Why Iowa’s ranked win against No. 14 Vanderbilt means so much to the No. 23 Hawkeyes

TAMPA — Xavier Nwankpa sat in the stands during Iowa football’s last ranked victory, the 2021 win over Penn State.

Then, he was still in high school as a five-star recruit. He was quickly becoming one of the most talked about Hawkeye recruits, and he was still deciding where he’d play college football.

He stood on the field of Raymond James Stadium five years later wearing a ReliaQuest Bowl Champions hat, having helped end Iowa’s lengthy streak against a ranked opponent end in Nwankpa’s final game as a Hawkeye — a 34-27 win over No. 14 Vanderbilt.

“We've been working on this all four years, trying to be the best team out there,” Nwankpa said. “I guess it took four years to do it, but it's exciting. What good way to capitalize, especially with the team we had and just the season we've had.”

The 2025 Hawkeyes finally got the break they’ve been inches away from all year long. After four regular season losses all by one score — and a combined 15 points — Iowa’s defense held the Commodores to three points in the first half, giving the offense enough wiggle room to win the game by one score.

Gone is the narrative that Iowa couldn’t get it done. It did, and it did it for its seniors.

“It's just super, super awesome,” Kaden Wetjen said. “Coach Ferentz was talking about earlier this week, just to get rid of that narrative that we can't beat ranked teams. So it’s super awesome being one of these guys to do it, and I’m so happy.”

The confetti rained down on the Hawkeyes, littering the field with navy, teal and yellow ReliaQuest-shaped paper, with Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz smiling at his team from the stage sitting on the 20-yard line. Ferentz said throughout the season that there was something different about this year’s team — reminding him of the 2008 squad.

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But he made it known every time: Not every team is “deserving” of certain achievements. Ferentz stood firm that this group deserved that ranked win.

A ranked bowl win, at that.

“The word ‘deserved’ or ‘justice,’ those are strong words for football, right?” Ferentz said. “These guys certainly deserved it, and they finished the season ... it goes back to these guys just doing a good job just gradually keep climbing and getting better, and I think it certainly showed up today out there on the field.”

There are players like Nwankpa and Logan Jones who’ve been helping Iowa chip away at the broken narrative their entire career. Then there’s players who’ve joined the fight along the way, like ReliaQuest Bowl MVP Mark Gronowski.

All of them said this win send them to their next journey the right way. They all agreed, a bowl win is a celebration of their efforts, but a ranked win helps propel Iowa forward into next season.

And those seniors bidding adieu will watching the black and gold with pride.

“We’re just here to win football games,” Jones said. “It doesn’t matter their ranks. I tink we’ve shown all season we can play with anybody, and we did that again today. That's 13 games that we played and competed ... To go out with a win, it’s special, and to do it against a ranked team makes it even better.”

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