Despite struggling initially, the Hawkeyes picked it up in the second half. In doing so, Kirk Ferentz became the winningest coach in Iowa football history.
If you joined the Big Ten Network’s broadcast of the Iowa Hawkeyes versus the NIU Huskies in the second half, you wouldn’t be able to tell that the first half was a complete buzz kill. The difference between the first and second half were night and day, and at the conclusion of the game, there were nothing but smiles on the faces of Iowa football fans all over.
There were a few good reasons for the smiles. First, the Hawkeyes survived and even thrived (in the second half) of a game that gave many fans worry heading into it. Iowa hasn’t done well against NIU in recent history, and a team like NIU is more than capable of closing out the game if you keep them in it. Fortunately, the Hawks rallied in the second half.
The second, and arguably the more historically relevant achievement of the day, is that Iowa’s head coach Kirk Ferentz became the winningest head coach in the history of the football program. With the NIU victory, Kirk reached 144 wins. This is the best mark in program history and tied for 67th all-time.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows initially for the Hawks. The much-hyped offense led by Junior quarterback Nate Stanley and preseason All-American Noah Fant looked off to start the game. Mental errors, dropped passes, and turnovers hurt the Hawkeyes, but the defense managed to keep them in the game.
Weirdly enough, the defense didn’t start off strong either, but benefited from well-timed turnovers and multiple missed field goals. This was to be expected, however, that the defense will have some growing pains as they figure out who the three starting linebackers will be. Furthermore, the defensive line was gashed in the running game a few times, but easily was the strength of the defense and came up with multiple clutch pressures throughout the game.
At the end of the first half, the Hawkeyes were only up 3-0. The tweet below sums up the lackluster play pretty well.
It's not even coach speak to say Iowa has plenty of things to clean up. A couple of holding calls, at least 3 legit dropped passes, 2 whiffed blocks on fourth-and-1, way too many missed tackles from interior LBs. Still, a 3-0 halftime lead.
— Scott Dochterman (@ScottDochterman) September 1, 2018
Heading into the second half, hopes were high that the Hawks could pick it up. Needless to say they did. It took the offense 37 minutes to finally score the first touchdown of 2018, but after that, touchdowns were coming quickly.
Nate Stanley connected with Noah Fant on a one-yard touchdown pass before the running game really picked up. Ivory Kelly-Martin and Toren Young both scored in the next nine minutes to give the Iowa football team a 24-0 nothing lead.
The defense stepped up and secured a safety in the middle of the fourth before giving way to a few of the backups to come in and get some reps. The scoring, however, didn’t stop. Redshirt freshman Peyton Mansell led the second-team offense on a scoring drive that was capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by Mansell.
The defense only allowed one touchdown throughout the entire game coming on in garbage time with two minutes remaining. The final score for the day was 33-7.
Kirk becomes a legend
Getting the first win of the season is always a good feeling, but becoming the winningest head coach in the history of the Iowa football program has to be incredible. Kirk has been the head coach of the Iowa football team since 1999 after he took over for the revered Hayden Fry.
In that time, he has led the Hawkeyes to 144 wins to 97 losses including five double-digit win seasons and seven bowl wins. Only four times in Ferentz’s tenure have the Hawkeyes not made a bowl game. What’s more impressive than the wins is the reputation Iowa has received for producing quality NFL talent year in and year out.
At the conclusion of the game, the onset of praise and love from those former Hawkeyes was incredible.
Massive congratulations to Coach Ferentz for passing Hayden Fry as the winningest coach in Iowa history with today's win! Couldn't be happier for him. Go Hawks!!
— Austin Blythe (@ABlythe63) September 2, 2018
congratulations to the winningest coach in iowa hawkeye football history. i know we’ve had our differences but i’ve always been honored to have been coached by kirk ferentz. salute, legend. #144 pic.twitter.com/g6j1PabnA3
— DJK (@DJKoulianos_) September 2, 2018
Although Iowa football fans have had their share of ups and downs with Kirk at the helm, we can all agree that we are lucky to have such an outstanding coach on our side.
Looking forward to the Cy-Hawk game
With the NIU game complete, the Iowa football team will be turning their heads towards their bitter in-state rivalry game against the Iowa State Cyclones. Despite Iowa typically possessing more talent, this game is always a tough test and one that the Cyclones almost always come prepared for.
Based on what I saw Saturday, there are a number of things that need to be cleaned up if Iowa expects to win next week. There will likely be additional juggling of linebackers as Iowa feels their way out at the position, and hopefully the offensive attack can get on the same page quickly. The running game eventually got going, but it never seemed like Stanley and anyone not named Hockenson could get on the same page.
With a week of game film to go back and analyze, my bet is on Brian Ferentz lighting a fire under the passing game in order to incorporate more of their talented skill players including Fant, Ihmir Smith-Marsette, and Nick Easley.
Throughout the week stay tuned as we will be giving you the top storylines heading into the game against Iowa State as well as further analysis on this past weeks game.