Kirk Ferentz’s Iowa players bailed him out, and they all felt great after edging Penn State

IOWA CITY — Kirk Ferentz may have been conservative before the term had political connotations.

This was the coach who once led the planet in punts from the other team’s 40-yard line. This was someone who probably always thought “risk/reward” was a strange concept.

Yet, at the end of the first half of his Iowa team’s game against Penn State that looked like it could had the potential to be decided by one critical mistake, Ferentz made one by being hyperaggressive that could have doomed his team to defeat.

Iowa was ahead 10-7 with the ball at the Penn State 48 with six seconds left in the half and Ferentz decided to have Drew Stevens try a 66-yard field goal.

The longest field goal without the use of a tee in FBS is 65 yards, by Martin Gramatica of Kansas State in 1998.

Like many college kickers, Stevens has made kicks of that length in practice. He’s made bombs in pregame warm-ups. He has made more field goals of 50-plus yards than anyone in Hawkeye history, but 55 is his longest.

What could go wrong? Only the worst-thing possible. Which Ferentz owned on Peacock as he was interviewed between halves.

Which he immediately apologized to his team about when they gathered in the locker room during the break. Which he rued to the point of his voice breaking when he discussed it in his postgame press conference.

Returning to the play: Stevens kicked the ball and was short by several yards. But Penn State had called timeout, to ice Stevens. Ferentz stuck with the field goal unit. Stevens kicked it again, freshman defensive tackle Xavier Gilliam blocked it, cornerback Elliot Washington picked up the backward carom on one hop, and ran 35 yards untouched for a touchdown.

A 10-7 lead became a 14-10 deficit in six seconds, and what a trot back to the locker room that must have been for Ferentz and his players.

It didn’t help that Penn State received the second-half kickoff and went on a 75-yard drive for a 21-10 edge.

This story, however, had a happy ending for the roaring 69,250 fans in the stadium. The Hawkeyes kept playing. Iowa’s offense scored with 3:54 left in the game for a 25-24 lead. Its defense then stopped Penn State on downs at midfield.

And, Iowa’s players had bailed out their coach. Says who? Says him.

“That was probably, I don’t know, five yards beyond what we said was stretching (Stevens’) zone a little bit. It was bad. It was an emotional decision.

“Two risks on that. The risk of them running the thing back, Auburn-Alabama (the 2013 ”Kick-6“ when Auburn’s Chris Davis won the game by returning a missed 57-yard field goal the length of the field).”

And, of course, a block and a return for a score.

But you didn’t hear any Iowa players mention that lowlight after the game. One after another, they were borderline giddy as they answered reporters’ questions.

“Moments that we’re going to carry for the rest our lives, a feeling that you just can’t buy,” said Iowa cornerback Deshaun Lee. He broke up Penn State’s final play, a near-miracle of throw under fire from freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer to Trebor Pena.

“Going up against Penn State, going up against one of the premier powerhouses — it’s one of those games you dream of playing in Kinnick,” said Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski. “The striped-out stadium, fully sold-out again, a night game in Kinnick. This is what you dream as a kid.”

Gronowski had a 67-yard run to set up Iowa’s go-ahead touchdown. He rushed for 130 yards, passed for just 68. It worked. Somehow things in this mondo bizarro game worked just enough for the Hawkeyes.

Ferentz has helped his players win a game or 208 at Iowa. This time, his guys got him home without him facing one or more sleepless nights because of going for a 66-yard field goal.

“It was a bad decision,” Ferentz said. “We should have just closed out the half and come back and played from there.

“Things were going OK. We were doing some good things, feeling a little bit better. Boom, now you drop an anvil right on the team.

“First thing I told them (at halftime), bad decision. You keep playing. You have 30 minutes. You keep playing. They did it, thank goodness.”

What he didn’t and wouldn’t say is that also came from coaching.

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