Final score: #16 Iowa 49 #22 USC 24

Brief recap: Iowa might’ve saved its best performance of the season for the final game of the year. The Hawkeyes played well on both sides of the football in the Holiday Bowl and were able to jump out to an early lead thanks to offensive ingenuity and an outstanding performance from Ihmir Smith-Marsette. Iowa struck first on the first drive of the game, thanks to a 23-yard touchdown from Tyrone Tracy Jr. on a reverse. Smith-Marsette then accounted for the next three touchdowns in the first half, one receiving, one rushing and one kickoff return. At halftime, Iowa owned a 28-17 lead on USC. The Trojans came out of halftime swinging, scoring on their first drive to make the score 28-24 and recovering an onside kick with an opportunity to take a lead with a touchdown. But the Iowa defense hunkered down and Nate Stanley was able to lead the Hawkeye offense down the field to put two more touchdowns on the board to put the game out of reach.

Key moment: With Iowa owning a 28-24 lead in the third quarter, the Hawkeye offense engineered a 14-play, 90-yard drive that gobbled up over seven minutes on the clock. Stanley ran a quarterback sneak three straight plays, picking up 10 yards before Tyler Goodson scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to make the score 35-24.

Key stat: Iowa forced three USC turnovers in the Holiday Bowl, and didn’t turn the ball over once. The Hawkeyes scored 14 points on those takeaways, which made a big difference by the end of the contest.

Key player: Stanley was great, A.J. Epenesa was great, and a handful of other players were great. But Smith-Marsette finished as an impact player in every aspect of the game. The receiver finished with 15 rushing yards, 46 receiving yards and 142 kickoff return yards and three total touchdowns. Smith-Marsette was the reason Iowa was able to jump out to such a big lead.

What it means: Not winning the B1G West might have been a bit of a disappointment, but Iowa finished the 2019 season with 10 wins, knocking off two ranked opponents in the final four games and notching rivalry wins over Minnesota and Nebraska. Closing out the season with a dominant win in the Holiday Bowl over USC is another feather in the cap of an outstanding coaching job from Kirk Ferentz.