Heading into their 99th ever meeting, questions swirled around the health of Mark Gronowski, after he exited the game late vs. Indiana two weeks ago. With an assist from the bye week, Gronowski got the nod to start and played through the majority of the game, where he put up 107 yards on 17 completions out of 24 attempts, and had a rushing touchdown. 

Kamari Moulton took the workhorse role tonight, and it came at the right time considering Iowa was without Jaziun Patterson and Terrell Washington Jr. It also came in handy as it gave the offense a better opportunity to sway away from leaning on a banged up Mark Gronowski to lead the charge. It’s in Iowa’s best interest to keep Gronowski as healthy as possible as the team is now entering the second half of the football season. 

Moulton had a triumphant showing, leading the ground game for the Hawkeyes with 96 yards and a touchdown, while also racking up 3 catches for 29 yards. Redshirt freshman Xavier Williams made his presence known, running for 55 yards and 2 touchdowns alongside Moulton, as Wisconsin struggled to find answers for the Iowa rushing attack. True freshman Nathan McNeil complemented the ground game with an admirable 9 carries for 40 yards. 

But the defensive side of the ball is where Iowa really shined this game. Wisconsin quarterback Hunter Simmons went 8/21 and was held to 82 yards. He threw two interceptions to, believe it or not, two defensive linemen for Iowa. One nearly resulted in six for the defense, when Aaron Graves jumped in front of a screen pass and picked it off where he ran it back before being caught at the 1-yard line. The Badgers are having clear offensive problems, only scoring 34 points in the last four weeks, dead last in the conference.

This game felt, in a good way, strange for Hawkeye fans. A community that has been so used to heavily lacking offensive play in this decade, the fans finally got to be on the other side of the stick for once. And what made this different was that it came against a typically competitive Big Ten opponent. No matter how uninspiring Wisconsin may have looked, lifting a trophy at the end of the night to get a dub against your rival is always a big win that is felt all season long. 

The Hawkeyes move to 4-2 on the season with a 2-1 conference record. Next week they play Penn State at home, who are in the midst of a total collapse. The hawks will have a chance to seize an opportunity and get another conference victory. 

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They fought valiantly in their Big Ten opener, but unfortunately they fell short to Wisconsin (3-1, 1-0 in Big Ten) 28-17.

Ultimately, it was two big special team blunders and a long Badger drive that cost Iowa (3-1, 0-1 in Big Ten).

Both were fumbles, the first one was knocked out of Kyle Groeneweg’s hands the second came courtesy of Shaun Beyer’s foot inadvertently grazing the ball before being recovered by the Badgers.

It was the latter one that stung the most for the Hawkeyes as it set the Wisconsin offense up in the red zone and they capitalized with a touchdown.

“We made some critical errors,” coach Kirk Ferentz said. “If you’re going to win in the Big Ten you’ve got to play cleaner football than what we did tonight.”

The game started in the typical rough-and-tumble play that is to be expected when these two teams meet.

Both teams scored touchdowns in the second quarter, Wisconsin on a 6-yard pass and Iowa on a 20-yard pass from Nate Stanley to Noah Fant to make it a 7-7 tie going into half time.

It was Iowa who came out strong to start the second half, kicking a field goal on their first drive, then after Wisconsin put up 7, the offense rallied again once again on a Stanley to Fant connection that made it 17-14 heading into the fourth.

All game long the Hawkeye offense seemed to be grooving to the tune of the Kinnick faithful.

Stanley put up 256 yards with two touchdowns and only one pick, Ivory Kelly-Martin returned after missing the previous two games with 79 yards on 14 attempts, and T. J. Hockenson had a big night catching three passes for 125 yards.

But the grooving stopped I the fourth.

The same Iowa offense that had put up 332 yard in the first three quarters, managed just 72 in the fourth, 27 of those yards came on a meaningless last-second play.

Perhaps the most disappointing blunder for the Hawkeye offense came on their first drive of the fourth quarter, when Stanley missed a wide open  Hockenson on first down.

“I just missed that throw,” Stanley said. “I think that would’ve set the tone for a good drive because he would’ve caught it a ran for a while. That’s definitely one I want back.”

