Maxx Williams makes a highlight-reel catch.
From the start, Saturday’s game against Iowa had a different feel than past meetings. Despite an early touchdown for the Hawkeyes, a confident Gopher squad never let up, firing 51 unanswered points on their way to a VERY lopsided 51-14 victory and a date with a pig named Floyd.
1967 – The last year that the Gophers beat Michigan and Iowa in the same season, possessing the coveted Little Brown Jug and Floyd of Rosedale trophies at the same time.
“There’s nothing better in college football—these are historic games,” said Jerry Kill. “It’s neat to have the privilege to coach in them. It’s neat to play in them and it’s certainly even more fun when you win them.”
The players knew that in order to bring Floyd home, they would have to move on from a tough loss to Illinois their last time out.
“It’s just a credit to our coaching staff and the guys on our team to take that game and move on from it,” said Mitch Leidner of the turnaround. “We went into the bye week knowing we need to get better and needed to come out this month and play fast and start fast right away and I think we did a good job of that today.”
3 – Touchdown catches for Maxx Williams, which is the first time a Minnesota tight end has hauled in three scores since Ben Utecht scored three times against UL-Lafayette in 2002.
“He is unreal,” said Kill when asked about Williams. “I’ve coached this game for 31 years and I’ve coached a lot of great players, but I have never seen anybody catch the ball like that kid does. If you get it close to him, he’s going to find a way to catch it. He’s unbelievable.”
Williams finished with five catches, his most impressive being a sideline grab where he barely dragged his toes to stay in bounds and pick up the first down.
“Those kind of plays, you just have to kind of feel,” said Williams. “Mitch (Leidner) threw the ball and I had to make a play and it happens so quick—you just try to get your feet down and go with it.”
23 – Rushing yards by Iowa’s Mark Weisman on Saturday. Weisman has dominated the Gophers in the past, rushing for 177 yards in 2012 and 147 in the Hawkeyes’ win last year. The Minnesota defense was able to contain Weisman thanks to some sound fundamentals.
“Most of it was the game plan, but then at the same time, we have to make tackles and stop him,” said Briean Boddy-Calhoun, who finished with a tackle and an interception. “I think it was the game plan and us being ready to play.”
5.2 – Approximate time it took KJ Maye, Berkley Edwards, and Jaylen Myrick to sprint across the field and reach Floyd of Rosedale on the Iowa sideline.
“There were guys coming from everywhere so I don’t know who won,” said Maye on the race for Floyd.
Kill saw his players getting ready to rush toward the pig and knew he didn’t stand a chance in winning that race.
“They’re a lot faster than I am,” said Kill. “I’m sure not going to sprint over there.”
98.3 – Weight in pounds of the Floyd of Rosedale trophy. Hope the trophy case can handle all the new hardware.
76.9 – Throwing percentage by Mitch Leidner who completed 10 of his 13 passes for 138 yards and four touchdowns. Kill noted that it was the best game he has seen out of Leidner.
“Absolutely,” Kill said emphatically. “No doubt that this is Mitch’s best game. He’s getting more confidence. He’s getting more confident throwing the deep ball—he’s been on target with the deep ball.”
9.7 – Unofficial scoring of Jerry Kill’s postgame dance as he broke it down in the locker room after the win.
“I can’t dance anyways,” said Kill of his post-game moves. “But everybody likes to make a big deal of it.”
10 – Consecutive drives without points between Iowa’s opening touchdown drive, and their final score with just 14 seconds left in the game. During that span, the Hawkeyes were intercepted, fumbled twice, and were forced to punt seven times. Once the Gophers adjusted after the first drive, their defense was nothing short of dominant, allowing just 129 yards on the remaining 10 Iowa drives.
“Our kids didn’t panic,” said Kill. “Our defensive coordinator is a sharp guy and he threw some things in there and you work your way into calling a game. The big thing is that everybody fit in the run game where they needed to be and I don’t think they rushed for 100 yards. Defensively, we really dominated and we’ve worked hard on that going back to spring ball.”
280 – Minutes it will take Hawkeye fans to make it back to Iowa City after the 51-14 thumping. That’s a long, boring, pigless drive.