Gophers Notebook: Minnesota 12-10 Iowa

You probably remember where you were the last time.

My story is not very interesting. I was in Washington, D.C. at a high school journalism convention, sitting outside a restaurant within the convention center. Minnesota was busy steamrolling Iowa on a TV across the room. I had just been accepted to the U of M but had no strong attachment and therefore did not celebrate.

I even sympathized a little with the Hawkeyes, who were the favorite team of my grandfather and many of my extended relatives. When I started school the next fall and heard the first "Who hates Iowa?" chant in the student section, I couldn't earnestly respond, "We hate Iowa!"

And then the first loss came. And the second. And the third and fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth. It started small, but eventually losing to Iowa became an annual exercise in misery.

This game stood between Minnesota and two Big Ten West titles, not to mention a Rose Bowl appearance. This was the game that the best Gopher of the 21st century dominated yet somehow could not win. This was game that Minnesota's head coach blew repeatedly by refusing to take risks and by diving headfirst into the slop that the Hawkeyes make their home. This was a game whose villains could not be defeated because, defying all reason, every bounce seemed to go their way.

Which all makes it the more astonishing that the Gophers won at Kinnick Stadium the way that they did: Minnesota beat Iowa by playing the part of Iowa.

The general script was not a surprise. We all expected a punt-heavy rock fight, and that's what we got.

Entering the game, the current Iowa offense looked like the worst that Kirk Ferentz has ever fielded. This is mostly the fault of offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz. A program that used to produce NFL linemen every year is now below-average up front. The Hawkeyes have had terminal quarterback problems since Nate Stanley graduated. They cannot find and retain talented wide receivers to complement their typically talented running backs and the best tight ends in the country.

At the same time, competent transfer quarterback Cade McNamara was not supposed to suffer a season-ending injury. Nor were tight ends Luke Lachey and Erick All. It looked like this team would finally have a competent offense again, but misfortune smashed the legs of their chair out from under them. You cannot blame the Ferentzes for that.

Nevertheless, these absences rendered Iowa's offense the worst on Minnesota's schedule.

Playing a bad opponent doesn't guarantee positive results, but the Gophers delivered them. Their dominance was comprehensive to the point of comedy, as summed up by Iowa's entire second-half output: 2 yards.

Deacon Hill was not enough to win this game. Hill should have thrown more than one interception. The Gophers sat back on passing downs and waited for Hill to deliver. Either he'd throw short, and they'd make a tackle, or Hill would make a mistake. Tyler Nubin, always seeking an interception, went hunting for mistakes and almost came away with a couple picks.

Hill's accuracy, a problem since he stepped in as the starter, remained one. He could not consistently hit intermediate targets, either floating them so that defenders had time to intervene or putting too much on the ball to hit the target. These were back-to-back throws:

At the same time, he didn't get the help he needed. Hill's receivers did not get open consistently and dropped passes. The Gophers sacked Hill four times as well, getting most of their pressures on blitzes but not exclusively. The whole passing attack was lacking, and Hill was not nearly good enough to salvage it.

Facing no threat through the air, the Gophers could focus on stopping the run — which they did expertly. Removing sacks, the Hawkeyes averaged 2.9 yards per rushing attempt. A third of their runs failed to gain yardage. The Gophers entirely neutralized their triumvirate of tailbacks, who had flashed explosiveness throughout the season but showed none this time. Hill somehow had the team's longest carry, a 7-yard quarterback sneak.

Minnesota's linebackers and secondary were as aggressive as ever trying to stop the run, correctly betting that Hill wouldn't beat them through the air. The defensive line was superb, not getting out-leveraged to keep their second- and third-level teammates clean. They even made plays on their own, frequently shedding their blocks. Deven Eastern, one of Minnesota's top performers, showed on the following play how the Gophers strung out Iowa's outside runs.

And here is a play from earlier in the game to illustrate Minnesota's success against inside runs. Kyler Baugh cut across the left guard to clutter the backfield, and Iowa's line couldn't move Eastern or Jah Joyner off the ball at all. Devon Williams set the edge to make sure the play couldn't bounce outside, and Maverick Baranowski and Darius Green swarmed to meet Jaziun Paterson in the D gap. Everyone rallied, and Patterson couldn't go anywhere.

The Gopher offense naturally had some difficulties against one of the nation's best defenses, but the Hawkeyes' own offense was lifeless. Worse yet: Despite usually making their living on takeaways, Iowa lost on crucial giveaways. The first two came in nearly identical fashion on Nubin blitzes. He couldn't get home here, but his pressure forced Hill to step up. Williams, arriving late on a "green dog" blitz, had a free rush and knocked the ball loose. Nubin recovered, and Minnesota kicked a field goal.

