Iowa football: The highs and lows of the 2021 regular season in 10 quick hits
Force turnovers. Play great on special teams. Persevere.
Put a bunch of grinders on the field and jacked up fans in the stands. Hang around long enough, in a game or a season, like Iowa has done, and fate has a chance to intervene.
The Hawkeyes’ formula for success played out perhaps as well as it ever has this weekend, with Friday’s gritty comeback victory over Nebraska getting rewarded with a berth in the Big Ten Championship Game a day later.
Minnesota upended visiting Wisconsin in the B1G’s final regular-season game, and just like that, No. 16 Iowa (10-2, 7-2) finished as the only West team with fewer than 3 league losses. Bring on Michigan, and let’s see just how far this improbable season can extend.
With the trip to Indianapolis on deck, let’s look back on how the Hawkeyes made it this far.
These are the top 10 storylines that made and broke Iowa’s season:
Nation’s best ballHawks
Iowa leads the nation with 22 interceptions, which was 4 more than the next closest team, Western Kentucky, heading into Saturday’s games. The run of dominance was particularly prolific during the team’s 6-game climb to a No. 2 ranking in the AP poll. With 6 picks against Maryland and 4 more against Penn State in successive weeks, Iowa had 16 interceptions and a plus-15 turnover margin at its high point of the season.
All 4 starters in the secondary have multiple picks. Dane Belton leads the way with 5, followed by Riley Moss with 4, Matt Hankins with 3 and Jack Koerner with 2. Moss took 2 of his to the house, and linebacker Jack Campbell also had a pick-6. At plus-13, Iowa sits at No. 2 in the country in turnover margin heading into postseason play, with interceptions counting for all but 6 of their takeaways.
In its victories, the Hawkeyes are plus-19 in turnovers. In the losses, they are minus-6 with no picks. That’s Iowa’s season in a nutshell.
Reaching No. 2!
A hit by Jack Campbell initiated Penn State’s collapse and delayed Iowa’s by a week. After a blitzing Campbell knocked Sean Clifford out of the teams’ Oct. 9 top-5 showdown at Kinnick Stadium, the Hawkeyes rallied from 17-3 down for a 23-20 victory.
When the next polls came out, Iowa climbed from No. 3 to No. 2, while Penn State fell from No. 4 to No. 7 — and eventually, out of the top 25 altogether.
The rise from a preseason ranking at No. 18 came to an end the next week at Purdue, and Iowa’s CFP hopes seemingly went away 2 weeks later (after a bye) with a loss to Wisconsin. Getting no INTs and losing the turnover battle 7-1, the Hawkeyes were outscored 51-14 in those 2 games.
Nation’s best center
Pro Football Focus called Tyler Linderbaum the best player in the Big Ten going into this season and has the 6-3, 290-pound center going No. 8 to the Philadelphia Eagles in a recent mock draft. If the veteran of 33 starts does indeed leave early for the NFL, he’ll be sorely missed.
Linderbaum sure has made the most of his time in Iowa City since arriving in 2018 as a 255-pound DL recruit.
B1G’s worst offense
Despite Linderbaum’s efforts, Iowa’s offense has sputtered under 5th-year coordinator Brian Ferentz.
Entering the regular season finale against Nebraska, Iowa ranked dead last in the Big Ten at 293.2 yards per game, which was 124th in the nation among the 130 FBS teams. Iowa is the only team with a bottom-10 offense to post a winning record, a sign that the program won’t get away with such ineptitude in coming seasons.
Running back Tyler Goodson and tight end Sam LaPorta have provided workmanlike efforts, but Iowa has had bland-at-best quarterback play and very few explosive plays (114th in plays of 20+ yards).
Kinnick craziness
The loud, frenzied atmosphere in Kinnick forced Penn State into 8 false starts after backup QB Taquan Roberson entered the game, sparking Iowa’s 20-3 run to its biggest victory in quite some time. With alcohol being sold throughout the stadium for the first time this season, many of the 69,250 fans on hand may have been even more juiced up than normal.
