On September 13, Kirk Ferentz secured sole ownership of the Big Ten’s career win record by notching his 206th victory as Iowa’s head coach. While Iowa’s dominant win over the hapless UMass Minutemen was somewhat anti-climactic, the program has had no shortage of memorable victories during Kirk Ferentz’s 26 years as the Hawkeyes’ head man.
This article attempts to do the impossible—identify Ferentz’s ten best, most iconic wins at Iowa. Lists like these are entirely subjective, and narrowing this down from an initial “shortlist” of 40+ games was a more difficult exercise than anticipated. Whether you’re partial to Iowa’s 55-0 beatdown of Minnesota to close down Kinnick North in 2008, the goal line stand to beat Syracuse in 2006, or the Hawkeyes’ West Coast pummeling of USC in 2019, there were no shortage of iconic moments which failed to make the final cut. This list represents the author’s best attempt to account for the wins that mean the most to Iowa fans and best exemplify the heights of Iowa football over the past 26 years.
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10. November 26, 2021- Iowa 28, Nebraska 21
Any of Iowa’s recent wins against Nebraska could have easily qualified for this list, but Iowa’s 2021 road victory over the Cornhuskers stands above the rest based both on its improbability and importance. Heading into the final week of the regular season, Iowa needed a win against Nebraska and a Wisconsin loss the following day to win the Big Ten West.
With Nebraska leading 21-6 midway through the 3rd quarter, Iowa’s chances of victory seemed basically non-existent. However, the Hawkeyes mounted an incredible comeback in the 4th quarter, sparked by a blocked punt which linebacker Kyler Fisher returned for a touchdown and followed two plays later by a safety forced by defensive lineman Lukas Van Ness. The Hawks proceeded to score on both of their next two drives, highlighted by a 55-yard burst by running back Tyler Goodson and a rushing touchdown from quarterback Spencer Petras, who came off the bench to lead Iowa’s second-half comeback after having missed the previous two games due to injury.
Not only did Iowa’s victory further cement the program’s dominance over their once formidable rival, but Wisconsin’s loss to Minnesota helped the Hawkeyes punch their ticket to Indianapolis. In a season defined by statement victories over rivals, the 2021 Heroes Trophy game was a the perfect encapsulation of Kirk Ferentz’s ability to win games in unorthodox ways through a combination of game-changing defensive and special teams plays and just enough offense to get the job done.
9. October 5, 2002- Iowa 31, Purdue 28
Iowa has won several more important games than this one under Kirk Ferentz and beaten much better teams than this 7-6 Boilermaker squad. But Iowa’s 2002 win over Purdue stands out as maybe the most exciting and rewatchable game of the Ferentz era. This is the game that solidified Brad Banks as a genuine Heisman Trophy contender and Dallas Clark as an Iowa legend, with the two connecting for a go-ahead touchdown on 4th and goal which became the enduring image of Ferentz’s first truly great season in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes needed all three phases of the game to pull out the win, including two passing touchdowns, two special teams touchdowns, and a late-game interception from little-used freshman defensive back Adolphus Shelton which sealed the Hawkeyes’ victory. This is precisely the type of game Hawkeye fans had become accustomed to losing in recent years, but seeing the Hawkeyes pull out a win in style provided renewed hope for a fan base starved for sustained success after the program’s sharp decline in the late 1990s.
8. November 20, 2004- Iowa 30, Wisconsin 7
National pundits were quick to bury Iowa’s 2004 campaign after the team started the season 2-2 and lost basically every running back on its roster to injury. Faced with overwhelming odds, Kirk Ferentz and his coaching staff put the season in the hands of sophomore quarterback Drew Tate. The result: eight straight victories and the program’s second Big Ten championship in three years and third straight Top Ten finish.
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Iowa’s memorable Big Ten campaign culminated with a statement win over the rival Wisconsin Badgers in the final week of the season. With a share of the conference championship on the line, the Hawkeyes throttled the 9th-ranked Badgers on the strength of their suffocating defense. Drew Tate threw for three touchdowns, including two to star wideout Clinton Solomon. It’s been over 20 years since the Hawkeyes’ last conference championship, but the memory of Iowa clinching the title with a dominant victory over their highly-ranked rival remains one of the signature highlights of Kirk Ferentz’s coaching tenure.
7. October 30, 2010- Iowa 37, Michigan State 6
One of the final cuts to this list was Iowa’s 2009 victory over Michigan State, a game won on a last-second touchdown from Ricky Stanzi to Marvin McNutt to preserve Iowa’s undefeated record. While that game narrowly missed inclusion on this list, the sequel to that instant classic was too good to leave out.
