IOWA CITY – Iowa (1-0) defeated Northern Iowa (0-1), 31-23, on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. The win was Iowa’s 16th in a row against Northern Iowa. The Hawkeyes are 13-3 in season openers under Kirk Ferentz.
The Hawkeyes improved to 10-0 when playing UNI in a season opener.
Iowa owned a 2-1 advantage in turnover margin. Northern Iowa recovered an Iowa fumble. LB Bo Bower intercepted a pass in the third quarter and returned it 2 yards. It was Bower’s first career interception. He also collected his first career sack. DB Greg Mabin recorded his first career interception, returning it 18 yards, to end Northern Iowa’s final drive.
The Iowa defense allowed just 25 yards rushing. It is the fewest rushing yards allowed by an Iowa defense since holding Minnesota to 7 yards in 2008.
Senior WR Kevonte Martin-Manley caught 8 passes to raise his career total to 130. He passed TD Marv Cook for No. 9 on Iowa’s career receptions list.
RB Mark Weisman returned the opening kickoff 50 yards. It was the first kickoff return of his career.
RB LeShun Daniels scored Iowa’s first touchdown on a 13-yard rush. It was Daniels’ first career touchdown.
WR Tevaun Smith set up Iowa’s third touchdown with a 35-yard rush and finished it with a 6-yard touchdown reception. The rushing attempt was the first of his career. The touchdown reception with the second of his career.
WR Derrick Willies’ 46-yard reception in the fourth quarter was his first career catch.
LB Quinton Alston recorded a sack on third-and-13 in the fourth quarter. The sack (-8) was the first of his career. Alston finished the game with a career-high eight tackles, including 2 tackles for loss (-10).
TD Louis Trinca-Pasat recorded career-highs in tackles (10), sacks (2/-5) and tackles for loss (4/-9).
DB Jordan Lomax recorded a career-high nine tackles.
QB Jake Ruddock completed 31-for-41 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns. The yardage total is Rudock’s highest since the 2013 season opener, when he threw for 256 yards against Northern Illinois. Rudock complete passes to 13 different Hawkeyes.
TE Jake Duzey caught a career-high 7 passes for 34 yards.
K Marshall Koehn connected from 40 yards on his first career field goal attempt. He finished the day 1-for-2 (missed from 37). He was perfect on four extra point attempts. The Hawkeyes have converted on 127 consecutive PATs without a miss or block, and have gone 43 consecutive games without a missed or blocked PAT, the second-longest streak of any school in the nation (Illinois) entering today.
Iowa won the toss and elected to receive. In 16 seasons as Iowa’s head coach, Kirk Ferentz and the Hawkeye received the opening kickoff in 151 of 188 games (89-62). Iowa has started the game on defense in 37 of 188 games under Ferentz (20-17).
Instant replay was not used today.
Iowa returns to action Saturday, Sept. 6 at 2:30 p.m. (CT) against Ball State at Kinnick Stadium.
