Kirk Ferentz reaches 200 career wins with Iowa's big win over Washington

Kirk Ferentz needed to come out today and show why he has been with Iowa for 25 years and had a successful career with the Hawkeyes, and he did just that. The Iowa Hawkeyes got their head coach his 200th career win as the longest-tenured head coach with one team and moved into second place in all-time wins in the Big Ten.

The Iowa Hawkeyes did just about everything right today against Washington as they walked away with a 40-16 win over the Huskies. The star of the game was no doubt running back Kaleb Johnson, who was responsible for three of the four touchdowns for Iowa.

Johnson has been the star of the offense for what seems like every week except for against Ohio State, but there weren't a lot of good things coming from Iowa's offense that day. Johnson ran for 166 yards on 22 carries and two touchdowns averaging 7.9 yards per carry. He also played a big part in the passing game with 3 receptions for 22 yards and one touchdown.

With all the controversy around the quarterback position and all the fans begging for Ferentz to move on from Cade McNamara, he was able to silence the haters just a bit by playing a very clean game. Now, his states definitely don't jump off the state sheet as he was just eight-for-14 for 108 passing yards, but he did have two passing touchdowns.

The significance of those two passing touchdowns is that they are his first since Week 1 this season, but they were also his first against a power conference opponent since 2021. The last time McNamara had a passing touchdown against a power conference opponent was back when he was a Michigan Wolverine, and it actually came against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The Hawkeyes played a very complete game on all levels. Special teams played amazingly, giving the offense great field position, and they also had a blocked field goal at the beginning of the game. the defense was solid, as it always is. Yes, they allowed 16 points, but the last touchdown the Huskies scored was a garbage-time touchdown, and the game was practically already over.

This is one of the best games Iowa has played yet this season, and if they can continue to play clean football and relay as much of the run game, they could make games that seemed to be losses possible wins.