Luke Drzewiecki ended it with his right leg and Minnesota walked away with Floyd of Rosedale.
Drzewiecki drilled a 46-yard field goal as time expired Saturday, lifting the Gophers past No. 15 Iowa 13-10 in Minneapolis. The win gave Minnesota the rivalry trophy for the first time since 2023 and for only the second time in 12 years.
The game swung on a big play before the kick. With 39 seconds left, Drake Lindsey found Jalen Smith on a 39-yard pass on third down from the Minnesota 33, putting the Gophers in position to steal it at the buzzer.
Minnesota did plenty of damage with defense and field position, even while finishing with a season-low 209 yards of offense. Darius Taylor added a third-quarter rushing touchdown after Iowa had a fourth-down stop wiped out by an offsides penalty on the play before.
Iowa had a chance to hold serve, but its offense never found a steady rhythm. Hank Brown came on midway through the second quarter and threw for 136 yards, including a 37-yard touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee with 3:46 remaining that tied the game. The Hawkeyes finished with 288 yards, but they were held to 163 through three quarters by a Minnesota defense that had been shredded for 464 yards in a 41-13 loss to Purdue two weeks earlier.
The Hawkeyes also wasted chances with mistakes that piled up all afternoon. They went 4 of 16 on third down, threw three interceptions and lost one of four fumbles.
Iowa had entered the game with just three turnovers on the season. The rushing attack never got going either: the Hawkeyes, who had been averaging 194 rushing yards, were limited to 90.
Kamari Moulton, the Big Ten’s leading rusher at 103.8 yards per game coming in, managed 22 yards before leaving midway through the second quarter with an undisclosed injury.
Iowa’s quarterback picture was unsettled from the start. Jeremy Hecklinski made his second straight start and went 9 of 16 for 62 yards and an interception before Brown took over in the second quarter.
Brown had started the first five games before spraining his shoulder in a 31-14 loss to Ohio State on Oct. 3.
Hecklinski had delivered 202 yards and three touchdowns without an interception in Iowa’s 41-24 win at Washington on Oct. 9.
Minnesota struck first with Drzewiecki’s 31-yard field goal early in the opening quarter. Iowa answered with Caden Buhr’s 32-yarder midway through the second.
For Iowa, the late rally wasn’t enough to cover up an offense that stalled for long stretches. Outside of the four-play, 98-yard drive that tied the game in the fourth quarter, neither Brown nor Hecklinski gave the Hawkeyes the kind of quarterback play they needed from a team whose College Football Playoff hopes took a major hit.
Minnesota, meanwhile, now owns all three of its primary rivalry trophies at once - Floyd of Rosedale, the Little Brown Jug and Paul Bunyan’s Axe - for the first time since 1978. The Gophers lost to Michigan and Wisconsin later that year.
Iowa will host Wisconsin on Oct. 31.
Minnesota goes to No. 6 Indiana on Oct. 31 in the second of three straight games against ranked opponents.
In Other News...
Drake Lindsey Suddenly Carries Minnesotas Biggest Concern Against Iowa
Minnesotas Big Ten season has opened with a rough reminder of how quickly things can tilt in this league. After the Gophers were routed 41-13 by Purdue, the focus immediately sharpened on the passing game and on Drake Lindsey, whose play has been a little steadier at times but still has not erased the turnover issues that have dogged Minnesota early on.
P.J. Fleck has made it clear the offense has to clean up the mistakes and be more efficient through the air, especially with Iowa next on the schedule. Lindseys next test comes with plenty of pressure attached, and Minnesota knows the margin for error at quarterback will be razor thin in a rivalry game where last seasons meeting in Iowa City turned into a long afternoon for the Gophers. [Read more 🡒]
Gophers Showed Real Fight But This Exhibition Raised A Bigger Concern
Minnesotas final exhibition offered plenty to like in the fight, even if the result ended up in the loss column. The Gophers dug out of an 18-point hole against Creighton and pushed the game to double overtime, with Isaac Asuma carrying the offense and finishing with 32 points in a performance that showed how much he can take on when the pressure rises.
Still, the closer look leaves a more familiar concern hanging over the night. Starting guard Kyan Evans exited in the first half with a right hip injury and did not return, and Minnesotas sloppiness showed up in the margins with 20 turnovers and a 13-for-28 effort at the free throw line, the kind of issues that can undo a team even when the energy and compete level are there. [Read more 🡒]
P.J. Fleck Finally Delivered A Gophers Rivalry Moment Fans Craved
P.J. Flecks 10th season at Minnesota has featured plenty of talk about culture, toughness and the long climb toward relevance, but the Gophers finally got a rivalry moment that matched the message. At home against Iowa, Minnesota reclaimed the Floyd of Rosedale in a game that was ugly at times and anything but clean, yet still carried the kind of weight that can linger well beyond one Saturday in November.
For a program that has spent years trying to turn close calls and near-misses into something more durable, this was the sort of win Fleck has been chasing. Even with Iowa gifting Minnesota early chances, the Gophers had to grind through the kind of messy, error-filled night that usually leaves a team wondering what might have been, and instead walked off with a result that matters in the rivalry and in the larger story of where this program is trying to go. [Read more 🡒]