Following 2 weeks of playing ranked opponents, Iowa’s schedule took a step back with the Golden Flashes of Kent State coming to Kinnick Stadium, or so Iowa fans thought. The Hawkeyes took home a 30-7 win, but not without Kirk Ferentz’s crew having to earn it.
The day’s first points came on a safety, where an errant snap had Kent State quarterback Dustin Crum pick up the ball in the endzone, where 6 Hawkeye defenders were there to greet him. Iowa, up 2-0, received the ensuing kickoff, and Tyler Goodson took a misdirection play 46 yards for a touchdown to put Iowa up 9-0. Kent State would respond, as a big pass from Dustin Crum to KeShunn Abraham sent the Golden Flashes deep into Iowa territory. Crum would then connect with Abraham for a touchdown to cut the score to 9-7. The second quarter remained a stalemate, until Iowa put together an epic, 20-play, 95-yard drive that took 8:38 seconds off the clock, capped off by a Spencer Petras touchdown pass to Sam LaPorta to put Iowa up 16-7 at halftime.
The second half saw Kent State continuing to battle, as the Golden Flashes drove down to the Iowa 1, when Bryan Bradford fumbled the ball going into the endzone, and had it recovered by Iowa’s Riley Moss. The Hawkeyes would then put together an 80-yard drive, capped off by a 35-yard touchdown run by Tyler Goodson to put Iowa up 23-7. The Hawkeyes would cap the afternoon off with Goodson’s 3rd touchdown of the day on a 2-yard run to give Iowa a 30-7 win.
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz: “It was the kind of the game we expected, Kent State is a good football team, they’re really competitive and they did a really nice job. Coach Lewis and his staff did a really nice job, and we knew they’d come in and compete hard, and they weren’t gonna take a back seat to anything or anybody.”
Iowa will close out it’s non-conference slate on Saturday with a 2:30 PM kickoff against the Colorado State Rams.
