Hawkeyes football: Where improbable walk-off wins are baked into the November cake

IOWA CITY -- Were Friday’s ending to an unlikely football victory by Iowa been a one-time thing, you’d say the Hawkeyes were lucky.

This, however, was no one-off. Ending a game with a field goal for victory after scratching out an path just to stay close is Iowa’s calling card. Lucky? As Branch Rickey, Brooklyn Dodgers president and general manager said in a comment he made famous in 1946, luck is the residue of design.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz had a different saying circling his mind as he walked off the Kinnick Stadium field following his team’s last-second 13-10 win over Nebraska, its second such win over the Huskers by that score in the last two seasons.

“An Albert Einstein quote hit me,” Ferentz said, “about not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

“I think that sometimes explains the way things go in sports … as much as you want to analyze it, slice it, dice it, cut it up, all that stuff. I know statistics are important, but sometimes you just have to find a way to win, and our team did that.”

Most of the statistics were tilted against the Hawkeyes all night Friday. They got outgained, 334 yards to 164. They had five first downs to Nebraska’s 20. But Ferentz pointed to three program bedrocks that his men again delivered:

Very few penalties (1), turnovers (none, to two by the Huskers), and stellar special teams play.

You handle those areas, you can survive until you make other winning things finally happen. Like Kaleb Johnson’s incredible fourth-quarter 72-yard run after catching a short pass from Jackson Stratton. Like defensive end Max Llewellyn strip-sacking Husker quarterback Dylan Raiola at the Nebraska 36 with 20 second left and the game tied at 10.

Like Drew Stevens’ last-second field goal from 53 yards.

“I looked at it and I said ‘What’s that, 53?’ He’s got it,’” Iowa senior linebacker Nick Jackson said.

Of course he did. This what Iowa does, especially as November nears December. Since 2018, Iowa has six Big Ten wins by the margin of either a field goal at the last second or in the last 30 seconds.

That includes Miguel Recinos, Keith Duncan, Marshall Meeder and now Drew Stevens making walk-off winners against Nebraska.

Stevens’ almost hugged the right goalpost. Then he led a team sprint down the field to the traveling trophy in this series before he got hugged a hundred times by teammates.

It was the difference between an 8-4 and a 7-5 regular-season record. Way more importantly, it was 23 seniors forever being able to feel great about their final home game.

“It was just a story ending,” Jackson said.

“You’re about to cry,” teased his linebacking partner, senior Jay Higgins. “I don’t even know this kid.”

Jackson and Higgins held court together in a Kinnick interview room. You could listen to them for hours. Higgins noted how the fans booed when the team tucked it in offensively in the first half, punting instead of going for 4th-and-1 at the Nebraska 49 in the first quarter.

You know, Ferentz stuff. He said he wanted to go for the yard himself, but wasn’t confident enough his team could get it.

Besides, he always plays the long game. When the offense is bogged down, just keep playing for field position. Stay in striking distance, stay ready to strike in moments you make materialize.

“That’s Iowa football,” Higgins said. And he loves it.

“Quite frankly,” Ferentz said, “at halftime there wasn’t a lot to be enthused about just in general. But nobody let that get to them.

“You’ve just got to keep finding ways to win. And it all starts with guys playing tough and they’ve got to play with great effort. And you’ve got to have some belief in there, too.”

Oh, and one more thing. At this level you do need big-time talent to rise to the moment, which Johnson has done all season.

Nebraska led 10-3 early in the fourth quarter when Johnson took his big bite. The pass from Stratton to Johnson was of a shorter distance than most people travel going from their living room to their refrigerator. And then …

“He trucked a dude, he juked a dude, he outran a dude,” Jackson said. “I don’t know what more you can do on that run.”

Johnson shed tackling efforts from everyone between Ogallala and Omaha. It was sublime and ridiculous.

Then Llewellyn rose to his moment. Stevens rose to his. And a team that had led for the grand total of zero seconds in this game was ahead when the clock showed all zeros.

However you slice it, dice it, cut it up, the team without all the yards and first downs had the most points. Warm hearts on a cold night.

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