With 2024 season at potential turning point, Iowa football responded with poise

MINNEAPOLIS — Iowa football’s pure joy following its 31-14 win over Minnesota was obvious.

“Aye, we so f—— turnt,” the team vociferously sang in the locker room with enough volume to be easily heard by the reporters waiting in the narrow adjacent corridor.

A couple hours before the joyous moments in the Huntington Bank Stadium visiting locker room, the Hawkeyes’ season could have turned a much different way.

Iowa trailed Minnesota, 14-7, at halftime and the Gophers seemed to have all the momentum. Without a change of course, the Hawkeyes could have been 30 minutes away from falling to 2-2.

“There’s a hell of a difference between being 3-1 and 2-2,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Hell of a difference between 1-0 and 0-1 in Big Ten play.”

A loss would have put the Hawkeyes in rough waters. They would have already matched last year’s loss total only four weeks into the season. A third loss against No. 3 Ohio State after the bye would be highly likely.

At that point, Iowa’s ceiling would be 9-3, and even that would require wins in October and November against better teams than Minnesota.

Instead, Iowa is 3-1 going into its bye week and 1-0 in Big Ten play. (It would be 4-0, had it not been for Iowa State kicker Kyle Konrardy’s 54-yard game-winning field goal.)

Ohio State still looms after the bye week, but even if the Hawkeyes take a loss in Columbus as expected, they can enter the favorable remainder of the schedule with a somewhat-favorable 3-2 record.

The rival Gophers, meanwhile, are in rough waters — rough enough that all the row-the-boat oars near the Minnesota tunnel might have a new symbolic meaning — as they approach the rest of the season with a 2-2 record and a difficulty schedule ahead.

The roles were reversed last year. Iowa went into its bye week with two weeks to let the rivalry loss linger while Minnesota was riding high (and smoking cigars in the Kinnick visiting locker room).

“Probably won’t smoke cigars tonight, but just respond next week,” Higgins said.

There was the reciting of the Iowa fight song, and the FaceTime call with Iowa alum and NFL defensive back Cooper DeJean. (The former All-American exclaimed that the Floyd of Rosedale trophy is “back where it belongs, baby!”)

As for what happened before that to allow the postgame jubilation, the Hawkeyes showed improvement in essentially every phase in the second half.

After rushing for 81 yards in the first half, Iowa rushed for 181 in the second half. The passing game showed slight improvement as quarterback Cade McNamara passed for 46 yards in the second half after passing for 16 in the first half.

The defense, after allowing 14 points and 222 yards in the first half, allowed only 66 yards and no points in the second half.

“The way that we responded, the way we came out, the way we answered — it was huge for us,” McNamara said. “We really didn’t change much going into halftime. … We just went out there with a completely different mentality, and it showed.”

Iowa clearly has some momentum after outgaining Minnesota 227-66 and outscoring Minnesota 24-0 in the second half — “if that’s not momentum, I don’t know what is,” McNamara said — as it approaches its bye week.

“I think the guys are smart enough to know we’re a lot better going into the bye with a little momentum, feeling good and having a chance to smile a little bit instead of looking at just a mountain of challenges in front of us, ” Ferentz said.

Iowa’s 2024 season could have taken a turn for the worse on Saturday. Instead, it goes into the early bye “turnt.”

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