On the following play, Danny Striggow dropping into coverage meant the Hawkeyes should have had six blockers for five rushers. However, a blitz from Baranowski meant the whole line slid left to pick him up — leaving Anthony Smith one-on-one against tight end Addison Ostrenga and creating a wide-open hole for Nubin. The Gophers' blitzing safety was in Hill's lap as soon as he turned out of his play-fake. Williams, coming in late again, pounced on the ball.

By win probability added, those strip-sacks were the most and fourth-most impactful plays of the game, increasing Minnesota's chances of winning by almost 35 percent.

The game-clinching interception was the third-most important play, and it took a good deal less effort. Facing 3rd-and-17 after a sack and an incompletion, Hill had to force the ball downfield. It was a bad ball, ending up between the two receivers around the numbers. Justin Walley was there for the easy catch.

From 2017 to 2022, the Hawkeyes won the turnover battle 10-4 against the Gophers. On Saturday, they lost it 3-0.

The ironies continued. P.J. Fleck, the man who kept losing to Iowa by kicking field goals, beat Iowa by kicking field goals. While this victory will surely embolden Fleck to not be bold in the future, you cannot argue too vehemently against his 4th down choices on Saturday.

I still would have done things differently, of course. On the one field goal Dragan Kesich missed, it might have been better to attempt a conversion with 3 yards to go and an unfavorable wind on that end of Kinnick Stadium. On the final snap of the first half, Fleck could have had Athan Kaliakmanis try a low-risk Hail Mary from the 39-yard line instead of punting. On the opening drive of the second half, Fleck could've gone for it on 4th-and-2 rather than kicking.

Against teams with lesser defenses, I would be more adamant that Fleck's decisions were wrong. (I will reserve that adamance for using two timeouts at the end of the first quarter when he could have saved one; the field goal unit had enough time to run out and get off a kick before time expired.) Fleck was perhaps suboptimal in places but not outright bad.

The tone of this post would be different, however, if Kesich did not have another superb showing. After his 4-for-5 performance in what he called "probably the gnarliest wind" he's kicked in as a Gopher, Kesich is one of 10 FBS players with at least 14 made field goals. His only misses have been from 43 and 54 yards. His 85-percent touchback rate is also one of the nation's highest. He is one of the top kickers in college football, and he looked like it in a game where he needed to be great.

Kesich's first-ever college field goal attempt was a block in Iowa City. It was fitting, then, that he kicked Minnesota to victory on that same turf and was the first Gopher to reach Floyd of Rosedale.

Iowa fans will remember the game for a different special teams moment, however.

There are a few points to cover.

1. When the officials overturned Cooper DeJean's punt return touchdown, it was the right call. There are three relevant passages from the NCAA rulebook. The first is Rule 2, Section 8 (pages FR-31 through FR-32), defining valid and invalid fair catch signals:

ARTICLE 1. c. A valid or invalid fair catch signal deprives the receiving team of the opportunity to advance the ball. The ball is declared dead at the spot of the catch or recovery. If the catch precedes the signal, the ball is dead when the signal is first given.

ARTICLE 2. A valid signal is a signal given by a player of Team B who has obviously signaled their intention by extending one hand only clearly above their head and waving that hand from side to side of their body more than once. 

ARTICLE 3. An invalid signal is any waving signal by a player of Team B: 

a. That does not meet the requirements of Article 2 (above)

The second passage comes from Part III of the rulebook, which outlines how officials should apply the rules of various scenarios (pages FI-8 through FI-9). I have included the full excerpt but greyed out the parts that do not apply to DeJean's return:

During Team A’s punt from the A-20, receiver B44 points at the grounded punt at midfield. As B44 points at the ball, (a) he keeps his hands below his shoulders with no waving motion; (b) he keeps his hands below his shoulders and has a waving motion; (c) he has his hands just above the shoulders with no waving motion. RULING: Rule 2-8-3 states that any waving motion that does not meet the criteria for a valid signal is an invalid signal. Additionally, by interpretation the receiver is allowed to point at a kick as long as his hands remain below the shoulder and there is no waving motion. Both (b) and (c) would be an Invalid Fair Catch Signal. In (a), this would not be considered a signal at all, and Team B would retain the right to recover the ball and advance.

Let's piece this together, then. Obviously, DeJean did not make a valid fair catch signal at any point. Merely pointing at the ball, as DeJean did here, did not qualify as any kind of signal.

