Blue White Illustrated

with Penn State, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz can't help but marvel at the athletic ability that allowed McSorley to engineer a 12- play drive with less than two minutes re- maining – the ability to throw, to run, and to throw on the run when necessary. But Ferentz also sees an intangible quality in McSorley that may have had just as big an influence on the outcome of that game. "If he's in the huddle, I can't read minds, but my guess is that all 11 of those guys felt like they were going to get it done last year against us," he said. "Obviously, we were hoping it was going to be the other way. We were trying as hard as we could. Somehow they prevailed, they came up with the last play. It literally was the last play of the game. "You have to try to do your best each and every play," he added. "If there are a couple of plays along the way before you get to that last one that can make a difference… maybe it doesn't come down to the last play. But when you play against a guy like this, you have to understand it could be that, if in fact you're in the game. You've got to be in the game. Then the challenge is to try to end it." In recent years, Ferentz has also been in one of those other kind of games against Penn State, the kind in which his team isn't competitive at the end. The first time Iowa faced a McSorley- led PSU offense, the then-sophomore quarterback threw for 240 yards and two touchdowns in a 41-14 Nittany Lion romp in 2016. Penn State had everything working that night. Saquon Barkley totaled 211 all- purpose yards, Chris Godwin and Mike Gesicki both had catches of more than 40 yards, and even backup quarterback Tommy Stevens got into the act, plowing through multiple Iowa defenders on a bruising 13-yard touchdown run late in the game. The Lions dominated the stat sheet again last year in Iowa City, but not the score- board. While Barkley set a school record with 358 all-purpose yards in one of his finest performances as a collegian, he only crossed the goal line once – in the third quarter – and that was Penn State's only touchdown heading into the final mo- ments. Still, when the Lions needed six at the end of the game, their veteran quarter- back delivered. Can he do it again this year? More to the point, can he do it against an Iowa defense that has been one of the best in the country so far this season? It's a question that will go a long way toward defining Penn State's season, as the team begins a tough three- game stretch that sandwiches a road trip to Michigan in between home games against the Hawkeyes and fellow Big Ten West Di- vision title aspirant Wisconsin. The Hawkeyes have won six of their first seven games this year, mostly because they have done what Iowa teams have done just about every season since Ferentz took over as head coach in 1999: They've fielded a conventional-but-effective offense that converts third downs and sustains drives, and they've combined it with a stubborn defense that keeps just about every oppo- nent within reach. On offense, Iowa boasts a dependable junior quarterback in Nate Stanley, who is completing 61 percent of his passes and has thrown 16 touchdown passes with only six interceptions. The Hawkeyes also have a couple of excellent receiving targets in tight ends T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant. Those two have combined to make 51 catches for 736 yards and nine touch- downs. The running game has been less effec- tive than usual due to the loss of Ivory Kelly-Martin to an ankle injury against Northern Illinois in September. Kelly- Martin missed three games but has been looking healthier in recent weeks and rushed for 98 yards on 24 carries, both ca- reer-highs, in a 23-0 victory over Mary- land last Saturday. On the other side of the ball, the headlin- ers are mostly up front. The defensive line has spearheaded the Hawkeyes' rise to the top of the Football Bowl Subdivision statis- tical charts in run defense. Opponents are averaging only 79.6 yards per game and 2.7 per attempt. Only one FBS team – Utah – has fared better, having allowed only 74.6 rushing yards per game. And that's only part of the story. In addi- tion to cracking down on the run, Iowa has 2 Johnson reaches out to catch Mc- Sorley's pass on the final offensive play of last year's game between Penn State and Iowa. The last-sec- ond touchdown gave the Nittany Lions a 21-19 vic- tory. Photo by Steve Manuel O C T O B E R   2 4 ,   2 0 1 8 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M

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