Hawkeye History Has Been Made

For the first time in Iowa History, the Iowa Hawkeye Football team is 10-0. The closest the Hawkeyes had ever come to 10-0 previously was in the 2009 Hawkeye season where Iowa started 9-0, but unfortunately lost their tenth game at Kinnick Stadium after star quarterback Ricky Stanzi was injured in a game against the Northwestern Wildcats. This season, under newly named quarterback C.J. Beathard, the Hawkeyes have had an absolute historic season. Even with injuries, the Hawks have found a way to win game-after-game week-after-week to start the season 9-0. After a tough game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, Iowa made Hawkeye history in the battle for the Floyd of Rosedale by pushing that win total to 10-0 to remain perfect on the season and break the record for the greatest start in program history.
The game was set to kickoff at 7:00 Central time, and would be played at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. It was televised nationally on the Big Ten Network. Iowa knew this would be an important game, especially since it was a rivalry game with the Floyd of Rosedale as the trophy. Last year, the Golden Gophers absolutely demolished the Hawkeyes 51-14 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Overall in the series, the Golden Gophers led the rivalry against the Hawkeyes 62 games to 45 with two ties.
Minnesota won the toss, and elected to receive the opening kickoff, sending a message to the Hawkeyes, who generally like to start the game with their offense on the field with the ball. The Golden Gophers took the ball all the way from their own 25 yard-line to the Iowa 47, but failed to convert on a third-and-four, and were forced to punt the ball to the home team. The Hawkeyes started their first possession pinned down at their own 9 yard-line. After a long 8:38 possession, the Hawks punched in a touchdown after a 3-yard run from first-string running back LeShun Daniels Jr., who would be playing his first game with sufficient minutes since the beginning of the season before he was injured. On the Golden Gophers' ensuing possession, Minnesota marched down the field very quickly under quarterback Mitch Leidner scoring a touchdown in 2:29 going 75 yards down the field in only six plays ending with a two-yard run by the quarterback himself. The Hawkeyes then took the ball 75 yards in 2:30 ending with a 1-yard bootleg touchdown run by C.J. Beathard in a possession that almost mimicked what the Golden Gophers had just done. Minnesota responded with a quick touchdown after a 40-yard pass from Leidner to Brandon Lingen. The touchdown shootout ended after the Hawkeyes failed to score a touchdown on their next possession. However, Iowa did manage to score three points on a 47-yard field goal by Marshall Koehn to give the Hawkeyes a 17-14 lead over the Golden Gophers. Minnesota was unable to answer the Hawkeye score and was forced to punt the ball back to the home team with 3:52 remaining in the first half. Knowing that they would receive the ball to start off the second half, the Hawkeyes knew that a score here could be very crucial in deciding the outcome of the game. In a good sign for the Hawks, C.J. Beathard, who had been struggling with a right groin injury for a majority of the season limiting his mobility, ran 26 yards to the Minnesota 14 yard-line for a first down forcing the Golden Gophers to call a timeout with only 1:00 remaining to halt the Hawkeyes' momentum. After a pass interference called on Minnesota, Iowa was set up with a first and goal at the Minnesota 2 yard-line, and LeShun Daniels Jr. drove the ball past the goal line to give the Hawkeyes a nice 24-14 lead with only 44 seconds remaining in the first half. The Golden Gophers decided to be conservative and just let the clock run out after a 5-yard run from Shannon Brooks.
To start the second half, both teams finally decided to play some defense keeping the opposing offenses to a three and out with neither team allowing even one first down. On Iowa's next possession, they started with great field positioning after a ten-yard punt return by Desmond King to the 50 yard-line. Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, they were unable to capitalize on King's nice return and only came away with three points after a 38-yard field goal from Koehn. Minnesota responded to Koehn's field goal with a touchdown capped off by a Leidner 1-yard run to cut Iowa's lead to 27-21. The Hawks were fortunate to start another possession with great field positioning after a 58-yard kickoff return from Desmond King to the Minnesota 37 yard-line. To begin the fourth and final quarter, the Hawks finished their drive with another 1-yard touchdown run from C.J. Beathard, but failed to convert on a two-point conversion that would've potentially put the Hawks up by two full touchdowns, thus the score was 33-21 Iowa. The Golden Gophers were unable to do anything against the Hawks tough defense, but were fortunate that the Hawks could not increase their lead on the next possession after Marshall Koehn just barely missed a 48-yard field goal. The teams then traded punts until Minnesota was able to score a touchdown on a nice trick play pass from Shannon Brooks to Drew Wolitarsky. With their lead cut to just five points, the Iowa Hawkeyes knew their perfect season could be in danger. Luckily for the Hawkeyes, they had a running back named LeShun Daniels Jr. who had a career night for his team capped off with a 51-yard touchdown run to put the Hawkeyes up 28-40. With only 2:01 left in the game, and with the Golden Gophers needing to score two touchdowns to take the lead, almost everyone thought the game was out of reach, including the commentators who had already congratulated the Hawkeyes on a 10-0 start. However, the Golden Gophers were not at all ready to give up, scoring a very quick touchdown in only 45 seconds to bring the game to 35-40 in favor of the home team.
With only 1:16 seconds left in the game, everyone knew that an onside kick would decide the game. If the Hawks recovered the kick, they could run out the clock and end the game. However, if the Golden Gophers were able to miraculously recover the ball, they would have enough time to potentially score a touchdown, and stun the fifth ranked Iowa Hawkeyes and end their perfect season and playoff hopes. In probably the biggest play of the game, Minnesota kicker Ryan Santoso kicked the ball out of bounds after it only traveled eight yards, breaking the hearts of the Golden Gophers and pretty much destroying any chance they had for an upset. With the ball back and with no timeouts left from the Minnesota Golden Gophers, the Iowa Hawkeyes were able to get into victory formation and take two quarterback kneels to run out the clock, bring Floyd back to Iowa City, and make Hawkeye history with their best start ever with a record of 10-0.