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Iowa’s 2010 campaign was something of letdown after the magical run of 2009, with the Hawkeyes losing close games to highly-ranked opponents while also posting baffling losses to inferior teams like Arizona and Minnesota. For most Hawkeye fans, however, the 37-6 throttling of #5 Michigan State stands as the enduring memory of that season. One week after losing a heartbreaker to Wisconsin, Iowa scored 37 unanswered points against the shell-shocked Spartans, including a 17-point first quarter punctuated by a tag-team interception returned for a touchdown by defensive backs Tyler Sash and Micah Hyde. Ricky Stanzi was nearly perfect through the air, while the Hawkeye defense stifled the potent Spartan running game and picked off future Pro Bowl quarterback Kirk Cousins three times. This game stood as Michigan State’s only loss during the regular season and single-handily kept the Spartans out of the National Championship conversation.
6. October 26, 2002- Iowa 34, Michigan 9
At what point during Kirk Ferentz’s tenure as Iowa’s head coach were the Hawkeyes officially “back?” The earliest signs of a program revival were visible in Iowa’s upset victory over #12 Northwestern in 2000, the 2001 Alamo Bowl marked the Hawkeyes’ return to respectability, and the 2002 overtime thriller against Penn State raised quite a few eyebrows among national pundits and casual fans. However, definitive statement of Ferentz’s legendary 2002 team came in Iowa’s manhandling of the 8th-ranked Michigan Wolverines in front of 111,000 fans in the Big House. The Hawkeyes announced their return to contention by handing Michigan its largest home loss since 1967.
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The final score was certainly shocking, but it was Iowa’s physical dominance that left a lasting impression on everyone who watched the game. The upstart Hawkeyes—not the blueblooded Wolverines with a roster full of elite recruits—looked like the perennial powerhouse as they proved they were bigger, faster, and stronger than a Michigan team most experts expected to contend for a conference championship. Brad Banks threw for three touchdowns, backup running back Jermelle Lewis gashed the Wolverines for 141 total yards, and Iowa’s defense held star Michigan running back Chris Perry to only 14 yards on the ground. Michigan fans abandoned their seats amid a 24-point run by the Hawkeyes, while the visiting crowd celebrated the program’s long-awaited return to greatness with one of the most impressive and memorable wins of the last 26 years.
5. November 8, 2008- Iowa 24, Penn State 23
In November 2008, #3 Penn State rolled into Kinnick Stadium fresh off a statement road victory over #10 Ohio State and hoping to continue its run to a Big Ten title and national championship berth.
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While the Nittany Lions managed to secure the conference crown that season, their dreams of a national title were stomped out by the powerful right foot of Hawkeye kicker Daniel Murray. Down nine points entering the fourth quarter, future All-American running back Shonn Greene scored his second touchdown of the game to pull the Hawkeyes within two points. A timely interception by safety Tyler Sash gave Iowa the ball back with just under four minutes remaining, and Greene and sophomore quarterback Ricky Stanzi drove the Hawkeye offense into field goal range, setting up Murray for a game-winning field goal with one second remaining.
While this is Iowa’s only win over Penn State to make the list, Kirk Ferentz has several memorable victories that could have easily been included. Ferentz won eight of nine games against Joe Paterno’s Nittany Lions from 2000-2010, including Iowa’s 21-10 road victory against #5 Penn State in 2009 and the infamous 6-4 victory in 2004, arguably the most “Ferentzy” game of his tenure at Iowa and one which few if any other coaches in college football were capable of winning in such an absurd fashion. While these games, along with Iowa’s euphoric 23-20 win over #4 Penn State in 2021, all warranted serious consideration for this list, the 2008 game stands out as the best among Ferentz’s many iconic victories over the Pennsylvania powerhouse.
4. November 12, 2016- Iowa 14, Michigan 13
Remember the 2008 Iowa/Penn State game you just read about? This game was like that, but with less offense and several extra shots of absurdity and improbability added for good measure.
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Nobody, and I mean NOBODY saw this game coming. Michigan was undefeated, ranked #2 in the nation, and dreaming of a national championship. Iowa, meanwhile, had squandered the momentum of its exhilarating 2015 campaign and entered this game with a 5-4 record after having been humiliated by Penn State 41-14 one week prior. The Wolverines had run roughshod over basically every team they’d encountered that season, while the Hawkeyes seemed like a team that couldn’t wait for 2016 to come to a close.
However, for one night in November, Iowa managed to turn back the clock and recapture some of the magic that propelled the previous year’s team to a 12-0 regular season. Iowa’s salty defense held Michigan to only 13 points on 201 yards of offense, and even got in on the scoring action by way of a safety caused by defensive tackle Jaleel Johnson. Junior running back Akrum Wadley was a one-man offense for the Hawkeyes, accounting for 115 yards on the ground and catching nearly all of the passes thrown by Iowa’s injury-hampered quarterback CJ Beathard. Iowa had no business being competitive in this game, but frequently seemed to stun the Wolverines with exceptional displays of grit and determination at critical junctures which prevented Michigan from pulling ahead. Freshman walk-on Keith Duncan kicked the game-winning kick as time expired—an appropriately improbable conclusion to an upset that feels as impossible now as it did the day it happened.
