IOWA CITY — Cooper DeJean was watching. Cooper DeJean was smiling.
And the Iowa football team was rolling.
Author a script of a perfect domination of rival Minnesota at Kinnick Stadium, and the following would have been included:
- Mark Gronowski throwing a touchdown pass.
- Making Iowa transfer John Nestor look bad.
- Extending Iowa’s pick-six streak to 18 years.
- And, of course, running back a punt return for a touchdown that counts.
Check, check, check and check … all in the first half of the Hawkeyes’ 41-3 shellacking of P.J. Fleck’s Gophers before a Blackout crowd of 69,250 on Oct. 25 at Kinnick Stadium.
The punt-return TD by Kaden Wetjen was the cherry on top for Iowa fans everywhere, including DeJean — who now stars as a Super Bowl-winning hero for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Wetjen’s electric 50-yard runback for a touchdown into the north end zone served as sweet justice for what most Hawkeye fans still believe was an injustice in this matchup two years ago in Kinnick.
“I was really close to fair-catching that, too,” Wetjen laughed after tying Tim Dwight’s program record for five career kickoff/punt-return touchdowns.
With Iowa leading 24-0, Wetjen accepted a high Minnesota punt at midfield and darted to his right. The blocking was marvelous, and Wetjen’s speed was an equal thing of beauty. K.J. Parker’s finishing pancake block on the punter allowed Wetjen to enter the end zone and simulate a “row-the-boat” celebration, a nod to Minnesota’s own program mantra.
Yes, that celebration was planned ahead of time. That’s the kind of confidence Wetjen has in his return game, and for some reason, teams still kick to him.
“We had like three other guys doing (the celebration) in the end zone, so I was kind of mad that we didn’t kind of coordinate it,” Wetjen said. “We could have got a whole boat going.”
Watching from afar was DeJean, whose 54-yard punt return that seemingly delivered Iowa a shocking last-gasp victory against Minnesota in 2023 was wiped out by a video review. “It Wasn’t A Fair Catch” T-shirts were born, and the rallying cry has persisted for two years after it was ruled that DeJean made an invalid fair catch signal — something that wasn’t called on the field but only was called after a video review was used to see if he stepped out of bounds.
“All smiles,” DeJean tweeted after Wetjen’s runback.
And Iowa’s home stadium was full of smiles, too. Any thumping of a rival feels good, but this one really hit the sweet spot after that 12-10 loss in 2023 — Fleck’s only success in nine tries as Minnesota’s coach against Kirk Ferentz.
“A complete team performance,” Ferentz said. “All three phases really did a great job.”
It was the first time since the 2019 Holiday Bowl, a 49-24 Iowa rout of USC, that the Hawkeyes scored on offense, defense and special teams.
And this was the first time Fleck’s Gophers had been annihilated in Kinnick. All four previous Iowa-Minnesota matchups here were decided by seven points or less.
This one was so far out of hand that when Iowa took that 31-0 lead on Wetjen’s runback, Minnesota was at 1 total yard of offense.
In the last three weeks, Iowa has now won trophy games against Big Ten rivals by a combined 78-3. The Hawkeyes blanked Wisconsin, 37-0, on Oct. 11 in Camp Randall Stadium.
“We’re just trying to go out there and dominate the person across from us,” safety Xavier Nwankpa said. “We play physical football basically every week.”
Iowa held Minnesota to just 133 yards despite playing its backup defense in the fourth quarter. Freshman linebacker Cam Buffington added an interception and 26-yard runback that set up Jeremy Hecklinski’s first touchdown leading a college offense.
After getting a 31-0 lead, Iowa took its foot off the gas offensively and did miss some plays.
For the game, Gronowski finished 12-for-19 for 135 yards. Kamari Moulton led the rushing attack with 15 carries for 75 yards.
“We talked about as a program in September, we want to be good,” Gronowski said. “We want to get better in October. We want to be our best in November. I feel like we got better today. We’ve been playing better all October.”
Central Lyon teammates Zach Lutmer, Reece Vander Zee add big plays
DeJean, from the tiny town of Odebolt, also had to smile to see northwest Iowa brethren Zach Lutmer and Reece Vander Zee of Rock Rapids score significant touchdowns.
More on Vander Zee in the next section.
First up, Lutmer. The defensive back had been the DeJean of Iowa’s defense this season, a Swiss army knife of sorts who can float from the cash position to safety if need be and has recently been staying on the field as the No. 2 cornerback (instead of Deshaun Lee) when Iowa goes with a 4-3 defense.
On Saturday, Lutmer did something that teammates fell 1 yard short of doing in the previous two weeks — he scored on defense.
Lutmer’s 34-yard interception-return touchdown in the first quarter extended the Hawkeyes incredible streak of seasons with a pick-six to 18. Lutmer read Drake Lindsey’s floated throw down the left sideline beautifully, and snapped it out of the air for his second pick of the year. Iowa had watched that exact Minnesota play on film the night before and planned how to defend it.
“The coaches gave me a gift there,” Lutmer said.
Lutmer, a former quarterback at Central Lyon High School, looked like DeJean with his deft returning instincts and even spun out of the tackle attempt of 345-pound Minnesota offensive lineman Reese Tripp at the 10-yard line and then skipped into the end zone for a 17-0 Iowa lead.
