally, 17 points is what the Hawkeyes averaged.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz was asked if his offense made progress from the season’s start to Black Friday.

“I think so,” he said. “Yeah, I think so.”

It is the 130th-ranked offense as it prepares to play Kentucky Saturday in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl.