Big Ten West-champion Hawkeyes have ground down opponents and insulters

IOWA CITY — Oh, you should have seen the way Joe Evans spoke to his Iowa football teammates in Kinnick Stadium’s south end zone in the final hour before Saturday’s game.

As a team captain this season, sixth-year senior defensive end Evans has often fired up his mates in the pregame, but this was blast furnace hot. With the Hawkeyes circled a few rows deep around him, he kept turning around and around, shaking his arms and pointing his fingers repeatedly to emphasize points, and somehow saving some of his voice for the game itself.

His teammates hung on every word.

Almost four hours later, it was Evans batting down a pass on Illinois’ last offensive play, a fourth-and-2 that became a four-and-out. Iowa ran out the clock after its defense gave the ball to its offense, and locked up the Big Ten’s outright West Division title and a spot in the Dec. 2 league-championship contest in Indianapolis.

No one who wears Hawkeye garb can ever again call 13 an unlucky number. Evans wears No. 13. Iowa held Illinois to that many points in its 15-13 win, and couldn’t afford to allow any more. Evans’ breakup was Iowa’s 13th of the game.

Thirteen pass breakups! The Hawkeyes came in averaging 3.4, and that’s a great defense. Evans had three of those 13.

“(Linebacker) Nick Jackson came up to me and said ‘I’ve never seen a 6-foot defensive end bat so many balls.’ Just laughing about that,” Evans said.

Evans is the umpteenth Hawkeye “good story,” as Kirk Ferentz calls players who have soared above expectations during his quarter-century as Iowa’s coach. Evans showed up as a walk-on from Ames High, was put on scholarship as a sophomore, and has 24 quarterback sacks in his career.

Saturday, Evans rallied his team before the game, reminding them they were lucky to be playing for something meaningful, and were competing for those who couldn’t.

Severe injuries are as much a part of major-college football as blocking, tackling and sign stealing. Almost every team has them. But this season, they’ve plagued Iowa. It lost its starting quarterback (Cade McNamara), two stellar tight ends (Erick All, Luke Lachey) in an offense that features them, and most recently, cornerback/punt-returning phenom Cooper DeJean.

And, of course, starting defensive tackle Noah Shannon was suspended for the season by the NCAA for sports-betting violations that targeted Iowa and Iowa State, and no one else.

Shannon was the team’s honorary captain Saturday. He also was one of the 20 players recognized in the pregame Senior Day ceremony.

“Just for him to have everything taken away from him this year, it really hurt my heart,” Evans said.

As is the routine for Iowa’s honorary captains, Shannon spoke to the team the day before the game. His message, Evans said, was “Just cherish everything. Cherish these moments. They can all be taken away from you. Go out there and play for your brothers.”

Evans picked up that ball in Saturday’s pregame with his motivational message.

“Just to fire the guys up,” he said. “I want them to realize how much we had to play for.”

They were aware, but oh, the game did not come easily. Why would it? Some champs lay waste to their opponents early and often. When it’s playing well, Iowa methodically grinds down its foes.

No college team has been mocked nearly as much this season. Yet, the Hawkeyes are 9-2, assured a Big Ten title-game berth, and have turned much of the ridicule into respect. At least to those who have paid actual attention to them.

No DeJean? Yes, that hurt. But defensive backs Jermari Harris and Sebastian Castro busted up multiple Illinois passes. Kaden Wetjen of Williamsburg replaced DeJean as punt returner and had a crucial 17-yard return that let Iowa start its game-winning touchdown drive at its 46.

A lot of players who aren’t All-Americans made a lot of plays in a game in which every one mattered.

“We just keep fighting,” Evans said.

He sure did, and started early. Evans tackled Illinois quarterback John Paddock in the end zone for a first-quarter safety. Incidentally, Iowa won by two points.

It wasn’t all that long ago when Evans wrestled with himself over whether he should use his NCAA COVID-19 year waiver for one more season. He said he had at least five meetings with team strength/conditioning coach Raimond Braithwaite about it. He talked with Shannon about it. He decided to do it with this top goal:

“To be a team captain. And for me, that’s earned and not given.

“Being a team captain is my biggest accomplishment here and my biggest accomplishment of my life, and that’s the damn truth.”

The work to get here is hard, the game is hard. Players get hurt. Determined opponents with goals of their own hand you nothing.

Saturday’s game was difficult for Iowa, often frustrating, something that required all the fight it had. The Hawkeyes wouldn’t have wanted to win a title any other way.

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