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The Iowa Hawkeyes have climbed to fifth in the latest AP College Football Poll after a 27-17 win at Iowa State.
Iowa took advantage of four ISU turnovers to claim their sixth straight win in the series. It is the first time since 1960 the Hawkeyes have opened with wins over two ranked foes.
“You enjoy watching young people grow….they are college guys and it’s fun to watch them come in and grow together, and do things together, do things that are hard. We won a game, I want to enjoy it and celebrate and feel good about it — because they are hard to come by — and this one certainly was hard to come by, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said after the game.
In two games Iowa’s defense has allowed two touchdowns and scored three. Jestin Jacobs forced a fumble by Cyclone running back Breece Hall and Hawkeye linebacker Jack Campbell scooped it up and scored giving Iowa a 21-10 lead.
“You guys might call it a fluke, you guys might say we are playing hard, but at the end of the day, that’s just the standard the Hawkey defense has set. I am just so proud of all the guys on the offensive side and the defensive side of the ball for just busting it today. We’ve got to just keep it rolling and just keep taking it one game at a time,” Campbell said.
Iowa scored touchdowns on two consecutive drives in the second quarter but finished with only 173 yards of total offense.
“Somewhere along the line I have failed this team to be prepared for the moment, and I think our lack of execution really falls on my shoulders,”Campbell said. Campbell pulled starting quarterback Brock Purdy with a quarter to go and put in backup Hunter Dekkers.Iowa State dropped from 9th to 14th in the A-P College football poll following Saturday’s 27-17 loss to Iowa. Cyclone coach Matt Campbell says the four turnovers and poor play by the offense were the keys to the loss. Campbell credited Iowa for playing well — and also took the blame for his team’s performance.
“My thought was in the fourth quarter to get Hunter into the football game and let Brock kind of gather himself a little bit,” according to Campbell. Campbell said Purdy hasn’t lost his starting job. “We believe in Brock and Brock’s a tremedous leader in our program and he certainly doesn’t want to have the end result of what happened today, and if I know Brock Purdy, he will bounce back better than ever,” he said.
Iowa State was the favorite going into the game — but Campbell says they didn’t do what they needed to do for the win. “When we’ve played really great in these moments during our tenure here — we’ve had a great calm, we’ve had great clarity to do our job, and most importantly, we’ve had great execution,” Campbell said,” “and unfortunately we didn’t have that today.”
Iowa State wide receiver Tarique Milton said the offense did not play well as the defense held them in the game. He says they still have a lot ahead of them despite this loss. “It’s just a little something that we are going to go through and we are going to get through and really just prepare for next week,” Milton said.
Milton has confidence Purdy will bounce back. “Brock just has to continue to be Brock. It’s just a mindset for him to come back in my opinion. Nobody is perfect and everybody is going to have bad days, it’s just going to show how much he’s grown and his type of character,” Milton said.
Iowa State is now 1-1 on the season and travels to UNLV Saturday.
(Radio Iowa’s Todd Kimm also contributed to this story.)
