Ferentz Era Countdown: #27 2024 Nebraska at Iowa

It’s hard to believe, but this will be the 27^th season with Kirk Ferentz guiding the Iowa football program. It will also be a record setting one for the longest active tenured head coach in college football, as Ferentz is poised to pass Woody Hayes for most wins by a Big Ten head coach.

Also, Ferentz will reach another milestone by turning 70 years old on August 1^st. He also shows no signs of slowing down and heading into retirement as he continues to post winning season after winning season.

With all that in mind, we decided to vote on the 27 best games of the Ferentz era. By picking only 27, you leave a few on the cutting room floor and truth be told, I probably squeezed a few in that might not make the list a year from now, but I wanted to represent the various eras of Ferentz leading the program.

So, let’s start the countdown, ironically enough with the last regular season game that Iowa played in 2024. That was Iowa’s win over Nebraska at Kinnick Stadium.

There certainly appears to be a trend in this series that the games have been tighter since Iowa’s 56-14 route in 2017. In fact, several have been decided by field goals in the final seconds. As it turned out, that included this game. More on that in a minute.

Iowa entered the game with a 7-4 record and looked to send their seniors off with a home victory. Nebraska has qualified for a bowl game with their sixth win, so for the first time since 2016, the Cornhuskers were playing in the post season.

To lay the groundwork in this one, the previous year, the Huskers looked like they had this rivalry game won and then defensive end Ethan Hurkett intercepted a pass and then Leshon Williams put Iowa in field goal position on a chilly day in Lincoln. Up steps Marshall Meeder, who took over the field goal duties in the game from a slumping Drew Stevens, and he connected from 38 yards out for a 13-10 victory.

The game in 2024 felt a lot like the one in 2023 in terms of the Iowa offense struggling and Phil Parker’s defense making life miserable for the Huskers. At the half, Iowa had 20 yards of total offense and one first down. All American running back Kaleb Johnson was held to just 16 yards rushing. Nebraska managed to score 10 points in the first half and frankly it looked like that might be enough to claim the Heroes Trophy this year.

In the first drive of the second half, Nebraska missed a field goal and Iowa got to midfield before they had to punt. Nebraska muffed a punt inside the Iowa five and John Nestor recovered it at the four. Iowa couldn’t score and Drew Stevens hit a 20 yard field goal to make it 10-3 Huskers.

WHY THIS GAME MADE THE LIST?

The reason this game made the list was because of the first play of the fourth quarter. To that point, Iowa had three first downs in the first three quarters of action and had 45 yards of total offense.

It was 2^nd down and 13 from the Iowa 28 and Jackson Stratton drops back and flips the ball to Kaleb Johnson. Initially it felt like more of a lateral than a pass, but it was credited as a pass. What happened after that was simply put, remarkable.

Johnson shed not one, two, or three tacklers, but five of them and then outran a sixth Huskers in the end zone and the game was tied at 10-10 in the fourth quarter.

You ask why this game made the list? Well, we all know Kirk Ferentz is not prone to blowing a lot of smoke. Out of the blue this spring, Ferentz mentioned that Johnson’s play was one of the best he has seen in Iowa football history. When Ferentz says something like that, without prompting, I pay attention. That’s why this game is on this list. It was remarkable. I still watch it in amazement.

But the craziness doesn’t stop there. Once again last year Iowa found a win and Nebraska found a way to lose. With under a minute left, Nebraska had the ball at their own 43 and they were looking to potentially move into field goal range and get out of Iowa City with a win. On 1^st down, Husker QB Dylan Raiola was in the shotgun and Iowa defensive end Max Llewellyn gets the strip sack and recovers the ball at the Huskers 26 yard line.

From there it was redemption time for Drew Stevens. One year after he was benched and denied the chance to kick a game winning field goal in a rivalry game, he blasted a 53 yard field goal between the uprights as time expired and Iowa once again walked it over, 13-10.

There might be some strong recency bias involved here, but when Ferentz says it’s one of the greatest plays in Iowa football history it has to be included.