The booing of Penn State players while they were down on the turf sparked some controversy, with Lions coach James Franklin going off extended monologues the following week saying his players don’t fake injuries to slow down the flow of the game. Kirk Ferentz responded with his famous “They smelled a rat” line.
The next week, back at Kinnick, someone threw a can of beer on the field. Thankfully, Purdue lineman Greg Long turned a potentially ugly scene into a light moment by screwing the twist top off the Bud Light and chugging/pouring it over his face to celebrate the unranked Boilermakers’ 24-7 victory.
Whether the school further tweaks the alcohol policy or not, Kinnick will remain a nightmare for visitors, just like it’s always been.
The midseason stall
After reaching 6-0 and No. 2, Iowa had no answers vs. the B1G’s leading receiver, as David Bell went off for 240 yards on 11 catches.
Iowa’s offense couldn’t keep up, getting outgained by almost 200 yards as Spencer Petras threw 4 INTs. Iowa’s 12-game winning streak came to screeching halt, 24-7.
The next game, at Wisconsin, was more of the same, as the Hawks again lost the turnover battle by 3 and were outgained 270-156 in a 27-7 loss.
QB troubles
Iowa has a knack for turning 3-star recruits into NFL lineman, but with quarterbacks, no so much.
Spencer Petras somehow won 12 straight games as Iowa’s starter, including the first 6 this season, without ever being regarded as anything more than a mistake-avoiding game-manager. The worst reviews seemed justified after the 6-foot-5 3-star recruit from the 2018 class threw 4 INTs when forced into an aerial battle against Purdue.
In his 9 starts this season before being replaced by Alex Padilla, Petras reached 225 passing yards in a game only once and topped 200 just 3 times.
Padilla, who subbed in early for an injured Petras against Northwestern and then started the next 3 games, hasn’t been any better. The 6-foot-1 3-star recruit from the 2019 class has completed less than 47 percent of his passes this season. Just like Petras in most of his starts, Padilla was bailed out by Iowa’s defense and special teams in a dismal performance (6-for-17, 83 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT) against Illinois in Week 11.
Waiting in the wings — but probably far out in those wings — is another 3-star recruit, 6-foot-4 Deuce Hogan from the 2020 class.
Goodson gets his 1,000
Tyler Goodson broke through the 1,000-yard mark and then some with a career-best 156-yard effort against Nebraska to close the regular season. His game-best 55-yard jaunt set up Iowa’s winning touchdown.
The 5-10, 200-pound junior has gotten better each year, going from 638 yards in 2019 to 762 (in 8 games) in 2020 and 1,,101 so far this year. He also has 25 receptions for 219 yards, both also career-bests.
Campbell wreaks havoc
Linebacker Jack Campbell emerged this season as the heart of Iowa’s defensive front 7, racking up 124 tackles, 2nd-best in the B1G. The 6-5, 243-pound junior had monster games against Colorado State (18 tackles), Minnesota (17) and Nebraska (16).
That’s quite a breakout season for a guy who had 34 tackles over his first 2 seasons at Iowa.
His big plays included a pick-6, a fumble recovery for a TD and a hit on Penn State QB Sean Clifford that changed the course of both teams’ seasons. He’s been a beast.
Ruling the CyHawk rivalry
This was supposed to be Iowa State’s year. The Cyclones were the darlings of the preseason, ranked No. 7 coming off a 9-3 season in 2020 under up-and-coming coach Matt Campbell.
Both teams entered the Week 2 showdown in Ames as top-10 squads, but Iowa worked over its rival, winning in its typical way — 4 turnovers forced, none given; a Jack Campbell scoop-and-score defensive TD.
When the dust settled, Iowa had a 27-17 victory despite just 173 yards of offense, and Matt Campbell was 0-5 in CyHawk Trophy games.