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. 

The post The Pig Stays Home: Iowa rolls Minnesota, 41-3 appeared first on KRUI Radio.

As you would expect, Iowa and Minnesota slugged it out all night long, but the Hawkeyes took command early and never looked back.

Iowa retained possession of the coveted Floyd of Rosedale Trophy with a 17-10 win over Minnesota on Saturday, the 13^th Iowa win in the last 17 meetings.

Coming off a lackluster offensive performance last week in Evanston, the Hawkeyes came out firing on their first possession. Going against the grain, the Hawkeyes elected to receive first after winning the coin toss.

The Hawkeyes started the first drive with three consecutive completions to three different receivers and moved all the way to the Minnesota 28. Akrum Wadley capped off the drive with a 12-yard touchdown run to give Iowa an early 7-0. Just 2:23 had come off the clock.

Then, as quickly as it had showed up, the Iowa offense disappeared.

Seven more drives ensured for Iowa in the first half. They resulted in five punts, four three-and-outs, an interception on the first play of a drive, and a fumble with 44 seconds left in the half.

After going 80 yards on the opening drive, the Iowa offense totaled just 86 yards of offense the rest of the half.

“It just comes back to execution stuff,” Nate Stanley said. “It just tailed off a little bit.”

On the other side of the ball, the Hawkeye defense showed up yet again. They bent, but refused to break for the eighth straight game.

Minnesota’s offense worked a couple of decent drives and got to within striking distance just twice. The Gophers attempted a fake run on fourth-and-goal from the Iowa seven, but Demry Croft overthrew his tight end Nate Wozniak and the defense forced a turnover on downs.

Later, Josh Jackson tipped a pass intended for Rashad Still, and Jake Gervase came down with an interception in the end zone.

The Hawkeyes got close to scoring again before halftime, but a James Butler fumble at the Minnesota 21-yard line halted the drive.

At halftime, the score was a 7-0 Hawkeyes. Aside from the first five Iowa plays, the teams could not possibly have been more evenly matched.

Even though the offense stumbled in the first half, the Hawkeyes came out of the locker room and put together another good drive to start the third quarter.

Stanley led the Hawkeyes on a 67-yard drive and capped it with a 45-yard touchdown pass to Noah Fant. The deep ball nearly reached press box heights.

“I think we got a call from the FAA on that one,” Kirk Ferentz joked after the game.” We didn’t have clearance.”

Many fans could finally let out a deep sigh of relief after Stanley connected with Fant. At least once a week, Stanley seems to overshoot the big tight end on a deep route, but this time was different.

“You give yourself some more room for error on a ball like that,” Stanley said. “Especially with the struggles that we’ve had early in the year, it’s something we’ve worked on in practice, and it transferred over to the game. “

Much like the first half, the Hawkeyes failed to get much else rolling after the first drive of the half. The next three drives resulted in three-and-outs.

The Gophers finally found the end zone in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter on a one-yard touchdown run from Kobe McCrary. The score pulled the Gophers to within a touchdown.

Miguel Recinos added a field goal for the Hawkeyes two drives later, narrowly connecting on a 32-yard field goal to make it 17-7 in favor of the Hawkeyes.

On the next Gophers drive, Emmit Carpenter hit a 33-yarder to make it 17-10.

The Gophers had one last shot with 1:21 on the clock, but Croft was sacked by Anthony Nelson on fourth down to secure the trophy game victory.

Defense made the difference for the Hawkeyes yet again. The Gervase interception and two turnovers on downs stand out, but so too does the play of corner back Josh Jackson.

Jackson entered the game with a Big Ten-leading 11 pass breakups and added four more in the victory. Jackson was targeted seven times and only allowed one catch for nine yards.

On offense, the return of James Butler seemed to open up options for the offense as well. Butler rushed for just 28 yards on 11 carries, but having him allowed Wadley to stay fresh. Wadley finished with 70 rushing yards and a touchdown.

“Having James back in there is big for us, especially on those tough yardage downs,” Stanley said. “He can get up in there and make some hard yards.”

Moving forward with a little bit of momentum, the Hawkeyes (5-3, 2-3) will have tough tasks each of the next two weeks.

First, Ohio State will come to Kinnick, fresh off an impressive, comeback victory over second-ranked Penn State. Then, the Hawkeyes will travel to Camp Randall to play a likely 9-0 Wisconsin team in the Heartland Trophy game.

Game time for next week’s game against the Buckeyes (7-1, 5-0) is set for 2:30pm and can be seen on ESPN networks.

