Hawkeyes make history with last-second touchdown
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EAST LANSING, Mich. - In what's looking more and more like a storybook season, the Iowa Hawkeyes provided another storybook finish inside Spartan Stadium.
Trailing 13-9 with two seconds left, Iowa junior quarterback Ricky Stanzi found sophomore wide receiver Marvin McNutt for a seven-yard touchdown strike on the game's final play to silence the Spartan faithful and escape East Lansing with a 15-13 stunner.
The win moved Iowa to 8-0 this season, marking the first time ever the Hawkeyes have reached this plateau. More importantly, it keeps Iowa in first place of the Big Ten, moving to 4-0 in conference play.
"They refuse to think they're out of it until the end of the game and I just can't say enough about our guys," Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said. "The effort they gave and the way they pulled this thing out."
For the majority of the evening, this contest was a defensive slugfest. While there weren't any turnovers, the first 57 minutes and four seconds consisted of five field goals, three of which came from Iowa kicker Daniel Murray in rough conditions for the Iowa City native to kick in.
"The wind was pretty bad at the beginning, and even throughout the game, and it affected me on field goals and kickoffs," Murray said. "I was fortunate enough to make them all, and there was some tough angles on those short ones."
Highlighting the defensive outing for the seventh-ranked Hawkeyes was a third-quarter goal-line stand that forced Michigan State to settle for a field goal to go ahead 6-3. The Spartans had three plays inside the Iowa one-yard line, but would be denied.
"That's a situation on the goal-line, you just strap it up and you have to do whatever it takes to get it done," senior linebacker A.J. Edds said. "It's a situation where you never know what the difference in three points to seven points might be. A touchdown down there would've been huge for them in hindsight."
Murray would give the Hawkeyes a 9-6 lead with 2:56 remaining before the Spartans regained the lead with a 30-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kirk Cousins to wideout Blair White to put Michigan State up 13-9 with 1:37 left. Michigan State's final offensive series was highlighted by a 38-yard hook-and-lateral play that got the Spartans down to the Iowa 30-yard line.
Then came the Hawkeyes' final drive, which began on their own 30-yard line. Stanzi, who was only 7-of-18 throwing prior to the possession, got Iowa down to the Michigan State seven-yard line in the game's final seconds before finding McNutt on the game's final play, which was called by offensive coordinator Ken O'Keefe.
"It was something that we had worked on in the past, and it was really key to that situation," said Stanzi, who finished 11-of-27 through the air for 138 yards passing. "He felt confident in it, our receivers felt confident they could make the play. Obviously, Marvin did a great job of getting open."
Now sitting at 8-0, the Hawkeyes' mindset of "one game at a time," won't change, but the complexion of the season certainly does. Iowa has three of its final four games at Kinnick Stadium, beginning on Oct. 31 with an 11 a.m. kickoff against Indiana.
Whether the Hawkeyes give this season a storybook ending like they did this game against Michigan State remains to be seen.
But one thing is certain. This season has already reached historic proportions.
"It's a great feeling," junior defensive tackle Christian Ballard said. "We talk about building a legacy here. We all know what we have to do."
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