Unlike much of college football Saturday, things were happily calm for Cyclones, Hawkeyes

We were out of the loop Saturday in Iowa, totally removed from a madcap day in college football.

Nail-biting, nutty games were staged in the Pacific Northwest, in the Los Angeles Coliseum, across the Deep South.

LSU and Tennessee won overtime games. So did Penn State and Illinois. Alabama narrowly escaped a second-straight loss.

In the marquee game of the week, Oregon edged Ohio State in Eugene, 32-31.

The table was set Friday night when, after Arizona State upset Utah 27-19 in Tempe, ASU Coach Kenny Dillingham seemed to gleefully vanish in a pile of Sun Devil fans who had stormed the field during a wild interview with ESPN.

That was the first of the weekend’s crowd-storms. Oregon and LSU had them, too.

So where was our state in all this madness and mayhem? Methodically and impressively taking care of business.

In the afternoon, Iowa went on a 33-3 run between Washington scores and routed the Huskies 40-16 at Kinnick Stadium.

In the evening, Iowa State went on a 28-3 run between West Virginia scores and downed the Mountaineers 28-16 in Morgantown.

The Hawkeyes and Cyclones were slim favorites, but won without having to sweat out the finishes like so many teams did in white-knucklers elsewhere.

Driving home from Iowa City Saturday, satellite radio allowed me to hop back and forth from Champaign, Ill., to Los Angeles to hear the crazy ending of the fourth quarter of the Purdue-Illinois game and the overtimes of that contest and Penn State-USC.

Purdue scored two touchdowns within 49 seconds late in the fourth quarter for a 43-40 lead after it trailed 27-3 early in the third quarter. The Illini kicked a last-second field goal for overtime, and got a sack on Purdue’s 2-point try in overtime to claim victory.

Minnesota got in the act, too, winning in the last minute for the second-straight week. It prevailed at UCLA Saturday after picking off USC in Minneapolis.

In Iowa City, the Hawkeyes’ win gradually became one-sided and efficient. They didn’t turn the ball over, while Washington did twice.

In Morgantown, the Cyclones’ win gradually became one-sided and efficient. They didn’t turn the ball over, while West Virginia did twice.

The Cyclones are tied for fourth in the nation in turnover margin, tied for fifth in scoring defense despite a series of injuries to linebackers that would have wiped out many a defense.

Get this: Iowa and Iowa State are 1-2 in the nation in fewest penalties and fewest penalty yards per game. Somebody’s doing something right.

Iowa has the nation’s No. 2 player in rushing yards, Kaleb Johnson. Iowa State has three backs — Abu Sama, Jaylon Jackson and Carson Hansen — who have rushed for at least 97 yards in a game over the last three weeks.

Iowa State is 6-0, Iowa 4-2. Look at their remaining schedules and pick a game either is likely to lose. I said “likely.” There isn’t one.

That isn’t at all to say both will run the table in the season’s second half. This is college football, where bubbles pop and others form at a moment’s notice. College kids are unpredictable, their coaches can be mystified by the concept of clock-management, and officials are always capable of missing something in plain sight.

Still, the remaining slates of the Cyclones and Hawkeyes certainly aren’t as imposing as they could have been. Not that there aren’t plenty of potential potholes, but there are no sinkholes.

Iowa State has four home games left, with UCF, Texas Tech, Cincinnati and Kansas State. The latter is the most-formidable team of the bunch. Also left is a game in Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium against disappointing Kansas, and a trip to Utah to meet a team that was in the Top Ten before it lost to Arizona and Arizona State.

Iowa goes to Michigan State, UCLA and Maryland, none of whom strike fear. The remaining guests to Kinnick Stadium are Northwestern, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Any could win at Iowa, but would you bet on it right now?

While all the entertaining chaos was elsewhere Saturday, Iowa State and Iowa had a very enjoyable day just the same. There could be many more in the next several weeks.

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