Instead of the drive starting out with a big gain, the Hawkeyes were forced into second and long, then a three-and-out.

That made way for the Badgers to do their damage, and they did just that.

With 5:40 to go Wisconsin got the ball on their own 12 and put together a steady drive which took them all the way down the field and ended with a 17-yard pass from Alex Hornibrook to A. J. Taylor to put Wisconsin up 21-17 with 57 seconds to go.

A Stanley interception and 33-yard touchdown run by Alec Ingold officially sealed Iowa’s fate.

“It hurts,” Safety Jake Gervase said of the loss. “When you play as hard as you can for sixty minutes it hurts. We got to play better. Credit to Wisconsin they played better tonight in all three phases.”

As always, Ferentz will allow the players 24-hours to get over this game and then its on to the next.

Iowa has a bye week next weekend, but they will travel to Minnesota on the 6th of October at TCF Bank Stadium.

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Starting with the 2015 Big Ten Champs, the Michigan State Spartans possibly have the biggest loss to overcome. On the offensive side, the Spartans lost three-year starter Connor Cook, who graduated this spring. In 2015, Cook completed 229 of 408 passes for 3,131 yards, 24 TD’s and only 7 interceptions. In his career at MSU, Cook threw for 9,194 yards and 71 touchdowns, breaking Kirk Cousins’ records as best in Michigan State’s history at the position. At the moment, senior Tyler O’Connor looks to be the presumptive starter at QB for 2016. O’Connor came in against Ohio State last season where he threw 7-12 for 89 yards and a TD.
Continuing in the East, Ohio State will have to overcome the loss of running back Ezekiel Elliott if they want to make a run at the B1G Championship. In the 2016 NFL Draft, Elliott went fourth overall to the Dallas Cowboys. In Zeke’s junior year in 2015, he rushed for 23 TD’s and 1,821 yards on 289 carries, averaging 6.3 yards per carry. He also averaged 7.6 yards per catch on 27 receptions for 206 yards. The presumptive starter for 2016 would be senior Bri’onte Dunn, but he’s only had 287 rushing attempts in his career under Ezekiel Elliott, and according to head coach Urban Meyer, Dunn and freshman Mike Weber are “neck and neck” to take the position in the fall.

On to the East, the Iowa Hawkeyes will look to return to the Big Ten Championship in 2016 after losing to MSU by three points last season. The Hawkeyes’ biggest loss coming off the 2015 season will be three-year starting WR Tevaun Smith, who graduated this spring. Smith finished the 2015 season with 563 yards on 32 receptions, and finished his career at Iowa with exactly 1,500 yards on 102 receptions. Iowa will look to replace Tevaun with seniors Matt VandeBerg and Riley McCarron, as well as sophomore Jerminic Smith.

Finishing in the East, the Wisconsin Badgers will look to replace WR Alex Erickson if they hope to battle through a tough season and get back to the B1G Championship Game after losing to Ohio State in 2014. Erickson finished the 2015 season with 978 yards on 77 receptions, averaging 12.7 yards per catch. He finished his career with the Badgers with 1,887 yards and six TD’s. Wisconsin will look to senior Robert Wheelwright and junior Jazz Peavy to pick up the slack in Erickson’s absence.

Only time will tell if these key losses will prevent one of the four power house Big Ten teams from returning to the conference championship. Although replacing a star player is always difficult, a truly great team will manage the transition from one skill player to the next in their pursuit of success.

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You could argue the Hawkeyes played their best basketball offensively in the first half, shooting 64 percent from the field, but intensity lacked on the defensive end and the Hawks trailed by six at the half.

“Their ability to get second shots hurt us,” Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery said. “They have good shooters who take good shots. They are a tough team to guard.”

Wisconsin did shoot the ball well in the first half (53 percent) but the key first half stat was that the Badgers had 10 second-chance points on seven offensive rebounds, and out rebounded the Hawkeyes 15 to 9.

“We just needed to put bodies on guys more than we did,” Iowa forward Gabe Olaseni said. “They went around us, they went through us. That’s all on us.”

Olaseni ended the game with 12 points and 5 rebounds. That’s the ninth time this season he’s scored in double figures.

