Football/Kinnick

Football looks to continue where it left off

The Iowa football team finished the 2020 season on a six-game winning streak and will look to replicate that success in 2021.

The 2020 Iowa football season was one unlike any other.

At first, a fall season appeared unlikely to happen. The Big Ten postponed all fall sports, including football, to the spring in August of 2020. But a month later, the conference reversed its decision and scheduled an eight-game, conference-only regular season that went into December.

The Hawkeyes opened the 2020 season 0-2 and the long wait to see the team on the field seemed like it wasn’t going to be worth it. At least initially. Iowa responded by closing the season on a six-game winning streak to finish the year 6-2. That stretch included trophy game victories over rivals Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

Iowa’s final two games of the season were called off because of positive COVID-19 cases within its opponents’ programs. Iowa was supposed to play Michigan in the Big Ten’s “Champions Week” the same week as the conference championship game, but the game was canceled five days before it was scheduled to be played.

The team’s Music City Bowl matchup with Missouri was also canceled after the Tigers could not compete because of positive COVID-19 tests.

Iowa will be led in 2021 once again by head coach Kirk Ferentz. Ferentz just completed his 22nd year as Iowa’s coach. He is the program’s all-time leader in coaching victories (168).

Last season was the eighth in a row in which the Hawkeyes qualified for a bowl game. To make a ninth-straight trip to bowl season, Iowa will have to overcome the losses of several key contributors from last season’s team.

Iowa lost 10 starters from its 2020 team, including consensus All-American defensive tackle Daviyon Nixon, first-team All-Big Ten offensive tackle Alaric Jackson, and explosive wide receiver/kickoff returner Ihmir Smith-Marsette.

But the Hawkeyes are returning 16 starters. That includes quarterback Spencer Petras, who started all eight games for Iowa last year in his first season in command of the team’s offense. Iowa held a quarterback competition in the offseason, but Petras is the favorite to start once again for Iowa.

Around Petras on offense will be first-team All-Big Ten running back Tyler Goodson, Rimington Trophy finalist Tyler Linderbaum, and tight end Sam LaPorta, who led the team in receptions last year as a sophomore.

In 2020-21, Hawkeye defensive coordinator Phil Parker’s unit was one of the best in the country, allowing just 16 points per game. This season, Iowa returns all five of its starters in the secondary and has experience at the middle and weak-side linebacker positions with Seth Benson and Jack Campbell. The defensive line will be the position group to watch. Second-team All-Big Ten defensive end Zach VanValkenburg is the team’s only returning starter up front for the Hawkeye defense.

On special teams, kicker Caleb Shudak replaces All-American Keith Ducan, while All-Big Ten performer Tory Taylor retains his spot at punter.

The Hawkeyes are scheduled to play 12 games over the course of the 2021 regular season. Iowa will host the following teams at Kinnick Stadium: Indiana, Kent State, Colorado State, Penn State (ANF Black and Gold Spirit Game), Purdue (Homecoming), Minnesota, and Illinois (Senior Day). Iowa will also play the following teams on the road: Iowa State, Maryland, Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Nebraska.

Kinnick Stadium

The Iowa football team hosted four games inside Kinnick Stadium in 2020. But other than a handful of family members of players on the team, the 69,250-seat stadium sat empty on game days to comply with capacity restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, however, fans will be back in the stands on Saturdays to cheer for the Hawkeyes, replacing the cardboard cutouts that filled seats in their absence.

As fans return, they will experience some of the traditions that make up a college football-filled afternoon in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes will swarm onto the field with AC/DC’s “Back and Black” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” roaring over the speakers. A portion of Nile Kinnick’s Heisman Trophy acceptance speech will play on the video boards right before kickoff. And at the end of the first quarter, everyone in the stadium will wave at the onlooking children’s hospital.

Iowa is 298-188-15 (.610) all time at Kinnick Stadium. Last season, the Hawkeyes went 3-1 in their home stadium last season, winning games against Michigan State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, while dropping a contest against Northwestern.

Kinnick Stadium is located at the intersection of Hawkins Dr. and Melrose Ave. in Iowa City, near Duane Banks Field and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Katie Goodale/The Daily Iowan Iowa Wide Receiver Brandon Smith catches the first touchdown pass of the game during the Iowa vs Northwestern football game at Kinnick Stadium on Oct. 31, 2020. The Wildcats defeated the Hawkeyes 21-20.