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Another lackluster performance on the road means trouble for the Hawkeyes, who dropped today’s contest against Northwestern by a score of 17-10 in overtime.

Despite early success, the offense sputtered in the second half, and the injury-filled defense could not hold on the whole time.

The Hawkeyes got into Northwestern territory on each of their firs two drives, but came away empty each time. Neither team managed to get points on the board in the first quarter.

It looked as though a scoreless first half was a possibility until just 40 seconds remained in the first half. That’s when Nate Stanley found a wide-open Noah Fant for a six-yard touchdown pass. The Hawkeyes took the 7-0 lead into halftime.

At the half, Iowa had outgained Northwestern 238 yards to 107 yards. Northwestern’s star running back Justin Jackson had carried the ball nine times for just 30 yards.

But that was just the first half.

In the second half, Iowa’s offense did not move the same way it did before intermission. Each of the first three possessions resulted in punts, two of which were three-and-outs.

“I don’t know. I don’t have the answer to that right this second,” Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz said when asked about the differences from first half offense to the second half. “First half we moved the ball pretty well…the second half was clearly something different. It comes down to details.”

The Hawkeyes finished the game with 312 yards of total offense. That’s means they produced just 74 yards in the second half and overtime.

All the momentum shifted to the Wildcats. While the Hawkeyes were going three-and-out, the Wildcats tied the game on a Jeremy Larkin six-yard touchdown run with 7:19 to go in the third quarter.

The Wildcats would get a field goal from Charlie Kuhbander two possessions later to take a 10-7 lead with just over eight minutes to play.

Looking to get something moving a couple drives later, Stanley fired a deep ball to Ihmir Smith-Marsette, but the freshman receiver had cut his route off short. The miscommunication led to an easy interception for JR Pace. But again, the Iowa defense stopped the Wildcats on fourth down.

The Hawkeyes marched on the next drive and found themselves facing a fourth-and-inches situation at the Northwestern 26-yard line. A false start from three Hawkeyes forced the field goal unit to come on instead, and Miguel Recinos knocked in a 48-yarder to tie the game with 1:30 on the clock. Northwestern ran it out and went to overtime.

In overtime, the Wildcats scored on their first possession. Quarterback Clayton Thorson rushed up the middle for a one-yard touchdown to go up 17-10. The play was set up by a 23-yard catch and run from Justin Jackson, in which he made four Hawkeyes miss tackles. Jackson would finish the game with 132 all-purpose yards (93 rushing, 38 receiving).

Iowa gained just seven yards on its first three plays in overtime and was forced to go for it on fourth down. Stanley targeted Fant on the same play as their first half touchdown.

This pass hit Fant square in the numbers, but he couldn’t bring it in. The drop ended the game and dropped Iowa to 1-3 in the Big Ten.

The defense put up another great fight in this one, and did so most impressively without their two main signal callers. Josey Jewell and Brandon Snyder each missed the game due to injuries sustained during the Illinois game two weeks ago.

Jewell injured his right shoulder during the Illinois game and was not cleared to play today’s game. Snyder’s knee saw swelling after getting his first action since tearing his ACL, so he also was unable to go.

Instead, senior linebacker Kevin Ward got the start on the outside as Ben Niemann moved into Jewell’s middle linebacker spot. Jake Gervase started in Snyder’s place at free safety.

The defense picked up their missing teammates. Linebackers Bo Bower and Niemann were first and second on the team in tackles with 12 and 11 respectively. Gervase added six tackles, while Ward had four in his first career start.

“It’s just something that Iowa football has always been proud of, that ‘next man in’ philosophy,” said Gervase. “A couple guys had to step up. I think we had a pretty good game as a defense, we just gave up a couple crucial downs that cost us.”

The defense rose to occasion again, engaging the Wildcats in your traditional, smash-mouth, grit-filled Big Ten football game. In the end, it wasn’t enough as the offense had its struggles.

Stanley was 13-for-19 in the first half, but finished the game just 19-for-33 passing. Akrum Wadley was bottled up for much of the game too. On 26 carries, he still managed to find his way to 90 yards, his longest run being good for 22 yards.

“We’re a better football team when we can run the ball efficiently, it’s always been that way,” Ferentz said. “That is our plan, and it will continue to be our plan, so we have to do a better job there.”

For whatever reasons, the offense wasn’t ready coming out of the bye week. The offensive line wasn’t able to get a push like it did two weeks ago against Illinois. Apparently, there is still work to be done on that front.

Next week, the Hawkeyes (4-3, 1-3) return home next week to take on Minnesota in the Floyd of Rosedale trophy game. Start time is 5:30pm CST on FS1.

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