That key first half stat lead into the second half, and became the biggest key into the Hawkeyes loss. In total the Badgers brought down 15 offensive rebounds and 16 second-chance points.

“If you’re going to look at one thing that really was the difference in the game, it was offensive rebounding,” McCaffery said. “Their efficiency at scoring on second-shot opportunities is probably the best in the country.”

Being outrebounded isn’t something Iowa is use too, and senior forward Aaron White isn’t happy about their rebounding efforts today. “It’s frustrating because we are a good rebounding team. We have size, today was just tough.”

Defensively Iowa forced Wisconsin to miss some shots as they only shot 30 percent in the second half. Along with only shooting 30 percent, the Badgers also had a few scoring droughts, giving Iowa an opportunity to cut or even take the lead.

“That could have been a time where they (Iowa) could have changed the tide, but they didn’t,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “We just kept grinding defensively and kept getting the ball back.” If Iowa had any chance of winning this game they needed to make shots when Wisconsin couldn’t. Iowa only scored 27 second half points.

The Hawkeyes will try and end their three game losing streak Thursday on the road against Michigan.

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A season that started out with talk of Iowa being a dark horse to win the Big Ten will end without a trip to Indianapolis as Wisconsin (9-2, 6-1) won its third consecutive contest against the Hawkeyes (7-4, 4-3) 26-24.

It was a tale of two halves for the Hawkeyes, putting up 21 points in the second half after scoring just 3 in the first half.

The game seemed all but over after an 88-yard Melvin Gordon run early in the second half that put Wisconsin on the Iowa 4-yard line. However, the defense stood tall four times and that was enough to spark the offense.

“Historically, we have won games where this type of thing [goal line stand] happened,” Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “It would have been big today, had we gotten a chance to get that last field goal attempt. But it never came around.”

Iowa had not scored a touchdown against Wisconsin since 2010 when Jake Rudock found Kevonte Martin-Manley for a 20-yard touchdown that brought the Hawkeyes within a score after Jordan Canzeri converted the two-point run.

Rudock finished the night with 311 passing yards and 2 touchdowns through the air. He added 42-yads on the ground and a rushing touchdown. All against the #1 defense in the nation.

“Jake did a great job, I think of running the offense, executing, and make some really good throws,” Ferentz said. “He competed and played about as well as I think that he has during his time here and he’s done a lot of good things for us.”

Wisconsin’s Melvin Gordon came into the game fresh off an NCAA record setting 408 yards against Nebraska and became the number one priority for Iowa to stop. Gordon mustered 207 yards rushing, 88 of which came on one play, and added 64 through the air while becoming the fastest player to reach 2000 rush yards in a season.

Iowa would twice bring the game within two points in the fourth quarter but could not overcome the deficit it had created for itself in the first half. Iowa had just 141 yards in the first half, it added 271 in the second.

In the end, what hurt Iowa was the defense’s inability to get off the field. Wisconsin converted seven of its 13 third down attempts. The biggest play was a 35-yard reception for Gordon on 3^rd and 13 early in the fourth quarter that set up his game winning 23-yard touchdown run.

“We never got mad with the third downs,” Defensive tackle Carl Davis said. “We were optimistic that we would go out there and get off the field and then get the win [which didn’t happen].”

After Rudock scampered in for the 3-yard score, Ferentz had a miscommunication with the officials about the spot of the ball for the two-point conversion. That timeout would come back to haunt the Hawkeyes as Wisconsin would take over with 5:01 left in the game and milk the clock down to 0:00.

“We tried to signal to get the ball over on the left side there and I thought that had been communicated,” Ferenz said. “In retrospect, I wish I had come down tot the sideline and talked to one of the officials on our boundary and tired to get that corrected.”

Iowa will have one more chance to improve its bowl position when it takes on the Nebraska Cornhuskers (8-3,4-3) on Black Friday. Iowa will have to make sure to not let this loss affect the play. Davis said this team won’t have to worry about that.

“We are a resilient team and we have done it all year long,” Davis said. “After a loss, we bounce back with wins. We just have to go back to work.”

Iowa has the short week as it prepares to take on Nebraska this Friday at 11 a.m. at Kinnick Stadium.

