Iowa Hawkeyes close regular season strong with big win

The Iowa Hawkeyes capped off a very confusing regular season with a dominating 40-10 victory over Big Ten rival Nebraska…

To say it has been a strange season for the Iowa Hawkeyes would be an understatement. An early-season loss against North Dakota State at Kinnick Stadium basically ended any hopes of the Hawkeyes making a return to CFB Playoff contention, and they played like it for a good stretch of the season.

Following the loss to the Bison, the Hawkeyes had to grind out a 14-7 win over Rutgers. They lost a seven-point game to Northwestern the following week, then got another tough 14-7 win against Minnesota.

After beating Purdue, the Hawkeyes dropped a really hard-fought battle at home to Wisconsin, and were completely deflated the following weekend going to Penn State. Iowa was absolutely embarrassed on that road trip, losing their second-straight game by a score of 41-14.

It was unquestionably the worst game Iowa had played as a team since their horrendous 2014 campaign, and it was by far the worst game of the season. Surely a home game against no. three ranked Michigan the next week in prime time would be just as embarrassing…

The Hawkeyes came out strong defensively against Michigan, and won one of the most thrilling upsets of the year, beating the Wolverines 14-13. They came out with a ton of confidence against Illinois, winning on the road 28-0 before facing off against Nebraska in the regular season finale.

The Huskers trotted out a healing Tommy Armstrong at quarterback, and were completely overmatched by an Iowa team that many of us thought we’d see on a much more consistent basis this year.

Led by their rushing attack and some big plays on special teams, the Hawkeyes dominated the Huskers, winning 40-10, improving their record this season to 8-4.

It hasn’t been the prettiest road to eight wins, and that’s certainly not what the Hawkeyes had in mind at the beginning of the year, but this was as convincing a victory as we’ve seen from the team this year against the team that came into this week ranked 16th in the nation, contending for the Big Ten West title.

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Iowa’s dominance on the ground started with Akrum Wadley’s phenomenal footwork and blazing speed, and LeShun Daniels did a lot of the grunt work throughout the came, carrying the ball 29 times for 158 yards and two more touchdowns.

For Daniels, it was the fourth game with over 100 yards rushing this season, and the third game of 150 or more. He has now done that in consecutive weeks.

For Wadley, it was his fifth game with over 100 rushing yards and the second time this season he has taken a run 75 yards to the house.

With a decent bowl game from Wadley, the Hawkeyes will have two running backs at over 1,000 yards rushing this season. Daniels eclipsed that figure on Friday in the big win.

This is an Iowa team that had been losing a couple of recruits that had made verbal commitments after a really disappointing start to the year. Wins against ranked Nebraska and Big Ten powerhouse Michigan should help in that process, as will a win in another Florida bowl game, where the Hawkeyes are always popular.

It wasn’t the season the Iowa coaching staff and players dreamed up at the start, but three straight wins to close it out have been incredibly impressive, exciting, and great for recruiting. Hopefully this win over Nebraska propels Iowa back into Big Ten relevance for 2017.

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