College Football Stories

Chilly winds, light rain, and sub-50 degree temperatures in late-October made for a very memorable first experience of Big Ten football. The setting: sold-out and blacked-out Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, home of the Hawkeyes. The prize on the line: a 98-pound bronze bust of a prized pig named Floyd. The result: a straight-up Black and Gold whoopin’ that led the visiting Minnesota Golden Gophers to sadly row their boats all the way back up I-35.

Background

Before we talk about the game itself, let’s talk about how we got here. I live in Georgia, just south of Atlanta. I grew up (and still am, sadly) rooting for Florida State. My two best friends are UGA grads and die-hard Dawgs fans. What were we doing in the Midwest freezing our butts off watching a rivalry game between two schools that are closer to Canada than they are to the Mason-Dixon line? Well, for one, the three of us are college football loyalists. We love and appreciate the atmosphere and the pageantry that embodies the sport. We want to experience different traditions and interact with fans of teams we’ve never seen play in a live setting.

Several years ago, we began this tradition of spending one weekend per year watching a game at a stadium and college town we had never experienced. Although the treks to Nashville and Dallas were not necessarily firsts for any of us, these were our first trips inside First Bank Stadium and Gerald J. Ford Stadium, respectively. The caveat was that in Nashville, we were there to see the Dawgs; in Dallas, I wanted to watch my Noles. We were so preoccupied with our teams that it was difficult to take it all in. So we decided that from here on out, we’ll go somewhere and watch two teams that we are generally neutral towards; although we will always be partial to the home team.

Midwestern Hospitality

Iowa City welcomed us in the most Midwestern way possible: with a Van Halen cover band performing in the tailgating lot. The group was named Van Hayden, after the aforementioned rock ‘n roll group and legendary former Iowa head coach Hayden Fry. The band members all wore fake mustaches, aside from the lead singer, who seemed to be the only one able to grow Magnum-worthy lip foliage. Their set up was right in front of their well-branded “Vanbulance”. Their final riff was an Iowan version of Panama, filled with football puns and theatrics.

Making our way into the stadium from the second tailgating lot involved another Midwestern staple: passing by giant corn fields. I hate to unnecessarily stereotype certain regions of the country, but sometimes these labels are just a-maize-ingly accurate: Iowa has a corn problem. Sorry, I’ll see myself out after that one. We took the free CAMBUS to the stadium from the corn-field parking lot and made our way into Kinnick. The architecture of the stadium gets an A+ from me; the insane waiting times for the men’s restroom and the concessions did not grade out highly. Nonetheless, the game day experience had a great start, and only got better from there.

The Rivalry

Before we dive into the action, here’s a little background on the rivalry between our beloved, adopted Hawkeyes and those pesky, irritating Gophers from Minnesota. The two schools first squared off in 1891, and have played each other in all but three seasons since 1911. Minnesota is 63-54-2 overall against the Hawkeyes. Since 1935, Iowa and Minnesota play for the right to keep Floyd of Rosedale until the next season.

Floyd is now a giant trophy, but he was once a real pig, given by former Iowa Governor Clyde Herring to former Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson after a wager between the two. Herring named the Rosedale Farms award-winning pig “Floyd” after Governor Olson. Later on, Floyd was awarded by Gov. Olson to a 14-year old essay-contest winner. Unfortunately, after making it to the young man’s family farm, the non-vaccinated pig developed cholera and died. The wager between the governors and the schools remained, however, a trophy was sculpted in place of a live pig. Iowa leads the trophy series 46-43-2.

The highest profile match-up between the two schools happened in 1960, when Iowa was ranked #1 and Minnesota was ranked #3. The Gophers defeated the Hawkeyes 27-10 in a de facto Big Ten Championship game. Minnesota got the Rose Bowl bid that year, eventually losing 17-7 to the Washington Huskies.

There was controversy the last time the two rivals met in Iowa City. On October 21st, 2023, the Gophers limped into Kinnick Stadium at 3-3, two weeks after getting obliterated at home 52-10 at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines. Meanwhile, the Hawkeyes were 6-1, ranked #24 in the country and firmly in the running for a Big Ten West division title.

The score was 12-10 in favor of the Golden Gophers with under two minutes remaining in the game. Minnesota punted from inside their own 20, and Cooper Dejean fielded the kick at the Iowa 46-yard line. Dejean caught the ball off a bounce near the Minnesota sideline and hit a spin move to evade one would-be tackler. He quickly eluded half a dozen more Minnesota defenders before crossing the field around the Gophers’ 30-yard line. Dejean side stepped and then out-ran the last line of defense from Minnesota en route to a 54-yard touchdown with 1:21 remaining. The score should have put the Hawkeyes up 16-12, but after a video review, an “invalid fair catch signal” was called on Dejean. I’ll let you be the judge.

The ball was placed dead at the 46, and the Hawkeyes took over with a minute and a half remaining along with a timeout. But a first down sack led to a third-and-long interception from Iowa QB Deacon Hill ended the comeback attempt, and the Golden Gophers got their first victory in Iowa City since 1999. Hawkeyes fans have not forgotten this game, as I saw many shirts at the game like this one.

The Game

The Hawkeyes are 20-6 against the Gophers since the turn of the century. And on October 25th, 2025, Kirk Ferentz showed P.J. Fleck why he’s the longest-tenured coach in college football. Iowa started out efficiently on offense, driving down the field on a methodical five minute drive and finishing in the end zone with a Mark Gronowski 2-yard touchdown run. After forcing a three-and-out on the ensuing Gophers possession, the Hawkeyes shed five more minutes off the clock, adding a field goal to make it 10-0.

The fireworks really got started on the next Minnesota drive. Starting from their own 16-yard line, Gophers QB Drake Lindsey dropped back and threw a pass intended for TE Drew Biber on a wheel route. The route was double covered and the ball was intercepted by Iowa DB Zach Lutmer, who returned it 34-yards for a touchdown that might as well have been the death blow to Minnesota.

Another Gophers three-and-out resulted in six more points for the Hawks, as Gronowski led a 45-yard scoring drive capped by a 29-yard TD pass to wide out Reece Vander Zee. Things would get even worse for Minnesota, as their fourth straight drive without a first down resulted in a special teams score by the Hawkeyes. Electric Iowa return man Kaden Wetjen took a punt 50 yards to the house, and the score was 31-0 before the Golden Gophers ever even moved the chains on offense. With 11:23 left in the second quarter, the Hawkeyes defense had held Minnesota to 1 total yard of offense in 10 plays. This was beat down of epic proportions.

The rest of the game was relatively uneventful, aside from the Golden Gophers calling an inexplicable timeout with seven seconds left in the third quarter right before a field goal attempt. The two teams traded punts and Iowa’s backup quarterback got some burn and found the end zone late in the fourth quarter. The good guys won 41-3, claiming the prized Floyd for another year.

The Hawkeyes scored touchdowns on the ground, through the air, on defense, and on special teams. The Iowa defense stifled the Gophers rushing attack to the tune of 24 yards on 25 attempts, finishing with 9 tackles for loss and 4 sacks. Iowa also forced three interceptions and made life miserable for Lindsey and the Gophers offense all afternoon.

The highlight of the day, however, happened at the end of the first quarter. The Hawkeye Wave to the university’s Stead Family Children’s Hospital was everything it was cracked up to be. This tradition started in 2017 and involves every fan, player, and coach in Kinnick stadium waving to the onlooking children and their families from the world-class facility.