There was nearly 113,000 fans in Kinnick Stadium at some point Saturday. It could have been regarded as the biggest day in Iowa athletics history.
The football team was playing for and achieved the first 10-0 start in program history. It was the first sell out of the year for this team.
The wrestling program set a new NCAA attendance record, partaking in the first-ever outdoor NCAA meet. To top that off, the fourth-ranked Hawkeyes upset No. 1 Oklahoma State by two points.
It was an exciting weekend in Iowa City, and it was fun being a part of it.
I went to the events as a member of the media. I had never been in a suite at Kinnick Stadium so watching wrestling from that perspective was pretty impressive. Watching the sun come down on the wrestlers was a really cool sight. It was quite an atmosphere, too, as 42,287 fans were loud and crazy throughout the 10 bouts.
The wrestling meet started at 11 a.m. and press conferences with both coaches ended around 1:30 p.m. That meant I had to find something to do before the football game kicked off at 7 p.m.
It was a great day to catch up with some old friends as we headed downtown to catch some other games. We watched most of the Iowa State near-upset of Oklahoma State.
The night game was spectacular. The fans were loud and someone a mile away from the stadium even called the cops and said there was too much noise coming from the stadium.
That’s when you know the fans did their part.
The game wasn’t pretty from a defensive standpoint. The Hawkeyes’ unit on that side of the ball didn’t play their best game. It was still good enough to win the game as the offense once again dominated in the running game.
It was the third different tailback to gain at least 195 yards this season as LeShun Daniels Jr. looked healthy and was at his best against the Gophers. It’s not too often Iowa’s offense picks up a struggling defense, but that was the case Saturday.
Every game from now on is historic for an Iowa fan. No Hawkeye football team has been 10-0 and each win the rest of the way will just add to that.
Purdue comes to town this week with the hopes of spoiling Iowa’s season. Somehow around 9,000 tickets were said to still be available on Monday.
If the Hawks can get through the Boilermakers, Nebraska gets the chance to play spoiler, and qualify for a bowl game, on Black Friday.
The Huskers have looked better of late and gets two weeks to prepare for Iowa as they received a weird bye week on the second to last weekend of the regular season.
No matter what happens, fans can say this was one of the best rides in school history. It may not end in a College Football Playoff opportunity, but a trip to the Rose Bowl is a pretty awesome consolation prize.