Close … but no cigar. The Minnesota Gophers outgained their arch rival, the Iowa Hawkeyes, in yardage (399 to 280) and Mohamed Ibrahim rushed for 263 yards on 39 attempts with a touchdown, yet the Maroon and Gold still came up empty in the win column.
“Give Iowa a lot of credit, they found a way to win,” Gophers head coach PJ Fleck said. “We had our chances, we just didn’t capitalize on those chances.”
Iowa’s offense began with a boom then ended in a whimper on their first possession. Sam LaPorta, who leads all Big Ten tight ends in receptions and receiving yards, galloped off a small underneath pass for 58 yards into field goal (FG) range. Alas, on their next set of downs, Spencer Petras fumbled the snap and the Hawkeyes settled for a field goal. LaPorta continued to find success in the Iowa passing game throughout the whole first half, finishing with four receptions for 95 yards.
Meanwhile, Minnesota was meh. Offensively, nothing clicked and Iowa predicted most of their moves, with ground game goliath Ibrahim averaging 2.3 YPC in the first quarter. Defensively, they could not cover any crossing patterns in the first quarter, mostly to LaPorta. Those pass give ups would turn into the first touchdown of the game to put Iowa up 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Gophers finally rose above their offensive woes with a 29-yard reception by Daniel Jackson to vault Minnesota into field goal range; off that passing play, quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis eclipsed his yardage numbers from last week’s snowy blowout when he tossed for only 64 yards.
“Athan played really confident,” tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford said. “Saw him have a couple good runs, great reads and that’s a big credit to Tanner Morgan as well. He’s been by his side this whole week, making sure he’s prepared, so credit to both of those guys; they work tremendously hard.”
Kaliakmanis received the starting nod after Tanner Morgan wasn’t medically cleared to play. The sixth-year quarterback was still nursing an upper-body injury that left him out of his final senior day.
Minnesota would cut back into the Hawkeye lead by just seven points before the half’s end. They could’ve tied the game, but the wind took Matthew Trickett’s 34-yard field goal attempt wide right. Kaliakmanis could’ve hit an open Spann-Ford on 3rd and 1, but the score stayed 10-7 at halftime. The first half ended with a bunch of “could haves” on the Gophers’ part, and although the Gophers outgained the Hawkeyes in total yards 173-170, they still trailed otherwise.
Awful news for Iowa rocked the Hawkeyes at the start of the second half: LaPorta was done due to an undisclosed injury. Then Ibrahim carried the rock into the heart of Hawkeye territory, dashing for a massive 54-yard gain before Hawkeye Cooper DeJean came flying out of thin air to make a touchdown-saving tackle. The drive ended in a Trickett-made 27-yarder, tying the game 10-10.
Iowa’s offense without LaPorta didn’t slow down. Within four plays, Iowa advanced to the Minnesota 26 yard line off carries from Leshon Williams and Kaleb Johnson. All was well for the Black and Gold until Terell Smith sacked Petras on a defensive back blitz for a huge loss of 10. The Hawkeyes would punt and land it at the Gophers 3 yard line.
This drive, the Gophers wouldn’t punt, riding on the back of Ibrahim who eclipsed 200 yards rushing for the fifth time in his career. He would continue running to eventually pass David Cobb’s all time Huntington Bank Stadium rushing record at 232 yards … until he fumbled inside the red zone. The football went to the Hawkeyes with five minutes remaining.
“I think it was an outside zone, I stretched it. They (Iowa) overran it, I cut it back, and I was a yard short of the first down,” Ibrahim said. “I wanted to fall forward but it popped out.”
Fleck said he still thought Ibrahim played “phenomenal,” and one play could not define how Ibrahim plays.
“We wouldn’t be anywhere near a program like what we are right now if it wasn’t for Mohamed Ibrahim,” Fleck said.
On the following Hawkeye drive, Petras threw three passes, totalling zero yards, and the Gophers would get the pigskin back with four minutes remaining.
After Ibrahim bowled his way into Hawkeye territory, the young Kaliakmanis threw an errant pass to Iowa’s leading tackler Jack Campbell. He would return the ball to the Minnesota 45-yard line. Both teams flip flopped again. Then Petras threw a dart to a wide open Luke Lachey for 33 yards; Iowa could smell the pig trophy.
After a review of a near fumble recovery by Mariano Sori-Marin, Iowa put the nail in the coffin with a 21-yard field goal made with 28 seconds left. The Hawkeyes would win their eighth-straight Floyd of Rosedale game.
“Those are two teams that have shared identities in their physicality,” Fleck said. “That locker room is full of winners in there, unfortunately winners do lose and that’s all they did tonight, we lost.”
Minnesota will go from playing one arch rival to another on Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin. The Gophers will play the Badgers to defend Paul Bunyan’s Axe. They now have fallen out of the sweepstakes to win the Big Ten West title. The battle for the axe will be televised on ESPN at 2:30 p.m.
