We’ve ranked the top-10 plays the Iowa football team had this season.
By Danny Payne
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Hey there, everyone, we hope you’re enjoying the beginning of winter break. We’ll have full coverage of Kirk Ferentz’s press conference Tuesday afternoon.
In the meantime, we’ve ranked the best 10 plays of the 2015 Iowa football season. If you’re at work, you’re probably not doing anything anyway because of the short week and all that fun stuff — if you’re at home on break, you’re definitely not doing anything, so here you go.
10. Parker Hesse’s Nebraska touchdown
Defense kicks off the list with Hesse’s volleyball/basketball tip on Black Friday in Lincoln. A bad quarterback and an athletic defensive end made this play happen. Side note — 40 an AWESOME defensive number.
9. Desmond King beats Nate Peterman, again
This was King’s second interception in as many drives against Pittsburgh on Sept. 19. For some reason, Nate Peterman decided to throw at him after King ended the Panthers’ previous drive. Pat Narduzzi had to be pulling his hair out on the sideline.
What’s better than one? TWO. Yes, that’s two picks for @HawkeyeFootball‘s Desmond King. Brought to you by #GrubHub http://t.co/jLH0dCgzPB
— Iowa on BTN (@IowaOnBTN) September 20, 2015
8. Matt VandeBerg goes up and over in Ames
Ah, the first of two Iowa players gone totally airborne for touchdowns on this list. What great situational awareness by VandeBerg, who picked up a Henry Krieger Coble fumble for the score. If he hadn’t been on the map before, this definitely put him on the map in the win over the Cyclones.
7. Akrum Wadley scores against Northwestern
Ah, the Wadley game. Wadley finished with 204 yards against the ‘Cats just a week after Jordan Canzeri went for 256, so the Hawkeye rushing attack was feeling good. Watch the speedster turn the corner here; it’s a thing of beauty.
6. Faith Ekakitie’s goal-line recovery
In a game chock-full of defensive highlights, not one was bigger than this play by Ekakitie in the Wisconsin game. With the Badgers threatening late in the fourth quarter, Nate Meier disrupted quarterback Joel Stave, who tripped and fumbled. The backup defensive tackle picked the ball up and effectively killed any chance Wisconsin had at winning the game (and, as it turned out, the West).
5. Desmond King’s Pick-6
Remember how teams thought they could throw at King the way he was playing at that point in the season? The junior cornerback read the play perfectly, picked off a Perry Hills pass, and was off to the races. The outrun-everyone-for-88-yards part might be the most impressive aspect of this play. Take a look.
4. C.J. Beathard can fly
We promised another airborne Hawkeye, didn’t we? Remember, there was a bunch of injury talk surrounding Beathard in the week leading up to this game, and then he went out and made a play like this. That guy is tough as can be. Think he can dunk?
3. LeShun Daniels’ Minnesota touchdown
This was some kind of play, man. It sent Kinnick into such a frenzy that no one paid attention to the Gophers answering just a few seconds later, but everything turned out OK for the Hawks after Minnesota goofed the ensuing onside kick. You could hear the I-O-W-A chant from two miles away, apparently. Macon Plewa murdered his guy at the point of attack, too.
2. Marshall Koehn’s 57-yarder
There could be some controversy putting this at No. 2 and not No. 1. You can yell at me about it if you’d like. The longest field goal in Iowa history gave the Hawkeyes a victory over the Panthers, and although it’s not at the top of the list, it was still so, so impressive.
1. C.J.’s bomb to Tevaun Smith
It takes something big to give me chills, especially in a mostly soundproof press box. This was one of those chills moments. That ball was an absolute BOMB, and Beathard put it on a dime for Smith. Although the rest of that quarter didn’t go how you wanted it to, enjoy Gus Johnson calling the DI‘s top play of 2015.
