It was a wet, wild, and long night at Kinnick Stadium as Iowa outlasted Mother Nature and the Nevada football team on their way to a 27-0 victory as Saturday night moved into Sunday morning. We have all your news and notes from the game and we hand out three game balls once again this week.
GAME BALLS
OFFENSE: KALEB JOHNSON – With Iowa down one running back this week, Kaleb Johnson got his opportunity and he did not let it slip through his fingers. On his first carry of the game, the fleet footed freshman bounced off two tacklers and ran 40 yards for a touchdown. Then past midnight at Kinnick, Johnson flew down the sidelines for a 55 yard score. Overall he rushed for 103 yards in the game. Johnson was Iowa’s first 100 yard freshman rusher since Tyler Goodson cracked the century mark against Nebraska in November of 2019.
DEFENSE: LUKAS VAN NESS – There was plenty of expectations heading into the season for Van Ness and he’s living up to them. Last week he blocked a pair of punts and earned Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week. This week he was spending a good amount of time in the Nevada offense backfield. Van Ness was credited with 1.5 sacks and also had another individual tackle for loss in the game. Overall, he finished with 8 tackles while bouncing between defensive tackle and defensive end.
SPECIAL TEAMS – DREW STEVENS – Did Iowa find their kicker on a rainy night at Kinnick Stadium? It felt like it. True freshman Drew Stevens got his chance to handle the field goal duties on Saturday and he did not miss. Stevens hammered home a pair of field goals from 33 and 43 yards and he was excellent on kickoffs again this week.
NEWS AND NOTES
THE LONGEST DAY AT KINNICK
It was the longest day ever at Kinnick Stadium. The game began at 6:40 p.m. and officially came to a close at 1:39 a.m. on Sunday morning. There were three weather delays lasting a grand total of 236 minutes. The first delay was for 80 minutes. The second delay lasted 110 minutes. The final weather delay lasted 46 minutes.
This was the second game in the history of Kinnick Stadium that had a weather delay. The previous game was in 2011 against Tennessee Tech. Iowa’s last weather delay game was at Iowa State in 2019.
PITCHING A SHUTOUT
The Iowa defense held Nevada to 151 yards of total offense and did not allow the Wolfpack to score any points. This was Iowa’s first shutout since beating Northwestern 20-0 in October of 2019. It was the first shutout at Kinnick Stadium since the Hawkeyes beat Rutgers 30-0 in September of 2019.
INJURY UPDATE
Some positive news for the Hawkeyes as wide receivers Nico Ragaini and Keagan Johnson saw their first action of the season. Ragaini was returning from a broken bone is his foot that occurred during fall camp. He caught two passes for 56 yards, including 46 yard reception, which is the longest pass play of the year for Iowa. Johnson also had a pair of receptions for 11 yards. He was targeted four times in the game. Johnson was in street clothes after the first weather delay due his hamstring tightening up.
Noah Shannon also was in street clothes once the weather delays began. Shannon is battling a shoulder issue.
Starting running back Leshun Williams missed the game on Saturday due to the death of his father last week. The funeral for Williams’s father was on Saturday and he is planning to return to the team sometime in the next week.
BRUCE!!!
Arland Bruce caught Iowa’s first touchdown pass of the season. In the first quarter he hauled in a 21 yard pass from Spencer Petras for the score. It was his second career touchdown pass. He had a team high three receptions for 50 yards.
FRESHMAN FILES
Iowa added another true freshman to the playing time column. This time it was a running back. While freshman Kaleb Johnson shined, Jaziun Patterson had his first snaps of the year, rushing six times for 20 yards late in the game. True frosh Aaron Graves had his first career sack in the game.
SUPER COOPER
Once again this week, Cooper DeJean made impact plays. He had another interception and almost had two. He had two passes that he broke up and had a pair of tackles in the game.
KICKOFF TEAMS
Iowa made a change to their kickoff return team. Riley Moss did not return kicks. Those duties went to Kaleb Johnson and also Gavin Williams was back to receive the kicks. Here’s the list: Kaleb Johnson, Gavin Williams. Fisher, Pottebaum, Pallissard, Lachey, Klemp, Bracy, Higgins Rexroth, and Heinz.
On kickoff coverage were: Stevens, Hall, Nwankpa, Bracy, Castro, Sharar, Fisher, Pottebaum, Klemp, Higgins, and Ostrenga.
TACKLE LEADERS
Iowa was led once again by Jack Campbell with ten stops. Lukas Van Ness had eight tackles. Seth Benson was at seven tackles and Quinn Schulte and John Waggoner had six stops each. Overall, Iowa had four sacks, 11 tackles for loss, four passes they broke up, and four quarterback hurries.
NEXT UP
Iowa is headed to Rutgers to start Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes and Scarlet Knights will kickoff at 6 pm (central) and the game will be televised on FS1.
