Iowa moves to 4-0, 1-0 in Big Ten with exciting 21-10 win in Happy Valley over Penn State

Wow, the Iowa Hawkeyes pull off the 21-10 win @ Penn State, despite the hype, white out and Game Day elements outside the lines. Iowa moves the series lifetime with Penn State to an even .500. Each team has won 12 times each against each other. By the way, Penn State moves to .500 in night games at home too.

Iowa has won seven out of the last eight games vs. Joe Paterno and his Penn State teams. Kirk Ferentz clearly has Joe Pa's number, since becoming Iowa's head coach in 1999. The Hawkeyes have won four of the last five games played in Happy Valley this decade.

Wow!

Iowa has trailed in each of their four ball games, so far, this season. Iowa is 4-0 and now 1-0 in the Big Ten. The 10-0 lead after the first quarter @ Penn State did have some similarities to last year's 24-23 win on a last second field goal at Kinnick over Penn State.

Iowa trailed Penn State 5-10 at halftime and in last year's game, Iowa was down 7-13 at half and 7-16 at the end of the third quarter. Iowa outscored Penn State 17-7 in the fourth quarter in '08 to pull out the upset. This year, Iowa, a 9.5 underdog, outscored Penn State 16-0 in the fourth quarter. In the Iowa-PSU series, 14 of the past 22 games have been won by the visiting team.

It was a great momentum game. After falling down 0-10 early in the game, Iowa began to take control of the line of scrimmage. Special teams and out distancing the Nittany Lions with fewer mistakes and capitalizing on turnovers ended out to be the difference again.

Iowa has a very stout defense, a good mix of special teams and enough offense. The coaching staff at Iowa have to be very happy. The schemes were outstanding, but at times the execution was poor. The Iowa coaching staff should have a lot of good teaching moments on the game film. If the team continues to work hard and improve week to week, as they have in September, this could become a very good Iowa team.

Iowa has been ranked #20 in our Cidsports poll all year. It's time to move them up, after a very nice 4-0 start. Kirk Ferentz is in his 11Th season as head coach at Iowa. The 2009 season is the first undefeated season for a coach Ferentz team in Iowa City.

peace

Iowa's 27-17 win over Arizona in Week 3 of College Football

It was a great afternoon at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday, as the Iowa Hawkeyes beat the University of Arizona 27-17 in front of a packed house, that included a little of the red and blue.

Iowa had a very nice drive lead by quarterback Ricky Stanzi to take a 7-0 lead. But, after holding Arizona to a 3 and out on defense, the next drive turned out to be a Hawkeye mistake, when Stanzi threw a pick 6. Arizona took an early 10-7 lead, when the defense nearly gave up the big play on a Nic Grigsby run for Arizona to the Iowa 1. A huge defensive stand, fueled by a minus 4 yard loss by reserve Iowa safety David Cato's run blitz on 2Nd down kept the U of A drive to 3 points rather than 7.

The 2nd period run by Adam Robinson on 3 and 23 was the other huge play of the day by the Iowa team. The Hawkeyes took a nice 14-10 lead at halftime. They never looked back fueled by the Iowa defense and a Wildcats' team that just didn't make many plays on Saturday in Iowa City.

The Hawkeyes take a 3-0 record into Big Ten play next Saturday. The Hawkeyes will travel to Happy Valley for the 7 pm game on ABC to a national audience, ESPN Game Day and white out crowd for PSU. Penn State (3-0) will be ready and capable, as the Hawkeyes look to rebound in Happy Valley, after losing 7-27 @ Penn State in '07. Of course, the Nittany Lions are remembering last year's 23-24 loss to Iowa that threw Penn State out of the BCS title game hunt.

peace