Today, we take a trip through some more modern Iowa-Penn State games. All videos are, once again, courtesy of the incomparable Hawkeye Historian, a true YouTube treasure.
First up, a little game we like to call "6-4":
-- MATT ROTH
-- You can run (slowly) Sam Brownlee, but you cannot hide. Sooner or later AIRBHG will find you.
-- Oh, David Bradley. You and your safeties against Penn State.
-- Zach Mills was a very generous host to the visiting Iowa footballers.
-- Matt Roth in 2004 was a beast.
-- JOHN L. SMITH! MISS U, JOHN L.!
-- A blocked punt too? Good grief, Bradley.
-- 1st and goal and Penn State comes away with... no points. It was that kind of game for both offenses.
-- Ah, the beloved Eff You safety. I always forget that it came with EIGHT MINUTES LEFT IN THE GAME. Truly, Ferentz did not give a fuck about Penn State's offense that day.
-- I think Pam Ward and Mike Tomczak were about to come to blows when discussing the decision to take that safety.
-- Good god, Penn State threw a lot of interceptions in this game.
-- Aaron Mickens: offensive superstar. (By the standards of this game.)
-- Going for it on 4th and 2 to ice the game? That's pretty interesting -- and not the typical move you'd expect out of Ferentz. A field goal pushes the score to 9-4, which means a field goal can no longer beat you... but also means that you have to give the ball back to Penn State.
And now we head back to 2001, where we find Iowa and Penn State like two ships passing in the night, going opposite directions:
-- KAHLIL "THE THRILL" HILL!
-- Uni nerd tidbit: this was the last year that Iowa had Reebok uniforms; they switched to Nike in 2002.
-- Hill again! The beloved bubble screen!
-- I think Robbie Gould might have been the best player on that Penn State team.
-- Dallas Clark, doin' Dallas Clark things.
-- Ladell Betts is truly one of the most underappreciated Hawkeyes of the Ferentz Era; he had the misfortune to play on some of the worst Iowa teams in the last half-century, but still managed to put up solid numbers. Put him on almost any of the post-2001 Iowa teams and he would have been a superstar.
-- Ah, the safety. Penn State's scoring play of choice against Iowa.
-- I think that UI ad gave me whiplash.
-- BOB BOB BOB BOB BOB
-- Larry Johnson was on the punt block team? Okay then.
And now we move a year forward to 2002:
-- Penn State still can't cover Dallas Clark. Good to know some things never change.
-- Freddie Russell displaying the shiftiness that made us all love him back in 2002 and 2003.
-- Larry Johnson fumbles? Well, that wasn't a precursor to his NFL career or anything...
-- KEVIN WORTHY IS NOT AMUSED BY YOUR TRICK PLAYS, PENN STATE.
-- EDDIE MOTHERFUCKING HINKEL! asljhsdafjadsk;ulre That catch is still ridiculous.
-- Iowa almost blew a 23-0 lead in this game. And a 35-13 lead. Uggggghhhhh.
-- Mind you, that's the sort of thing that can happen when you turn the ball over in the red zone like Iowa did in the second half.
-- I believe Nate Kaeding had his leg surgically replaced with a howitzer prior to the 2002 season. (Shhh.)
-- Man, Jovon Johnson didn't have a prayer against that stiffarm from Larry Johnson on that screen pass.
-- Hey, back when Iowa could win overtime games!
-- JoePa sprinting after the ref will never, ever, ever stop being funny.