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Despite a roller coaster 2014 season, fans have reason to make Kinnick an electric atmosphere as two wins will likely give the home team a shot at the Big Ten title.

But, we have a few things to go over before we get to that. During my two years at Iowa, Kinnick Stadium hasn’t been what it was growing up. Noise is down, empty seats are more apparent and boos are more common than statement victories. Fans have seemingly grown tired, stale and annoyed with what has been seen. Blame can be spread from players and coaches, but don’t forget, crowds are a part of this issue, too.

Through five home games this season, Iowa has managed an average crowd of 67,415. Kinnick Stadium holds 70,585, so we’re not too far from being sold out, but can still do better. This also does not mean that 67,415 fans sit in their seats from kickoff to final score. I’ve included a few pictures gathered from Tweets showing the card stunt against Northwestern taken just moments before kickoff.

There are a few factors that can excuse Iowa from having capacity crowds throughout the entire game. First of all, for many of the games fans are either getting sunburnt or frostbite. Once you had in the 11 o’clock kickoffs on Saturday mornings, low-profile matchups such as Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Ball State, Indiana and Northwestern, and the style of play that can put the San Antonio Spurs to sleep, and quite frankly most are probably surprised we’re seating over 60,000.

That’s not even taking into account the students that begin tailgating at 5 a.m. and either can’t make it to the game, or leave at halftime. Take a look at the card stunt again and see which section is missing fans. Just getting to the ballgame is part of the issue, but that’s not the biggest focal point here.

Kinnick Stadium is full of a beautiful black and gold mixture that houses some of what I biasedly call the most passionate and loyal fans in the country. What needs to be fixed there? Timing.

The student section is the source of most cheers and noise in the stadium, so fellow students, please read on.

Not to call out our incredible cheerleaders, but they have one thing wrong: When to start the “Let’s go Hawks” chant. We all really appreciate you trying to get the crowd going, but right before Iowa is about to snap the ball is not the time.

Quarterbacks need to be able to call plays, shifts, hot routes, etc. at the line of scrimmage and the other 10 teammates need to hear him. The nosebleeds should be able to hear Kirk Ferentz chew his gum – that’s how silent it needs to be.

Clapping and applauding after the play is reasonable, but it should go right back to being silent immediately after our approval is aware. Also be wary of the no-huddle, because then snap counts and the ability to hear Rudock becomes even more crucial to the offensive flow.

On the other side of the ball, 3^rd and 3 in the second quarter can be just as important as 2^nd and 7 late in the fourth. We need to always make the opposing offense know that Kinnick Stadium isn’t a friendly environment. At many points, the stadium will become lackluster, especially when the game is happening on the opposite side of the student section. Iowa home games should never feel like a neutral field.

Students, don’t forget that when we get loud, the rest of the stadium is always soon to follow. If you still have your voice on Sunday, you’ve let the team down. Imagine how much fun Iowa City will be if the Hawkeyes are battling for the Big Ten Championship. Having to go a day or so with a voice that squeaks from time to time isn’t much of a sacrifice in order to help make that happen.

In its last 18 home Big Ten games, Iowa is just 10-8. That’s against what has mostly been average – at best – competition, and shows that there isn’t much of a fear going into Kinnick.

Wisconsin is going to be, by far, Iowa’s toughest contest to date. The Hawkeyes are going to need everything going their way to come out on top, and that includes the fan base. It’s up to us to force the Badgers into false starts, delay of games, miscommunications and unnecessary timeouts. Scream, go nuts and represent your school in front of a national audience to set up a potential showdown with Nebraska on Black Friday.

And then do it again.

Let’s regain what made Kinnick Stadium one of the most feared stadiums in the Big Ten just a decade ago. Back our players to fire them up from the time Back in Black sounds to when the band plays In Heaven There is no Beer. Make opposing teams get on the bus with a loss and argue about if the receiver ran the route wrong or the quarterback called the wrong play. With five seconds left, make sure whoever is visiting us has no timeouts and has to throw an unlikely Hail Mary instead of have that chance at the game-winning field goal. It’s up to us to cause these circumstances and advantages that can make or a break a game, and in some cases, a season.