3. January 5, 2010- Iowa 24, Georgia Tech 14
The most prestigious bowl win of Kirk Ferentz’s career at Iowa capped off what may have been his best season to-date. The 2009 Iowa would likely have finished the regular season as undefeated Big Ten champions had an untimely injury to starting QB Ricky Stanzi not derailed their season in November and cost them a shot at either the Rose Bowl or BCS Championship. However, an Orange Bowl berth against the best Georgia Tech team in a generation was a worthy consolation prize and gave the Hawkeyes a chance to redeem themselves after an embarrassing showing in the 2003 Orange Bowl put a damper on the otherwise magical 2002 campaign.
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Rather than repeating their performance from the 03 game, Iowa imposed its will on Georgia Tech in what may be the most impressive defensive performance of the Ferentz era. Defensive coordinator Norm Parker coached a virtuoso game and held one of the nation’s most productive offense to 155 total yards and only one offensive touchdown. Iowa’s secondary locked down future All-Pro receiver Demaryius Thomas and held him without a catch, while defensive end Adrian Clayborn spent most of the night in the Yellowjacket backfield. Tight end Tony Moeaki and running back Brandon Wegher had memorable moments in what would turn out to be their final games in the black and gold, and Ricky Stanzi did exactly what fans had come to expect by this point in the season—make enough plays to overcome an inexplicable pick-six early in the game. In winning a BCS bowl game, Iowa reaffirmed that it belonged among the nation’s elite teams while putting together a performance that Hawkeye fans remember fondly to this day.
2. November 4, 2017- Iowa 55, Ohio State 24
A singularly stunning performance. Iowa set the tone from the first snap of the game, which promptly resulted in a pick-six from safety Amani Hooker—the first of four interceptions the Hawkeye defense would snag that day. Then came the Iowa offense, which inexplicably transformed into an unstoppable juggernaut on this magical November afternoon. While Ohio State managed to keep pace with the Hawkeyes for much of the first half, quarterback Nate Stanley connected twice with tight end Noah Fant in the waning moments of the second quarter, giving Iowa a 31-17 lead. Iowa then proceeded to outscore the Buckeyes 24-7 in the second half, delivering a shocking loss to the 3rd-ranked Buckeyes which ultimately kept the eventual Big Ten champions out of the playoff.
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Nothing about this game made sense in the moment, and it honestly makes even less sense in hindsight. Iowa scoring 55 points against one of college football’s elite defenses? Impossible: after all, this was an Iowa team that would go on to muster 66 yards of total offense against Wisconsin just one week later. Nate Stanely throwing for five touchdown passes while looking like a clone of Ben Roethlisberger? Maybe in a video game, but not in real life. Josh Jackson intercepting JT Barrett three times? No way a player with two career interceptions heading into this game was up to that task against an All-Big Ten QB. Iowa’s punter passing to its long snapper on one of the iconic plays of the “New Kirk” era of Iowa football? Pure fantasy. Yet all of these absurd scenarios came to pass, amounting to the most dominant and impressive full-game performance of Kirk Ferentz’s career.
This was complimentary football at its finest and proof positive that, when executed well, Ferentz’s model of play not only allowed Iowa to play with the big boys, but bully them as well. Amidst Iowa’s ongoing stint in offensive purgatory, the Hawkeyes’ 2017 win over Ohio State stands as a shining example of what is still possible for the program when the offense, defense, and special teams work in harmony.
1. January 1, 2005- Iowa 30, Louisiana State 25
Could there really be any other choice?
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Drew Tate’s hail mary pass to Warren Holloway is one of the most iconic moments in Iowa football history and capped off one of the most exciting games college football games of this century. In a matchup against Nick Saban’s LSU Tigers, Iowa put a bow on its stellar 2004 campaign with its victory over the defending national champions. Iowa’s defense tamed the Tigers for most of the game, but LSU roared back to take the lead with 46 seconds left thanks to two fourth-quarter touchdowns from reserve QB JaMarcus Russell, who would later develop into a #1 overall NFL draft pick. With the final seconds ticking off the game clock due to some admittedly baffling clock management, Drew Tate threw a 56-yard bomb to Holloway, who stunned LSU by racing into the end zone for his first career touchdown.
The image of Drew Tate frantically ripping off his helmet as he raced down the field to join the celebratory mob of Hawkeyes that had formed around Holloway is burned into the mind of any Iowa fans who were lucky enough to witness it. No single play over the last 26 years has left as big an imprint on the collective memories of this fan base, who experienced the creeping anguish of certain defeat followed by the sudden burst of euphoria from an impossible victory. Kirk Ferentz could win another 206 games in his career and still might not produce a moment as magical as Tate to Holloway. If he does, it will mean Ferentz has finally found a way to elevate the program to the pinnacle of college football success.