The problem came when he turned and ran toward the ball. DeJean continued to point with his right hand, but he extended his left arm to his side and moved it back and forth. His hand took a slightly ovular path, but that point is not important to the general point: DeJean made an invalid signal by gesturing with his left arm at all. That said gesture did not change the Gophers' intent to tackle him is not relevant either, at least according to the rulebook.

DeJean's motion was like a one-handed universal "no" gesture, the kind we see returners all the time while telling their teammates to stay away from the ball. If a player fields the ball after doing that, it counts as an invalid signal — something Wisconsin learned in 2015 without the need for video review. (Ignore Matt Millen in that video clearly not knowing what he's talking about, as is his wont.) A similar scenario occurred in an hour or so before DeJean's return this Saturday, in the Tennessee–Alabama game. It is a niche rule because most players do not try to advance the ball after giving an invalid signal, but there is precedent for its application.

And as this 2017 Georgia Tech game showed, this is reviewable play. See Rule 12, Section 3, Article 4 (pages FR-115 through FR-116):

Reviewable plays involving kicks include: 

g. Receiving team advancing after a fair catch signal.

In sum, the officials applied the rule exactly as they should have. It's unfortunate for DeJean, who is an extraordinary player that has probably never been coached to do anything different on a return. But it was the correct decision.

2. Minnesota fans do not have to care whether the call was correct (which it was) or just (which is up to you). I have spent nearly five years calling this play good, clean, legal football. The first reason is that it is good, clean, legal football. The second reason is that, as a hater of the New Orleans Saints, it is very fun to correctly call it as such. I strongly recommend this course of action whenever a call goes against a team you dislike.

Beyond that: Recall how excruciating the 2022 edition of this series was. The Hawkeyes recovered fumbles, and the Gophers didn't. One batted ball at a crucial moment made it into Hawkeye hands; another that would have benefitted the Gophers hit the ground. Iowa might have fumbled at the goal line before the game-winning field goal, but no angle could prove it. This is an opponent that, if you're a Minnesota fan, seems to get all the breaks. For once, the Gophers got the biggest one.

3. Minnesota fans (or anyone else) should not say that Iowa should have just played better rather than put the game in the officials' hands. There's being intellectually dishonest as a self-amusing bit, and then there's actually forwarding intellectually dishonest arguments. The performance of the team and that of the officials deserve separate conversations.

4. Minnesota's coverage on the return totally broke. The below screenshot is from right after DeJean fielded the ball. Every foot you see that is not DeJean's belongs to a Minnesota gunner.

Ideally, Brady Weeks would have made this tackle. Weeks is also the long snapper. If he could not bring down DeJean or drag him into the boundary, then that is kind of expected. The only players on the field less equipped than Weeks to make a tackle were 305-pound protector Karter Shaw and the nearly 30-year-old punter Mark Crawford.

Weeks did not make the tackle, but he did get in the way. That should have given his teammates time to rally and make the play. The real problem started after DeJean disposed of Weeks.

Everyone stepped away from the boundary, responding to DeJean's spin move and anticipating that he would reverse field. Some of them didn't do anything wrong: Tariq Watson, the Gopher closest to making a play in the above frame? He was fine. He was next to arrive and had to make the tackle. Nubin, the rightmost player? He was fine. That was his space to cover.

Baranowski, though, standing right behind Watson, and Coleman Bryson, the player closest to the sideline? They didn't keep to their lanes and drifted too far inside. With so many bodies in the middle of the field (including a few who haven't arrived yet), he only place DeJean could have tried to go was up the sideline. When DeJean made Watson miss, at least Bryson was supposed to be in his way.

Instead, one of the best returners in the Big Ten had a lane. That was all he needed.

All that kept Minnesota from a crushing, ninth straight defeat to Iowa was the Hawkeyes' best player making a small mistake that he didn't even know could be a mistake. This counts as a bullet dodged.

The thing about dodging a bullet, though, is that you're still alive. Minnesota needs two wins to make a bowl game. Their next three opponents are in varying forms of disrepair: A Michigan State reeling from tumult, an Illinois that looks hopeless, and a 2-5 Purdue with a first-year head coach. There are no guarantees, but this stretch is the Gophers' chance to make something out of a difficult year.

If they cannot pull it off — at least Saturday was fun.

Ranked win on the road✔️
Floyd of Rosedale✔️ pic.twitter.com/Y4t3X6ZCgq

— Minnesota Football (@GopherFootball) October 22, 2023