What a game bewteen the No. 23 Iowa Hawkeyes and the No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores!
Iowa came out firing on offense and sacked quarterback Diego Pavia four times in the first half before the Vanderbilt offense woke up.
Pavia had under 100 passing yards in the first half, but gashed the Iowa secondary in the second half to keep the game within reach after the Hawkeyes took a 14-3 lead into halftime.
After Iowa scored a touchdown to go up 21-3 in the third quarter, it looked like Vanderbilt had no answer until Pavia woke up.
He finished the game with 347 passing yards and two touchdowns through the air and 36 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Iowa had no answer for him in the second half, but the offense consistently had an answer.
Mark Gronowski had his best all-around game of the season, notching 212 passing yards and two touchdowns through the air and 54 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.
Gronowski earned the MVP award for his performance as the Hawkeyes held on for a 34-27 victory over Vandy.
Running back Kamari Moulton had another solid game with 95 yards and a touchdown, and tight end DJ Vonnahme had a career afternoon.
The redshirt freshman finished with seven catches for 146 yards and a touchdown and was dynamic all day.
After Iowa's win, the program finally broke out of a long slump against ranked teams.
The Hawkeyes finally beat a ranked team
Iowa was 0-13 in its previous 13 games against ranked teams dating back to 2021.
Four of those loses came this season to No. 14 Iowa State, No. 11 Indiana, No. 7 Oregon, and No. 19 USC, and it looked like Iowa was going to have to wait another year to break the streak.
The offense had one of its best all-around games, and the defense did just enough in the second half to hold off No. 14 Vanderbilt to secure the program's first ranked win since a 23-20 victory over No. 4 Penn State in week six of the 2021 season.
The Hawkeyes ended the season with a 9-5 (6-3 Big Ten) record and their first Bowl win since 2022, and now it is all about carrying that momentum into the 2026 season.