The Iowa football team bested cross-border rival Wisconsin, 42-10, inside Kinnick Stadium on Saturday night.
In his first start at Iowa, quarterback Brendan Sullivan played his role perfectly, completing 7-of-10 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown but also rushing for another 58 yards and one more of the latter. Running back Kaleb Johnson carried the Iowa offense, though, scoring three touchdowns for 20 on the season that tied legendary back Shonn Greene’s school record — and the season is far from over.
“First and foremost, all praise to my lord Jesus Christ,” Sullivan said after the game. “Having faith in him, getting the start today was just an unreal experience. Having a fan base behind us and being able to play a full four quarters today just felt really good.”
On the other side of the ball, it was defensive back Deshaun Lee who sparked a concerted effort to not let the foot off of the gas, culminating in just 10 Badger points. Both he and linebacker Nick Jackson caught interceptions in the contest.
While the Badgers made early progress on their first drive, as they have against Alabama and Penn State this season, quarterback Braedyn Locke took a deep shot to the left corner of the end zone. But where it looked like six, defensive back Deshaun Lee ripped possession out of the Badger receiver’s hand.
And he celebrated aggressively after, even as he walked back to the line of scrimmage, amped way up upon avoiding a 6-0 deficit. So the Badgers settled for a field goal and 3-0 lead.
Lee came up big again to close out the second quarter, jumping into Locke’s passing lane and catching the ball high before cutting across the field and returning it 14 yards.
Sullivan then broke through with a 16-yard connection with fellow Northwestern transfer Jacob Gill, ultimately setting up a one-yard rush of the former’s own for a 7-3 Iowa lead.
“I thought [Sullivan] played really well,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “If he’d slowed down some, some things would have been a little better for him. That’s lack of playing time. It’s just lack of being out there. He practiced all week long, and I thought he did a really nice job, and I’m really pleased for him.”
Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester tapped into his running back depth, using Jaz Patterson, Kamari Moulton, and Kaleb Johnson to move the ball down the field. After a 30-yard explosion from Moulton, Johnson waltzed into the end zone untouched for a comfortable 14-3 Hawkeye lead.
“It’s been awesome to see him, especially Kamari, just come in, a new guy [and] me being a veteran,” Johnson said. “So it’s pretty awesome, just telling him, just keep being hard on him, being hard on Jaz too, because they can be great too.”
A slow and stalling series of drives from both teams ensued, producing a punt-off that has otherwise honestly seen Iowa punter Rhys Dakin impressive with his leg power and distance. But not much more happened, and the Hawkeyes took that 14-3 lead into halftime.
Let’s keep it going
Equally stout Iowa defense continued restraint on Wisconsin’s offense, and a read option let Sullivan use his legs for a 14-yard gain. His ability to juke and cut back gave him 19 yards on a keeper soon after, the drive culminating in Johnson’s second touchdown of the game — and a 21-3 lead.
“If it’s working, you stay with things; if it’s not, then you try to find something else,” Ferentz said. “But we got into a pretty good rhythm, and Tim [Lester] called a great game.”
In a strange sequence you’d miss in the blink of an eye, linebacker Nick Jackson kicked a low Locke pass up at defensive lineman Brian Allen, who deflected it back to Jackson to run it back and into the red zone. There, Sullivan connected with Gill again for a seven-yard touchdown pass — the Northwestern connection — and a 28-3 lead.
“That was special,” Sullivan said. “That’s something that we’ve prayed about, something that we’ve talked about since we got to Northwestern.”
The next drive, the Badgers got their best momentum in some time, pushing the ball up the field with the run game more than anything. But it was a 14-yard pass to CJ Williams that finally brought Wisconsin into the end zone, although it didn’t mean much with a 28-10 Hawkeye lead.
Sullivan got some celebration in on a perfectly placed ball to tight end Zach Ortwerth deep over the middle for a 52-yard gain, his longest of the night. And a run-pass option rolled Sullivan out and deep up against the goal line for 19 yards, half of a yard shy of the touchdown that Johnson took instead for the 35-10 lead.
“He should be a Heisman finalist, the way he’s playing,” Sullivan said of Johnson. “The way that he’s been playing this whole season — it’s really consistent.”
The Hawkeyes then rotated a handful of the reserves in by the seven-minute mark to ride the win out to the end, including a rushing touchdown from Iowa’s Jaz Patterson.
“I’m going to give credit to everybody on offense and everybody on defense for working their butts off this week,” Johnson said. “This whole week, actually, in practice, just doing the little things and stuff like that added up … You’ve got to keep moving forward, and my focus is on UCLA.”
Up next
The Hawkeyes will travel to sunny Pasadena, California, for a match-up with the UCLA Bruins on Friday at 8 p.m.
UCLA is 3-5 this season but beat what was a solid Nebraska, 27-20, on Saturday afternoon.