MADISON, WI – Aaron Graves never ran faster in his entire life.
With a hair under two minutes left in the first quarter, Wisconsin quarterback Hunter Simmons faked a jet sweep handoff to running back Dilin Jones, immediately set his feet in throwing position, and fired a pass to the right side of the field towards the sideline.
Graves was the receptor, his first career interception. The 6-foot-5, 295-pound defensive lineman flew down the far sideline, pumping his arms and stretching out his body in a diving effort to reach the end zone.
He needed 41 yards for the pick-six. He got 40-and-a-half after the review.
“I had [an interception] in high school, and I also got tackled by the quarterback,” he said. “I have twin older brothers, and I know they will never let me hear the end of not being able to get in the end zone.”
Graves’ play was just one of many shining moments for a Hawkeye defense that held Wisconsin to 82 passing yards on eight receptions, 127 rushing yards on 36 attempts, and zero points – the first home shutout loss for Wisconsin since Nov. 8, 1980.
“It not only made me feel great, but it made a whole defense, the staff, the players feel great. It made us all feel great,” said cornerback T.J. Hall. “We preach, even if you’re a two, if you get in the game, you still got to play like you’re a one. You got to keep that thing. So I feel like they did a great job holding them to that zero.”
Hall didn’t secure a takeaway, but he had his moment towards the end of the first half when he broke up a near-40-yard pass in the end zone to keep the Badgers scoreless. He flailed his arms across his body and shook his head as he’s done many times with the stack of pass breakups he’s collected this year.
Minutes before Graves’ takeaway, however, defensive lineman Bryce Hawthorne collected his first ever interception after fellow lineman Brian Allen batted Simmons’ pass into the air. Hawthorne described “going into auto-pilot” and made an all-out effort to secure the turnover at the Wisconsin 24-yard line.
The offense followed with a three-play drive capped off by a six-yard rushing score by Kamari Moulton.
“Those guys have been doing in practice, you know, getting tips on balls, getting pressure on the quarterback,” said defensive end Zach Lutmer. “So I’m not surprised at all that they went out there and did what they did.”
Lutmer added onto the onslaught 50 seconds into the second half when he recovered Simmons’ backwards pass right along the far sideline in Wisconsin territory. He admitted postgame that he didn’t know it was a live ball but made the play regardless.
“Our coach does a good job of preaching, anytime the ball is on the ground, it’s close, just go jump on it and make the refs make a decision,” Lutmer said.
Four pass breakups. Two interceptions. Two tackles for loss. One fumble recovery. Thirty-seven points for the Hawkeyes. Zero points for the Badgers.
An all-time Iowa football performance.
“[It was] good to see the takeaways. We haven’t had an abundance of those this year, and got a couple tonight,” said Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz. “And then, most importantly, [we] made the takeaways turn into points. I thought we played good opportunistic football and good team football on top of it.”