Iowa continued its dominance over rival Minnesota with its tenth win in eleven meetings, a 41-3 rout in a blacked-out Kinnick Stadium. After a 31-14 win in Minnesota last year, the Floyd of Rosedale will reside in Iowa City for a second straight year.
Hawkeye fans are all too familiar with the last time their team played the Golden Gophers at Kinnick in 2023, when a controversial invalid fair catch call overturned a potential game-winning punt return touchdown by Cooper DeJean. Luckily for them, this game did not come down to a last-second call; it was over long before the final buzzer sounded.
Iowa came out of the gates firing in all three phases of the game with touchdowns from the offense, defense, and special teams. Quarterback Mark Gronowski led the offense to scores on each of their first three drives as he ran one in on the ground and threw a beautiful pass to wide receiver Reece Vander Zee through the air.
Defensive back Zach Lutmer scored for the defense as he broke tackles and weaved through Minnesota’s offense on a 34-yard interception return for a touchdown. In addition, Kaden Wetjen got revenge for DeJean as he returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown, his third return touchdown of the season so far. Oh, and all of these touchdowns happened in the first twenty minutes of action. With 11:23 remaining in the second quarter, Iowa already had a 31-0 lead.
Iowa Receiver/Return Specialist Kaden Wetjen returns a punt during the first half of the game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on October 25, 2025, at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa (Julia Hansen / Iowa City Press-Citizen).
Absolutely nothing was going right for head coach P.J. Fleck and his squad all day, as they did not muster a single first down on offense until they were down by 31 points. Their only points of the day came on a 34-yard field goal in the third quarter on a drive where two out of their three first downs came off of Iowa penalties. The Gophers had as many turnovers as they had points, with quarterback Drake Lindsay having a rough day, throwing three interceptions.
After Iowa’s dominant first half, the team put the game in cruise control in the second half, even allowing backup Jeremy Hecklinski to have a moment by rushing for a touchdown of his own. Despite scoring 41 points, the Hawkeyes only had 274 yards of offense, very evenly split between the air and ground attack, but with a suffocating defense and a lethal special teams unit, the offense doesn’t always need to march far. They are one of those teams where, even in games that they absolutely dominate, all of their players will still have mediocre stats. This is the Iowa Hawkeye way. Always has been. Always will be.
This win also means that Iowa will be going to a bowl game this season for the thirteenth consecutive year and the 23rd time in 27 seasons under head coach Kirk Ferentz. Not every throw is a strike, but best believe the Hawkeyes are always bowling.
Iowa Hawkeyes Head Coach Kirk Ferentz watches his team play against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on October 25, 2025, at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa (Julia Hansen / Iowa City Press-Citizen).
They get to rest next week with a bye week before a monster showdown on November 8 against the currently No. 6 Oregon Ducks in Kinnick. If this team wants to be on the Top 25 Poll, they’ll have to prove they can beat the best of the best, and Oregon is certainly in that conversation. Can this team get it done and get the fans to storm the field? We’ll see in two weeks.
