Iowa kicker Drew Stevens gets redemption against Nebraska with game-winning 53-yard field goal

IOWA CITY — Drew Stevens has redeemed himself against Nebraska.

A year after getting benched at halftime against the Huskers, Stevens kicked a 53-yard field goal as time expired to lift Iowa (8-4, 6-3 Big Ten) to a 13-10 win over Nebraska (6-6, 3-6).

“It means everything,” Stevens said. “I was looking forward to this game. I can say that now. … This one felt really good.”

Defensive lineman Max Llewellyn set up the game-winning opportunity with a strip-sack at the Nebraska 36 with 20 seconds remaining. While the play went to replay review, Llewellyn “absolutely” knew he had it.

“I, on that last one, beat him around with speed,” Llewellyn said. “So I’m surprised it wasn’t a spin. … I came around the corner and the ball was right down my hip, and I kind of reached out for it. And I had the ball in my hand.”

Stevens and Llewellyn were far from the only heroes in the Hawkeyes’ comeback win, however.

Iowa star running back Kaleb Johnson, at the end of a regular season full of eye-popping plays, broke five tackles on a 72-yard catch-and-run that tied the game and swayed momentum toward the Hawkeyes on the first play of the fourth quarter.

“I told myself the team needed me in that moment, and I was not going to let my seniors down,” Johnson said.

Earlier in the second half, Iowa defensive back John Nestor recovered a muffed punt on the Nebraska 4-yard line. That turnover eventually set up a 20-yard Stevens field goal — Iowa’s first points of the game to cut the Nebraska lead to 10-3.

“I don’t know how Nebraska does it, but we don’t muff punts,” Stevens said.

Iowa overcame an uninspiring first half offensively, as it amassed only 20 total yards before intermission. The Hawkeyes were averaging less than 1 yard per carry at that point, and quarterback Jackson Stratton was struggling as well.

(Stratton ended up going 8-of-15 for 115 yards, but 72 of those yards can be attributed to Johnson’s after-the-catch magic early in the fourth quarter.)

But Iowa’s defense did not give up any points in the second half, opening the door for the Hawkeyes’ second-half comeback.

“Our guys really dug in and made plays when it mattered,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “That’s really what you have to do if you are going to be successful.”

Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola — or “Mahomes Junior,” as Stevens described him afterward — went 22-of-32 for 190 yards against Iowa’s secondary, which again was without starting defensive back Jermari Harris.

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The Huskers also amassed 144 rushing yards, albeit at a not-super-efficient clip of 3.3 yards per carry. Emmett Johnson led the Huskers with 71 rushing yards.

It was the seventh consecutive Iowa-Nebraska game that was decided by one possession. Iowa has won all but one of those games. That includes last year’s game, when Stevens was benched after missing two field goals. Marshall Meeder provided the game-winning kick then after a Nebraska turnover.

Ferentz said Stevens’ growth has been a “night-and-day difference” between last year’s benching against Nebraska and this year’s game-winner.

“He’s worked hard,” Ferentz said. “He’s earned everything that he has gotten. … If you want to be really good at what you do, you have to invest and put the time in.”

With Friday’s win, the Hawkeyes have won at least eight games in each of the last nine full seasons (excluding the shortened 2020 season).

“This season’s just been up and down, up and down, and for us to end like this — this was out of a dream,” Llewellyn said. “You can’t draw it up any better than this. ... Super-good team win.”

Iowa will seek its ninth win of 2024 in its yet-to-be-announced bowl game. The Hawkeyes will learn their bowl fate — most projections point to the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa — on Dec. 8.

“One thing I do know for sure, wherever we end up, it will be warmer than it was tonight,” Ferentz said. “We’ll figure that out whenever they tell us where to go, but right now we’re going to enjoy this one.”

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