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A football player in a white and yellow uniform runs with the ball while being pursued by opponents on a field with a crowd in the background.A football player in a white and yellow uniform runs with the ball while being pursued by opponents on a field with a crowd in the background.
Football

Hawkeyes Fall at Minnesota, 13-10

The University of Iowa football team tied the game in the fourth quarter, but Minnesota converted a 46-yard field goal as time expired to hand the Hawkeyes a 13-10 loss Saturday night at Huntington Bank Stadium.

Opens in a new window Box Score (PDF)

MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Iowa football team fell to Minnesota, 13-10, on Saturday afternoon at Huntington Bank Stadium.

The Hawkeyes outgained the Golden Gophers, 288-209, and finished with advantages in first downs (15-11), passing yards (198-137) and yards per play (4.3-3.4). Iowa's defense limited Minnesota to 72 rushing yards, recorded 10 tackles for loss and three sacks, and held the Golden Gophers to 2-of-15 on third down.

Hank Brown completed 11-of-21 pass attempts for 136 yards and a touchdown. Jeremy Hecklinski added 62 passing yards, completing 9-of-16 attempts.

Reece Vander Zee led Iowa's receiving corps with four receptions for 69 yards and a touchdown. DJ Vonnahme added six catches for 31 yards, while Tony Diaz hauled in a team-long 57-yard reception.

L.J. Phillips Jr. paced Iowa's rushing attack with 25 yards on seven carries. Kamari Moulton added 22 yards on 10 attempts.

Defensively, Zach Lutmer led the Hawkeyes with 11 tackles. Cam Buffington added 10 tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss, while Bryce Hawthorne recorded eight tackles and three tackles for loss. 

QUOTING KIRK FERENTZ

"We ended up with four turnovers. That’s really unrealistic to think you are going to win a conference game doing that. So, you know, that’s not good. Then also compounded that we had four loose balls today, which is, I think, very uncharacteristic of us, and that’s something we’ll have to look at and try to get that cleaned up real fast and see what we can do there.

Penalties weren’t critical necessarily, but they certainly always come at an inopportune time, and same thing again today there. Then a couple of things that were just, you know, obvious, especially on the offensive side. Couldn’t establish the run game the way we wanted to or hoped to. And we had some near misses on some execution plays that I think make a real difference if we can do it. But, you know, close doesn’t count, and we’re going to have to do what we can do to address that.

Then, you know, defensively, give ourselves—they did a lot of good things out there, a lot of good efforts. But just again from the sidelines—we’ll have to see the film—but it didn’t seem like we tackled as well as we can either, so something else to just look on.

So, that’s about summary of the game, and, uh, you know, obviously it hurts. Hurts everybody involved—players, coaches. Team loss. We’ll go back tomorrow, look at it, see what we can learn as a staff, what we can learn as players, and then we’ll have to move on as fast as possible because, you know, we’ve got five more games coming, conference games, and, certainly going to have to play better than we did today. That's not to discredit our opponent, they had something to do with that, so key thing will be moving forward, but first things first, gotta see what we can do to learn and improve some things."

PHOTOS

HOW IT HAPPENED 

  • Minnesota capitalized on a blocked punt on Iowa's opening possession, setting up a 31-yard field goal by Luke Drzewiecki with 12:14 remaining in the first quarter.
  • Deshaun Lee intercepted a Minnesota pass in the second quarter, leading to a 32-yard field goal by Cade Buhr that tied the game at 3-3 with 6:49 remaining before halftime.
  • Minnesota regained the lead midway through the third quarter when Darius Taylor scored on a one-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-one, giving the Golden Gophers a 10-3 advantage.
  • Iowa answered with 3:46 remaining in the fourth quarter, driving 98 yards in four plays and tying the game at 10-10 on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Hank Brown to Reece Vander Zee.
  • Minnesota moved 44 yards on its final possession before Drzewiecki connected on a 46-yard field goal as time expired for the 13-10 final.

POSTGAME NOTES

  • The Gophers’ victory snaps Iowa’s five-game winning streak in Minneapolis. It is Minnesota’s first home win over the Hawkeyes since 2014.
  • The loss was Iowa’s first against an unranked opponent since 2024 at UCLA.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

  • QB Hank Brown and QB Jeremy Hecklinski both saw action in the contest.
    • Brown was 11-of-21 for 136 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.
    • Hecklinski was 9-of-16 for 62 yards with one interception.
  • Brown's 37-yard touchdown pass to WR Reece Vander Zee was Iowa's longest touchdown pass of the season.
  • RB L.J. Phillips finished with seven carries for 25 yards to lead the team in rushing.
  • DB Zach Lutmer finished with a team-leading 11 tackles – his third double-digit tackle game of the season.
  • LB Cam Buffington had 10 tackles – his third double digit tackle game of the season – and DL Bryce Hawthorne had a career-high eight tackles.
  • DB Deshaun Lee had an interception and 28-yard return in the second quarter. It was his team-leading third interception of the season (sixth of his career).
  • P Boston Everitt had a career-long 60-yard punt in the first half.
  • K Caden Buhr connected on a 32-yard field goal in the second quarter.
    • He has made nine straight field goals from under 50 yards and is 10-of-12 on the year.

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Minnesota held Iowa to a season-low 10 points.
  • The Hawkeyes lost the turnover battle, 4-1, and the Gophers blocked an Iowa punt in the first quarter.
    • Iowa committed four turnovers for the first time since its 2023 game at Penn State.
  • Iowa had a successful fake punt via a 4-yard Cam Buffington rush on fourth-and-2 from the Iowa 38 in the second quarter.
    • It was the Hawkeyes’ first successful fake punt since 2017 vs. Illinois (Amani Hooker).
  • Iowa's four-play, 98-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter was its longest of the season.
  • Minnesota won the toss and deferred to the second half. The Hawkeyes have played 348 games under head coach Kirk Ferentz. Iowa has opened the game on offense 257 times (166-91). The Hawkeyes have opened the game on defense 91 times (52-39).

UP NEXT

Iowa returns to action on Halloween, hosting Wisconsin at 11 a.m. (CT) inside Kinnick Stadium.