On a final note, showing your disapproval for a 3^rd-and-8 halfback draw is one thing, but booing the players as they head into the locker room is another. We as fans are there to help our team feel more comfortable than the other inside the bricks of Kinnick.

When Saturday rolls around do your pregame rituals, wear your lucky sweatpants and cheer your lungs out for a Hawkeye victory.

Just make sure we’re not on offense when you do.

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The Hawkeyes ultimately responded the call and will leave Champaign with a 30-14 victory over the Illinois Fighting Illini this afternoon.

Jake Rudock had a nice game after struggling last weekend against Minnesota completing 14 of his 21 attempted passes for 210 yards and 2 touchdowns. His counterpart, CJ Beathard came in about midway through the fourth quarter and threw an outstanding touchdown pass to Damond Powell in the corner of the end zone to give Iowa the eventual 30-14 final score.

Offensively, the Hawkeyes put forth their best effort of the season in total offense, as well as rushing yards. Iowa amassed 587 yards of total offense, with 304 of those yards coming on the ground.

Coach Kirk Ferentz was proud of his team after getting a season saving victory.

“We just needed to win today,” Ferentz said in his press conference. “The yardage is not that important.”

Mark Weisman had the best game of his senior season to this point with 134 yards on 23 carries. After the game, Weisman talked about the success of the running back corps as a whole.

“Seeing that 300-yard rushing number was really cool,” Weisman said. “We just took it one play at a time, not looking forward or looking back.” “It is a credit to the guys up front for doing all the dirty work,” he added.

Another senior who stepped up big for Iowa was tight end Ray Hamilton. Hamilton is not known as a pass catching tight end, but for more of a blocking tight end. He ended up catch four passes for twenty yards, but the big kicker was the two touchdowns that he hauled in from quarterback Jake Rudock. Those were the first touchdowns as an Iowa Hawkeye for Hamilton.

He talked about the collective effort of the tight end group, which also saw fellow tight end Jake Duzey catch 3 passes for 110 yards including a 53-yard connection from Rudock to the junior tight end.

“I have gotten a hard time in the past about not having any touchdowns,” Hamilton said when asked how if his teammates have given him some playful jabs throughout his time at Iowa. “We just continue to work together as a group, and we are happy for each other,” he added when asked about his teammate Jake Duzey and the day he had. We just have to keep swinging and keep the foot on the gas pedal, nothing else matters.”

Despite the success of the offense, Iowa struggled in the first half finding the end zone and converting on fourth down. Iowa was among one of the best teams in the country converting on fourth downs, but went 0 for 3 on fourth down conversions Saturday afternoon.

Defensively, it was a bounce back game for a unit that was blown of Minneapolis to the tune of 51 points. The Hawkeye defense only allowed 235 yards of total offense to the Fighting Illini.

The defense got the first points on the board for Iowa after Illinois quarterback Wes Lunt was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone, which resulted in a safety and an early 2-0 lead for Iowa.

John Lowdermilk and Nate Meier led the Iowa defense with seven tackles apiece, Greg Mabin and Jordan Lomax each had six tackles, and Josey Jewell and Quinton Alston tallied five tackles. The defense desperately needed this game to get back some confidence leading up to the last two games of the season.

Iowa still somewhat controls their destiny in the Big Ten West. With Minnesota’s loss to Ohio State earlier today, the winner of the Nebraska-Wisconsin game will take over sole possession of first place in the division. That sets up well for Iowa, as Wisconsin and Nebraska are the two remaining teams on Iowa’s schedule.

“We have some things we need to work on,” Ferentz said about preparation for the next two weeks. “We’re playing two excellent opponents.”

Minnesota plays Nebraska and Wisconsin the two weeks of the season, so if Iowa wins out and Minnesota loses at least one of those games the Hawkeyes would be heading to Indianapolis the first weekend of December to play in the Big Ten title game presumably against Ohio State.

The start time for the game at Kinnick Stadium between Iowa and Wisconsin has yet to be announced. We will have the game on 89.7 KRUI. Jeremy Meyer and Blake Jorgenson will have the call next Saturday, so be sure to listen to the battle between the Hawkeyes and Badgers next Saturday.

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