Iowa beat 12th-ranked Missouri in a thrilling Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona. With a little less than six minutes left, Hawkeye sophomore Micah Hyde intercepted a Missouri pass and ran it back 72 yards for the winning touchdown.
“I was just covering my man…..I stepped in front and then the defense just turned into offense,” Hyde said on the Hawkeye Radio Network after the game. “You know, we work on that every day in practice and it worked out real well for us today.”
Freshman running back Marcus Coker set Iowa bowl game records for carries with 33 and yards with 215. says the credit goes to the offensive line.
“At the beginning of the game, I didn’t think I was hitting it as much as I could have,” Coker said. “Then, later on, a couple of series later, the (offensive) line was just opening it up so big that it was nothing but green.”
It is the first time Iowa has won three straight bowl games.
“These guys have done a great job, really throughout the month, but especially once finals were over, they just really focused on what was in front of us,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “…Couldn’t be any prouder of the way they competed tonight, start to finish.”
Iowa quarterback Ricky Stanzi becomes the first Iowa quarterback to win three bowl games.
“It’s awesome. To go out like this as a team, that’s all we could ask for,” Stanzi said. “We put in the work and it paid off for us and Coach Ferentz said it would and we put our trust in him and, you know, I mean we’re just vey happy with the outcome.”
Iowa closes the season with an 8-5 record.