Iowa football’s Caleb Shudak named Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week

The kicker made all four of his field goal attempts against Nebraska Nov. 26 to earn the honor.

Jerod Ringwald

Iowa kicker Caleb Shudak kicks an extra point during a football game between No. 16 Iowa and Nebraska at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. Shudak went 4-4 in field goal attempts with a long of 51 yards. The Hawkeyes defeated the Cornhuskers 28-21.

Austin Hanson, Sports Editor


Iowa football kicker Caleb Shudak was named Big Ten Special Teams Player of Week Monday. 

The 5-foot-8, 178-pound Iowan converted on all four of the field goals he attempted in Nov. 26’s Iowa-Nebraska game at Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Shudak made field goals of 51, 48, 36, and 44 yards, respectively.

Shudak’s four field goals tied his career-high. Shudak set his career-high in field goal makes against Illinois at Kinnick Stadium Nov. 20.

The longest field goal Shudak has ever made came from 51 yards out. Shudak has made three 51-yard field goals this season.

In 2021, Shudak has hit 22 of his 25 field goal attempts. Two of Shudak’s three misses have come on field goal attempts measuring 50 yards or more.

Shudak also leads Iowa in scoring this year with 100 points through 12 games. His 100 points this season rank eighth in all-time single-season scoring in Iowa football’s record books.

Shudak has also converted all 34 PATs he’s kicked this year.

During his first four year at Iowa, Shudak sat behind now-former Hawkeye starting kicker Keith Duncan. While he waited to get on the field, Shudak worked hard in the classroom, earning Academic All-Big honors from 2017-20.

Shudak and the Hawkeyes will travel to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis this Saturday to play in the Big Ten Championship Game against the 11-1 Michigan Wolverines.

Iowa qualified for the event by winning the Big Ten West outright — with some help from Minnesota. To make the Big Ten Championship Game, the Hawkeyes needed the Golden Gophers to beat the Badgers last Saturday. Minnesota delivered for Iowa with a 23-13 win over Wisconsin in Minneapolis.

Iowa needed to have a better conference record than Wisconsin to make the league title game because the Badgers beat the Hawkeyes head-to-head. So, the Badgers would’ve made the conference championship game had Iowa and Wisconsin had identical records at the end of the year.

The 2021 Big Ten Championship Game will begin at 7:17 p.m. and air live on FOX.