Iowa holds off South Dakota State 7-3 in season opener where neither offense looked good

IOWA CITY – Iowa held off South Dakota State 7-3 Saturday at Kinnick Stadium and nobody went home happy.

Not the Jackrabbits, who took no solace in a near-upset of the Big Ten power, given that their offense was a no-show.

Not the Hawkeyes, who needed a safety to finally break a 3-3 tie late in the third quarter, and whose best player on the day was undoubtedly their punter.

And not the 69,250 fans, who were forced to mostly sit on their hands in boredom as the teams slogged through an uneventful season opener that featured no touchdowns, two safeties, and had the Hawkeye fans chanting ‘M-V-P’ at Australian punter Tory Taylor by game’s end.

Three hundred yards of total offense is generally considered about the minimum of what’s acceptable for an offense in a game – Iowa and South Dakota State failed to combine for 300 on Saturday. They did, however, succeed in combining for more punts (21) than first downs (16). Iowa had 166 yards of offense; SDSU had 120. It was every bit as hard to watch as those numbers make it sound.

Kirk Ferentz and John Stiegelmeier are two of the longest tenured coaches in college football, and both said they hadn’t seen a game quite like this one before.

“It certainly didn’t come easy but we’re happy to get the win,” Ferentz said. “Obviously a really unusual (score by quarter line) - 3,0,2,2 – I’ve never been around a game like that.”

'I'm proud of our football team. And I'm disappointed in my football team'

It was such a strange game – tied 3-3 at halftime, Iowa leading 5-3 going into the fourth, that it was easy to forget the FCS Jackrabbits spent the entire game within one score of the defending Big Ten West champions. The Jacks have had some near-misses against FBS foes before, but recent losses to Minnesota and TCU, not to mention a win over Colorado State last year, were entertaining games in which the Jacks were able to showcase their firepower for a national audience.

When SDSU fell just short of the Gophers, or years ago against Nebraska, they insisted they would not accept moral victories, but in the big picture, those were noble defeats that helped their confidence and resume.

But what about this? Yeah, the defense absolutely stymied a Hawkeye offense that entered the season with multiple questions and answered none of them, but the SDSU offense boasts a handful of the best players in the FCS level. They knew they were going against the best defense they’ll face this year, indeed, one of the best defenses in all of college football, but they expected to be able to score points. They only got three, which were set up by a Caleb Francl interception return and came on a 44-yard field goal by new kicker Hunter Dustman.

“I’m proud of our football team, and I’m disappointed in our football team,” coach John Stiegelmeier said. “You can feel those two things in the same breath.”

To say the pride was solely reserved for the defense and the disappointment only for the offense might be a stretch, but those two sides of the ball offered diametrically opposed performances in the season opener – for both teams. SDSU kept Iowa out of the end zone, held them to 57 rushing yards, forced two turnovers and 11 punts and notched a pair of sacks.

“We played great as a defense, I’m super proud of our guys,” said middle linebacker Adam Bock, a native of nearby Solon, Iowa, who had 13 tackles and both forced and recovered a second-half fumble deep in Jacks territory to snuff out a drive. “But in the end their defense outplayed our defense. They scored four points. We got zero.”

SDSU's offense completely shut down in loss to Iowa

As for the offense, the problems were everywhere but hard to necessarily pin down. The offensive line did not have a great day, but there were times they gave Mark Gronowski time and they couldn’t convert. He missed a wide-open Jadon Janke on a first-half deep ball that could’ve gone for six. Isaiah Davis was held to 50 yards on 18 carries – his longest run of the day was 12 yards. Gronowski was sacked four times and completed just 10-of-26 passes for 87 yards, and five of those 10 completions went to Davis out of the backfield. The Iowa defense kept SDSU totally in check all game long, and would’ve had a shutout were it not for Francl’s interception.

“It’s really frustrating,” said Gronowski, playing in his first game since the national championship of the 2021 spring season. “Our defense played great throughout the entire game. We were expecting them to play like that. But we have to be better on offense. We have to execute better.”

Losing star tight end Tucker Kraft to an injury early in the first quarter didn’t help, but neither did consistently terrible field position thanks to the punting game, nor a litany of pre-snap penalties. SDSU was whistled for 12 penalties totaling 66 yards, which included eight false starts, a delay of game and an illegal shift.

“It was so loud,” said Hawkeyes linebacker Jack Campbell. “You guys saw today, I don’t even know how many false start penalties they had. It just proves how big of an advantage it is to play in Kinnick Stadium.”

Gronowski acknowledged the noise was a factor, but Stiegelmeier was not ready to allow that as an excuse.

“How can you jump offsides four times?” Stiegelmeier said. “In my mind that is just not being present in the game. There is some youth there, but it is disappointing. Our two top offensive linemen jumped off in our first series. It was loud, yeah, but we practice with noise and didn’t jump offsides one time. It is a point of emphasis.”

The other key factor was Taylor, the Hawkeye punter. He averaged 47.9 yards on his 10 punts and dropped seven of them inside the 20. His punts directly led to both safeties after he had pinned SDSU deep. The first, with four minutes left in the third, broke the 3-3 tie. The second, with 3:58 left in the game, made it 7-3, and that was enough for Iowa’s defense. SDSU’s offense only crossed midfield (not counting the Iowa turnover) once, and it came in the first half when they reached the 47 (and had to punt anyway).

If there was any solace for Jacks fans – and there was a sizeable contingent of them in attendance – it’s that the performance of the SDSU defense led to boos from the Hawkeye faithful at several moments. Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras was just 11-of-25 for 109 yards. He made a couple impressive throws and several questionable ones.

“Obviously, we need to grow offensively and I think we will,” said Petras, who was without a few offensive weapons due to injury. “That was not a representation of our offense, but we will move on and take it to Iowa State next week.”

South Dakota State vs. Iowa box score

S. Dakota St. 0 3 0 0—3

Iowa 3 0 2 2—7

First Quarter

IOWA_FG Blom 46, 1:11.

Second Quarter

SDST_FG Dustman 44, :15.

Third Quarter

IOWA_safety, 4:03.

Fourth Quarter

IOWA_safety, 3:58.

A_69,250.

___

SDST IOWA

First downs 6 10

Total Net Yards 120 166

Rushes-yards 31-33 36-57

Passing 87 109

Punt Returns 2-8 5-17

Kickoff Returns 2-31 2-41

Interceptions Ret. 1-1 70-0

Comp-Att-Int 10-26-0 11-25-1

Sacked-Yards Lost 4-23 2-17

Punts 11-41.5 10-47.9

Fumbles-Lost 1-0 2-1

Penalties-Yards 12-66 2-15

Time of Possession 29:49 30:11

___

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING_S. Dakota St., Davis 18-50, Am.Johnson 2-3, Voss 1-1, Gronowski 10-(minus 21). Iowa, L.Williams 24-72, Bruce 1-11, Pottebaum 1-3, Ka.Johnson 3-0, (Team) 2-(minus 4), Petras 5-(minus 25).

PASSING_S. Dakota St., Gronowski 10-26-0-87. Iowa, Petras 11-25-1-109.

RECEIVING_S. Dakota St., Davis 5-32, Jax.Janke 2-24, Wolf 1-18, Kraft 1-7, Heins 1-6. Iowa, Bruce 5-68, L.Williams 2-23, LaPorta 2-9, Lachey 1-6, Pottebaum 1-3.

MISSED FIELD GOALS_Iowa, Blom 40.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Iowa defeats South Dakota State in slogfest college football opener