Brendan Sullivan led the Iowa Hawkeye offense to an easy win over Wisconsin as the Hawkeyes were six of six in the red zone with six touchdowns. Everything Iowa tried work to keep the Heartland Trophy for a third straight year. Behind Kaleb Johnson 135 yards, the Hawkeyes rushed for 329 yards and Sullivan passed for another 93 along with strategic punts from Rhys Dakin, the Hawks went ahead early and never looked back.
Under the primetime lights at Kinnick the defense also stood out behind Nick Jackson picked off the Badgers Braedyn Locke in the third quarter on a deflected pass, returning it to the Wisconsin 12 yard line, which led to a Jacob Gill 7-yard score a few plays later.
Hawkeye coach Kirk Ferentz was pleased with his teams effort. “It was a complete team win for us. Special teams didn’t factor in quite to the degree maybe as last week. The offense, defense, really a lot of good things out there, a lot of good highlights. Just a lot of good things. Opportunistic. Got turnovers two times, turned those into touchdowns. Always good to see. The guys played hard, they played tough. They played for the full 60. Not much else you can ask. Again, the defense really played well. Outside of that first series, they drove it for a field goal. Came back with the touchdown the second half. The offense did a nice job running the football. That was a real team effort there, too, including the receivers.”
Iowa travels to UCLA Friday night for a 8pm start in the Rose Bowl. Listen to the Hawkeye radio call on 93.1 the Buzz starting at 6pm.