You would think that when there are over 100,000 fans in the stands hearing anything that actually happens on the field would be next to impossible.

Yet, on September 26, 2009, it was the thud in the second half that catapulted Iowa to a hard fought win on a rainy night at Penn State.

Part of the story of that day was the rain.

One thing that is overlooked about that day because of the rain was that ESPN’s College Game Day was in town for the big game.

The game was at night and it rained basically all day in State College. When I arrived at the stadium several hours before kickoff it was still pouring down rain and it felt like it would never stop. When they let the fans in, of course the students were the first ones in the door and they embraced the wet conditions. The person providing the soundtrack for the evening decided to find every song that mentioned rain and play it. I always thought that was a good touch.

By the time the game got underway, the rain had pretty much stopped or at least slowed down to more of a trickle rather than a bucket. Iowa took the ball to begin the game and was forced to punt.

Remember, Penn State was smarting pretty good from the 2008 game where Iowa crushed their dreams of being undefeated. On the first play from scrimmage on offense they sent a message. Darryl Clark found Chaz Powell for a 79 yard score and the Nittany Lions were up 7-0 really quick in the game.

At that moment it felt like while it was certainly early, this could just be a bad spot for the Hawkeyes.

The next Iowa drive made that sinking feeling appear to be more realistic when Ricky Stanzi threw an interception and Penn State was in business again at the their own 21 yard line. That started a 20 play drive and to Iowa’s credit they held them to a field goal to make the score 10-0. Still, a quick strike and a long drive right of the gate was less than an ideal start on the road.

In the second quarter the Hawkeyes flipped the field a bit and Ryan Donahue dropped a punt in at around the five yard line and Iowa forced a safety on that drive with a turnover created by Broderick Binns. Iowa made it 10-5 in the middle of the second quarter on a Daniel Murray field goal and eventually Iowa went into halftime probably feeling like they have figuratively weathered the storm.

Both teams traded turnovers in the third quarter and headed into the fourth it was still 10-5. Penn State went three and out near midfield and was forced to punt. Adrian Clayborn came right up the gut and caused the loudest thud I’ve ever heard at a game. I’ve also never heard over 100,000 fans get as quiet as quickly as this one did. While the punt block is pretty amazing, the fact that Clayborn could scoop up the ball on a wet grass surface and then score a touchdown was pretty remarkable.

And by the way, the game that was once 10-0 was not 11-10 in Iowa’s favor and once again Penn State completely unraveled from that point forward. On their next possession, Pat Angerer intercepts a pass and returned it 38 yards to the Penn State 24. From there, three runs from Adam Robinson and Iowa suddenly led 18-10.

Then in their first play from scrimmage, Angerer forces a fumble and Iowa starts to really run out the clock. On the next drive, A.J. Edds picks off a pass and Iowa converts with a field goal to lock up a 21-10 victory.

And we can’t forget the post-game comments from Angerer. Iowa went to their player of the game and gave it to Angerer, who had 14 tackles an interception and a forced fumble. Gary Dolphin asks the Iowa linebacker what the Iowa locker room was like and Angerer says, “Lot of happy naked guys Dolph.” That was the last time they gave a live post-game interview to Angerer.:)

Here’s the rest of the games played on September 26th.

1905 Coe 27-0

1936 Carleton 14-0

1953 Michigan State 21-7 (loss)

1959 @California 42-12

1964 Idaho 34-24

1970 USC 48-0 (loss)

1981 UCLA 20-7

1987 Kansas State 38-13

1992 @Colorado 28-12 (loss)

1998 @Illinois 37-14

2015 N. Texas 62-16