After a road win in Lincoln, Iowa secured a share of the Big Ten West title and a ten-win season. Minnesota’s victory over Wisconsin in rivalry weekend gave the Badgers three conference losses and pushed the Hawkeyes to the top of the division. Iowa wins the Big Ten West outright for the first time since the 2015 season. The Hawkeyes have come within a game of winning the West in each of the last two seasons. However, they jumped that hurdle and won the Big Ten West outright in 2021. The Hawkeyes have overcome their recent divisional shortfalls and will travel to Indianapolis to play Michigan on Saturday.
2019
The 2019 season was uncharacteristic in terms of who led the West division for the majority of the year. Minnesota was at the top of the leaderboard with a top-10 caliber season. They finished with 10 regular-season wins but had a key loss to Iowa on the road in November. The previous week, Iowa had traveled to Madison for a ranked matchup with the Badgers. The Hawkeyes scored 16 fourth-quarter points and manufactured a great comeback that would have reclaimed the Heartland Trophy. However, they fell short on a two-point conversion at the end of the game and lost by two points. The loss gave Wisconsin control of the division, which then went on to beat Minnesota and advance to Indianapolis. Had Iowa finished the comeback in Madison and beaten Wisconsin, their victory the following week over Minnesota would have punched a ticket to the Big Ten Championship.
2020
Last season’s COVID-altered scheduling caused a lot of chaos within the conference and many facilities. Big Ten teams attempted to play eight games on the season, but many programs did not get to that number. The Hawkeyes were one of the teams that made it through the regular season unscathed. Iowa started the year with two losses to Purdue and Northwestern. The Purdue loss was Spencer Petras’ first start at quarterback, and there were some kinks to get figured out. Purdue won the game by four points, and Iowa started the football season 0-1 for the first time since 2013.
The following week, Iowa hosted Northwestern and took an early 17-0 lead in the game. The wheels fell off in the second half, as the Wildcats came back and won the game by a point. At the time, the loss just felt like the beginning of a down year in Iowa City. To finish the season, however, Iowa went on to win six straight football games by an average margin of 22 points. The Hawkeyes completely flipped the script and were regarded by many as the hottest team in the country. Iowa’s 6-2 record at the end of the season was a half-game behind Northwestern’s 6-1 season. The Wildcats had a game canceled due to COVID, and their better record percentage gave them the outright title of the Big Ten West. The one-point loss in the second game of the year proved to be the difference-maker in the division. The Hawkeyes missed Indianapolis by one point.
2021
This was the year. Iowa started the season on a six-game win streak, mirroring last season’s finish. The Hawkeyes gathered impressive wins against Iowa State on the road and Penn State at home in a top-five clash. In the middle of the season, they suffered two difficult losses to Purdue and Wisconsin. The two teams have traditionally given the Hawkeyes a tough time in recent years, and that continued in 2021. The offense struggled in those games, only producing a combined 14 points. It was the worst two-game stretch in the Kirk Ferentz tenure since 2007. In the following game against Northwestern, Petras was taken out early with an injury, and Alex Padilla replaced him. Padilla’s mobility provided a new dimension to the Hawkeye offense, and he led three victories in a row.
Then, it was Black Friday and the Hawkeyes traveled to Lincoln. Nebraska has been looked at as one of the better three-win teams, as all of their losses to that point in the season had been by single digits. That trend continued against the Hawkeyes. Petras replaced Padilla in the second half of the game, and Iowa mounted a fourth-quarter comeback to erase a 15-point deficit and win the game. The victory gave Iowa at least a share of the Big Ten West, and all eyes turned to Minneapolis. The Badgers needed a win over Minnesota for a share of the division and a trip to Indianapolis. The Gophers had other ideas, and won the game by 10 points, sending Iowa to the Big Ten title game.
[pickup_prop id=”16095″]
Hawkeyes Overcome Recent Divisional Shortfalls
It is hard to win college football games, and 10-win seasons do not happen all too often. This year, the 10 wins came in a dramatic fashion. In the last two weeks, Iowa scored 61 points and just two scores came from offensive touchdowns. The special teams and defense accounted for the other 49 points in the two games. The difference this season has been Iowa’s ability to find ways to win close games. In 2019 and 2020, Iowa’s five combined losses came by a total of 19 points. This season, the Hawkeyes have won those close games. They beat Penn State by three, Northwestern and Minnesota by five, and Nebraska by seven. Whether it’s special team’s points, defensive scores, or the seemingly infrequent offensive touchdown, Iowa has found ways to win the close games. This year, the Hawkeyes have overcome recent divisional shortfalls to advance to Indianapolis. They will look to capitalize on one of the more successful seasons in the Ferentz tenure.
