| |
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- Minnesota coach Glen Mason knew his
Golden Gophers, on the road and down 11 points at halftime, had the
Iowa Hawkeyes right where they wanted them.
"In the first half, Iowa made the plays. We didn't panic. We
talked about what we had to do. We made some big plays and got the
job done," Mason said Saturday after the Golden
Gophers (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today, No. 17 AP) rallied past Iowa 25-21.
|  | | Iowa's Kevin Kasper hauls in a 33-yard touchdown pass as Minnesota's Jimmy Wyrick defends. |
Minnesota trailed the entire way until Bruce scored a touchdown
on a 73-yard run in the fourth quarter.
"I've said some players make big plays and some don't. Arland
Bruce is one of those players," Mason said.
Along with Bruce, Minnesota linebacker Sean Hoffman made key plays for the Golden Gophers, including knocking down a pass in the
end zone with 8 seconds remaining to secure a win for his team.
"We knew that it was too far to run on the last play, so we
decided to pass," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "I thought we had
a good play called. Minnesota made the play and we didn't."
The Golden Gophers won their third straight game and finished
with a 4-0 road record. That's the first time that's happened for
them since 1904. Minnesota (8-3, 5-3 Big Ten) also earned its
eighth regular-season win, the most since the 1967 team went 8-2
and shared the conference championship.
"When we first got here, everyone talked about turning the
program around," quarterback Billy Cockerham said. "It feels
great to accomplish what we set out to do."
Iowa (1-10, 0-8) dropped its 13th straight Big Ten game and
finished with its worst record since the 1973 team went 0-11.
"It's a tough pill to swallow. It hurts," quarterback Scott
Mullen said.
Dan Nystrom's third field goal of the game, from 46 yards with
3:22 left, gave the Golden Gophers their four-point lead and left
Iowa with one final possession.
Mullen, who completed 28 of 51 passes for 340 yards and three
touchdowns, marched the Hawkeyes from their own 23 to the Minnesota
22 with 57 seconds remaining.
On fourth-and-6, he hit Kevin Kasper over the middle for a
17-yard gain and a first down at the Minnesota 5. A false-start
penalty cost Iowa 5 yards and Mullen misfired on his next two
passes, including overthrowing an open Chris Oliver in the left
corner of the end zone with 26 seconds remaining.
A shuttle pass to Rob Thein gained 7 yards to the Minnesota 3,
where Iowa faced fourth-and-goal.
Mullen dropped back and spotted an open Ryan Barton over the
middle just inside the end zone, but Hoffman deflected the ball and
the Golden Gophers took over on downs and ran out the clock.
Hoffman also recovered a fumble by Mullen on a quarterback draw on Iowa's first possession of the third quarter, which led to
Nystrom's 37-yard field goal that sliced Iowa's lead to 21-13 with
9:38 left in the quarter.
Minnesota made it 21-15 when Mullen, scrambling in the end zone, was flagged for intentional grounding 38 seconds before the period
ended.
Bruce pushed the Golden Gophers into the lead, 22-21, when he
took a lateral from Cockerham at the Minnesota 27, raced down the
left sideline and cut back to the middle to beat Joe Slattery to
the end zone with 9:15 to play.
Cockerham completed 14 of 24 passes for 175 yards and also was Minnesota's leading rusher with 122 yards on 15 carries.
He finished the day with 297 yards to give him 2,639 total yards
for the season to break the school's single-season mark of 2,492
yards set in 1995 by Cory Sauter.
The Golden Gophers didn't look anything like the conference's
third-best defensive team in the first half as they trailed 21-10.
Mullen threw to Kasper for a 33-yard TD pass, a 6-yard scoring
toss to Bashir Yamini and a 7-yard touchdown throw to Ladell Betts
-- all in the second quarter against a Minnesota secondary ranked
first in the league, allowing just 156 passing yards per game.
Cockerham had staked Minnesota to a 7-0 lead, highlighting a
99-yard drive with a 47-yard option keeper, with a 20-yard
touchdown strike to Ron Johnson.
Nystrom booted a 24-yard field goal with 8:52 left in the second
quarter after Mullen's TD pass to Kasper had tied the game at 7.
| |
ALSO SEE
College Football Scoreboard
Minnesota Clubhouse
Iowa Clubhouse
College football Top 25 overview
|
