Stars Of The Game: Iowa Football 3, Florida Gators 30

Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mandatory Credit: Bryon Houlgrave/The Des Moines Register via USA TODAY Network /

Akrum Wadley

Nothing on offense outside of Akrum Wadley clicked for the Hawkeyes. It was just the second time this year Iowa failed to score double-digit points, and the first time since 2011 a team held Iowa to only a field goal.

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Still, just like in the last three games, Iowa leaned on Akrum Wadley. He gained 115 yards on the ground and 21 through the air, which accounted for 60.2 percent of Iowa’s total yards.

In fact, on Iowa’s two longest drives of the game, Wadley accounted for 64 of Iowa’s 124 yards — 51.6 percent. The Hawkeyes called multiple screens to him, as well as trying to get him in open space to make a home run play for them because of their inability to sustain drives.

While Iowa’s offensive line had a harder time on pass plays, Wadley had to make a lot happen on his own. He showed his elusiveness to get by multiple Florida defenders for a big gain. Wadley even had to evade multiple defenders in the backfield just to get back to the line of scrimmage at times.

Even though he couldn’t single-handedly lead Iowa’s offense down the field like he did against Michigan, he caught over half of Beathard’s completions and was the only part of Iowa’s offense Florida didn’t have an answer for.