What happened at the end of last year's Iowa-Minnesota game? 'Take Floyd,' 'leave the timeouts'
Emery GloverWith Northwestern now in the rear-view mirror for the Iowa Hawkeyes, coach Kirk Ferentz and company now turn their attention to Big 12 West Division rival Minnesota.
When it comes to competition on the gridiron between these two teams, there’s no love lost.
The Hawkeyes may trail in the all-time series 50-62-2, but Iowa has had recent success against the Gophers. Iowa has won the last six games.
Most notably, the Hawkeyes throttled Minnesota 35-7 in their last meeting at TCF Bank Stadium for the win and the right to take the Floyd of Rosedale trophy home. But it might not be the score that most fans will remember from that game.
Related:Leistikow: Kirk Ferentz throws shade at Minnesota, Hawkeyes show their swagger in 35-7 romp
With 19 seconds to go in last year’s game, Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck called a timeout with the Gophers four yards shy of scoring.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz responded by using three consecutive timeouts.
“They called a timeout to look at what we were doing to reconsider,” Ferentz said during the postgame press conference. “So, we just wanted to make sure we had a good look at what they were doing. No sense taking (the timeouts) on the bus, right? You guys have reminded me of that a couple times over the last 22 years. Figured we’d take Floyd with us and leave the timeouts here.”
More:Yes, Iowa football and Minnesota play for a pig. Here's what to know about Floyd of Rosedale history
Sure, the Gophers did score to avoid the shutout after Ferentz burned all three timeouts, but the message was sent and Iowa fans loved it.
Although the move gave Iowa fans something extra to gloat about, Fleck didn’t mind Ferentz unloading all of his timeouts.
“”It’s OK,” Fleck said during Big Ten Media Days back in July. “It doesn’t affect me one bit. And you know what? We haven’t beat them. So they can do what they want to do. They have Floyd of Rosedale. They have the pig. They have something that we really want in their trophy case, but the timeout thing doesn’t bother me one bit. How he said it doesn’t bother me one bit. That’s rivalries, but I have a ton of respect for him, his program, [and] the University of Iowa.”
Yes, Fleck said all of the right things. But no one likes to be trolled on their home field.
Iowa will host Minnesota at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. The Hawkeyes are looking to keep Floyd around their facility for a seventh consecutive season.