Luke Drzewiecki ended it at the horn.
His 46-yard field goal as time expired gave Minnesota a 13-10 win over No. 15 Iowa on Saturday in Minneapolis, sending the Gophers home with the Floyd of Rosedale trophy for the first time since 2023 and only the second time in the past 12 years.
Minnesota set up the winner with a clutch late connection from Drake Lindsey to Jalen Smith. On third down from the Minnesota 33 with 39 seconds left, the pair hooked up for 39 yards to put the Gophers in range for the final kick.
The Gophers did it despite being limited to a season-low 209 yards of offense. Their other touchdown came in the third quarter, when Darius Taylor scored after an offsides penalty on Iowa wiped out a fourth-down stop on the previous snap.
Iowa got the game tied late after Hank Brown entered in the second quarter and helped spark a response. Brown threw for 136 yards, and his 37-yard strike to Reece Vander Zee with 3:46 remaining made it 10-10.
But the Hawkeyes never found enough offense for long stretches. They were held to 163 yards through three quarters and finished with 288 total yards. Minnesota’s defense, which had given up 464 yards in a 41-13 loss to Purdue in its previous game, came up with a much steadier performance this time.
Iowa’s ground game was bottled up too. The Hawkeyes, who had been averaging 194 rushing yards, managed just 90.
They went 4 of 16 on third down, threw three interceptions and lost one of their four fumbles. Iowa had entered the day with only three turnovers all season.
Kamari Moulton, the Big Ten’s leading rusher at 103.8 yards per game, was held to 22 yards before leaving midway through the second quarter with an undisclosed injury.
At quarterback, Jeremy Hecklinski started for the second straight week and went 9 of 16 for 62 yards with an interception before Brown took over midway through the second quarter. Brown had started Iowa’s first five games before spraining his shoulder in the Oct. 3 loss to Ohio State.
Hecklinski’s previous outing had been a sharp one, as he threw for 202 yards and three touchdowns without an interception in a 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 later in the second when Caden Buhr connected on a 32-yarder.
For Iowa, the result deepened the frustration around a quarterback situation that never settled in. Outside of the four-play, 98-yard march that tied the game in the fourth quarter, neither Brown nor Hecklinski gave the Hawkeyes much at all in a game that dealt a major blow to their College Football Playoff hopes.
For Minnesota, the win carried a different kind of weight. The Gophers now hold all three of their primary rivalry trophies - Floyd of Rosedale, the Little Brown Jug and Paul Bunyan’s Axe - at once for the first time since 1978. They lost to Michigan and Wisconsin later that year.
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 🡒]