“I was kind of blacked out, zoned out, but anything I can do to help the team,” Lutmer said. “I’m just glad we kept the streak alive, because our coaches were bringing (the pick-six streak) up a lot this week.”
The 18-year streak began with Amari Spievey in 2008. Against Wisconsin on Oct. 11, Aaron Graves returned a pick to inside the 1-yard line (his touchdown was overturned on review). Against Penn State on Oct. 18, Xavier Nwankpa also ran an interception back to the 1. Lutmer made sure to get into the end zone this time.
Iowa now has 56 pick-six scores in school history, 42 of them coming under defensive coordinators Norm Parker (1999-2011) and Phil Parker (2012-present).
John Nestor’s return to Kinnick Stadium goes poorly
Iowa offensive coordinator Tim Lester — perhaps with help from his defensive coaches — clearly had a plan to attack Minnesota cornerbacks, including John Nestor.
Nestor, recruited out of Chicago by Iowa linebackers coach Seth Wallace, abruptly entered the transfer portal before Iowa’s spring practice began in March and transferred to Minnesota. Nestor has been thriving in Minneapolis, with three interceptions (including a pick-six) as a starting cornerback. Nestor failed to beat out TJ Hall or Deshaun Lee in his time at Iowa.
During pregame warmups, Nestor made sure to find Wallace and other Hawkeyes who were around to say hello.
Nestor was known as over-aggressive as a corner in practices, and Iowa kept him on his toes in the early going. On Iowa’s fourth play from scrimmage, Gronowski hit Sam Phillips for an 11-yard gain against Nestor. On the next drive, Gronowski hit Wetjen on a curl against Nestor, and the speedy receiver sprinted around the former Hawkeye for a 28-yard gain.
“We were trying to attack their defensive backs the whole night,” Wetjen said. “They typically played a lot of man coverage, which wasn’t really the case for tonight. We kind of had a game plan going into this game that we were going to attack them.”
Then in the second quarter, Iowa went after Nestor again to Mark Gronowski’s first touchdown pass in Big Ten play. Gronowski went over the top to Vander Zee against Nestor’s one-on-one coverage. Vander Zee pulled in the 29-yard touchdown. Nestor’s coverage honestly was pretty good on the play, but Vander Zee’s catch was better.
Vander Zee missed Iowa’s first five games after a foot fracture, and this was the 6-foot-4 sophomore’s first TD since last season.
“To get back in that paint was really cool,” Vander Zee said. “All glory to God. I fought to get back. And it’s starting to pay off. It’s really, really a blessing to be back, and it’s a great test of my faith.”
Unfortunately, the day got worse for Nestor, as he hobbled off the field with a lower-leg injury in the fourth quarter.
“I went over to after the game, dapped him up, hoping he was OK,” Hall said. “I told him, I love him, keep going out there balling.”
Until that Gronowski TD throw, Iowa’s first 15 touchdowns of Big Ten play had included 13 rushing, one on a Wetjen kickoff return at Rutgers and the Lutmer interception return. This got Gronowski and the passing offense on the TD board.
“Felt good. Kind of got the monkey off the back a little bit,” Gronowski said. “But we were still scoring touchdowns. Rushing touchdowns, passing touchdowns, they’re all six points.”
Gronowski, on Iowa’s impressive opening drive of nine plays for 75 yards, rushed for his 11th TD of the season, a 2-yarder. He has scored in every game as a Hawkeye and improved to 55-8 as a college starter (and 55-6 in games he didn’t leave with an injury).
Beau Stephens injured, but Hawkeyes get a bye before No. 6 Oregon
Once a blowout victory is secured, the highest priority becomes staying healthy.
Iowa’s most prominent injury on Saturday was to senior left guard Beau Stephens, who hobbled off with what appeared to be a left-ankle issue. Stephens left in a 7-0 game and returned later briefly before ceding to Leighton Jones the rest of the way.
Stephens has been a mauling piece of the Hawkeyes’ tremendous offensive line. Thankfully, Ferentz gave an optimistic report on what he called a soft-tissue injury for Stephens (so, likely a sprain). Ferentz said Stephens could’ve returned if it were “life and death” but Iowa coaches used the opportunity to get Jones, a promising redshirt sophomore, significant game action.
“If anything, it helps us with our depth,” Ferentz said. “We’ll be fine there, and I anticipate Beau being fine. I don’t know how much he’ll do this week, but that timed up really well for him.
Stephens is an NFL-ready blocker, especially in the run game. Iowa’s run game slowed down quite a bit after Stephens’ exit. And with Iowa not playing again until Nov. 8 vs. Oregon, that gives him extra time to rehab his injury and get back on the field for what’s likely to be a matchup of ranked teams.
Iowa (6-2 overall, 4-1 Big Ten) will likely be ranked in the initial College Football Playoff rankings show on Nov. 4. Oregon was ranked No. 6 in the coaches’ poll prior to Saturday’s matchup vs. Wisconsin.
“We were hoping we’d be ranked last week, but hopefully that win will solidify it,” Nwankpa said. “We’re just going to try to keep going up from here.”
Hawkeyes columnist Chad Leistikow has served for 31 years with The Des Moines Register and USA TODAY Sports Network. Chad is the 2023 INA Iowa Sports Columnist of the Year and NSMA Co-Sportswriter of the Year in Iowa. Join Chad’s text-message group at HawkCentral.com/HawkeyesTexts. Follow @ChadLeistikow on X.
