LINCOLN, Nebraska — A game that didn’t start too well for the Hawkeyes ended exactly how many suspected it would — an Iowa win. The Hawkeyes defeated Nebraska, 56-14, at Memorial Stadium on Nov. 24 to move to 7-5 in the regular season.
Though Iowa started the third quarter tied at 14 after a few tough breaks in the first half, it only took nine plays and three drives for the Hawkeyes to pull ahead with a 21-point lead.
That didn’t stop the Hawkeyes — Iowa put up 28 points in 15 minutes to take a 42-14 lead over the Huskers.
“It just kind of happened; it wasn’t like it was a master plan or design,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said about the third quarter. “We all realized we’re going to have to play this thing all the way through, and the first part was playing through the bumps we created … We were even at halftime and actually felt pretty good about that because we made it tough on ourselves.”
Much of Iowa’s offensive production came from the running backs. Akrum Wadley, James Butler, Ivory Kelly-Martin, and Toren Young combined to rush for 306 yards and 6 touchdowns.
At the beginning of the season, Wadley made it his goal to put up 1,400 rushing yards. Although he did not quite hit that mark, his 159 yards pushed him over the 1,000-yard mark for the second-straight season. Wadley is the first Hawkeye since Fred Russell in 2002-03 to accomplish the feat and just the fourth player in Iowa history to do so.
The senior running back, who had a tough time hiding his excitement after the game, said a couple of his offensive linemen — James Daniels and Alaric Jackson — told him beforehand that they would make sure he got there against Nebraska.
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“I told him that, and he believed me. He was like, ‘Let’s go, then,’ “ Daniels said. “I’m not sure how many yards he needed, but once he looked up and saw me at the end of the game, he was like, ‘I got it.’ I was hyped.”
Wadley was not the only Hawkeye running back to hit a milestone. After an up-and-down, injury-riddled season, graduate transfer Butler found the end zone for the first time in the Black and Gold.
In the games he had played, Butler had put together 381 yards on the ground for Iowa but had yet to score any points. Heading into the game, he didn’t know if he would get the chance to do so.
“It was surreal. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to; it was getting so late in the season. It felt good, it was emotional,” Butler said “I didn’t really want to get up for a little while after I got in. It was good to get in there.”
Iowa ended the game with 505 yards of offense, nearly doubling what it put up last week against Purdue. Quarterback Nate Stanley completed 13-of-20 passes for 192 yards and 2 touchdowns, both to Noah Fant.
Those two touchdowns bring Stanley’s season number up to 25, just two shy of Chuck Long’s single-season Hawkeye record.
Stanley credited some of his success throwing the ball to the running game. He said that because the defense had to respect the rush, it opened it up for him in a few aspects.
“Being able to have the defense have to respect the run and step up and take the run on, it opens up the play-action pass and also the drop-back pass,” Stanley said. “It’s a bunch of fun, just being able to be out there with the guys you put so much time in with, being able to have everyone have success is what made it really special.”