At halftime in Kinnick Stadium, the No. 5 Iowa football team leads Minnesota 24-14.

By Danny Payne
[email protected]

If you like defense, you’ve come to the wrong place. We haven’t seen much of that in this blacked-out version of Kinnick Stadium, rather a lot of offense. Here are a few thoughts on the half, which Iowa leads 24-14.

• First, the uniforms — they’re awesome. Here they are.

https://twitter.com/dannyapayne/status/665679039265304577

• Iowa’s first drive of the game was eviscerating for Minnesota. The Hawks went 17 plays, 91 yards in 8:38. Yeah, that’s a lot of plays, and a lot of yards, and a lot of time.
• LeShun Daniels Jr. is running like a man possessed this evening. In all he has 10 carries, 90 yards, and 2 touchdowns, good for a healthy average of 9 yards per carry, if you’re not great at math. No, I didn’t use a calculator for that. Yes, I’m a journalism major.
• Minnesota’s offense has confused the hell out of Iowa’s defense. Quarterback Mitch Leidner and Company are running all sorts of misdirection, and have targeted Greg Mabin’s side. Leidner is 10-of-14 for 153 yards and a touchdown, receiver KJ Maye leads the Gophers with 4 catches for 69 yards.
• The Gopher defense is also giving C.J. Beathard fits in the backfield. He’s been on the move all day and is improvising like crazy. He had a 26-yard run to set up Iowa’s third touchdown of the night, which came from Daniels.
• Beathard also scored via a perfectly executed naked bootleg. Which is, of course, the most beautiful play in football.
• Marshall Koehn has put four of his five kickoffs in the end zone for touchbacks.

This is the most New Kirk stat ever. pic.twitter.com/GUwzVgPp8w

— Justin VanLaere ▶ (@storminspank) November 15, 2015

• This is fun so far, here are your statistics to read and love. Iowa has a lot of yards and a lot of plays.