Fitting finish to 10-win Hawkeyes regular season: Preposterous, prosperous

LINCOLN, Neb. — A transfer quarterback no one paid attention to when he arrived in Iowa in January planted a kiss on the forehead of a transfer kicker no one paid attention to when he arrived in Iowa in August.

If that doesn’t translate to the strange yet successful regular season the Hawkeyes finished Friday, nothing does.

“You’re the man,” QB Deacon Hill said he told Marshall Meeder in the Hawkeyes’ Memorial Stadium locker room after Meeder’s last-second 38-yard field goal gave Iowa a 13-10 win over Nebraska. “You saved my butt.”

A quarterback who had never thrown a college pass became Iowa’s guy at that position for eight games, through turbulent times, and has persevered. But, the last of his 28 passes Friday was his worst. And nearly fatal.

It came at a strange time to gamble, in a 10-10 game with Iowa facing third-and-12 at its 25 in the final minute of regulation. Tommi Hill intercepted it. A Huskers penalty on the return placed the ball at the Nebraska 45.

But Iowa’s Ethan Hurkett, from the badlands of Cedar Rapids, intercepted the ball right back two plays later and returned it to the Husker 37 with 15 seconds left. Leshon Williams had a 22-yard rush to get the ball to the 15. After a kneel-down by Hill, Meeder made his first kick as a Hawkeye.

Deacon Hill and Ethan Hurkett and Marshall Meeder and a lot of other players who aren’t part of Who’s Who in College Football got Iowa to 10-2 and next Saturday’s Big Ten title game.

After using all the baling wire in Iowa this fall, Kirk Ferentz must have found some on the other side of the Missouri River on Thanksgiving.

So what do you think Ferentz’s final words were to a reporter as the coach made his way to a postgame press conference to the Iowa locker room?

“You think I’ll get fined by the Big Ten office?”

“You can afford it,” he was told.

“I’ll gladly pay it,” he said.

After properly savoring the win and praising his players, Ferentz went on an extended and direct beef in front of cameras and mics. It was about the forever-famous and forever-infamous invalid fair catch call that basically cost his team the game in its 12-10 loss to Minnesota on Oct. 21.

The very condensed version: “We got screwed, OK? I’m just gonna tell you we got screwed in that one by a special replay system.”

But the anger was twofold within the fan base afterward. Half went to the Big Ten replay official or officials who overturned Cooper DeJean’s punt return for a touchdown with 1:32 left, ruling he made an invalid fair-catch signal.

The other half was for Iowa’s offense being unable to take advantage of getting the ball at the Iowa 46 and moving into field goal position against the Gophers to try to win it on a kick.

Maybe, just maybe, the Hawkeyes learned enough for their own failings late in that game to not waste another similar opportunity.

The following week, Iowa had an effective final drive to set up Drew Stevens for a 38-yard game-winner with 14 seconds left. Three games later, the Hawkeyes dashed to field goal range and Meeder connected from 38 yards.

Meeder was inserted because Stevens had two field goal tries blocked and put two kickoffs out of bounds. Meeder was told to be ready. He was. He got a kicker’s dream result, and a smooch from his quarterback to boot.

Although it’s been said many times, many ways about this Iowa season, it’s been nutty, cuckoo, wacky, and above all, prosperous. You can’t discount 10-2 and a division title no matter how much the Big Ten West is a steaming pile of … mediocre major-college football teams.

None of the six West opponents topped 14 points against Iowa, and that’s how you win a division. Were each of those seven games difficult to watch? Only if for some reason you enjoy the forward pass, periodic big plays, and offensive action that is vertical more than horizontal.

“Football’s not a beauty contest or something like gymnastics, where you get style points,” Ferentz said.

“It’s about finding a way to be successful, find a way to win a football game. Our guys have really done a good job of that.”

They got outgained for the ninth time. They’re last in the nation in total offense. They told a kicker who had never a touched a football in a Hawkeye game to go out and win one for them. They’re 10-2.

Bring on Michigan or Ohio State. Or both.

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