To the surprise of no one, the Minnesota-Iowa game on Saturday came down to special teans.
However, no one could have expected the play that eventually sealed Minnesota’s 12-10 victory over the Hawkeyes.
Iowa appeared to get a 54-yard punt return for a touchdown … until the officials got involved.
They flagged Iowa punt returner Cooper DeJean for an invalid fair catch signal and what looked like a miraculously ugly Hawkeye victory became a loss to the Golden Gophers.
Iowa football got cheated. The Ref called it a “fair catch” #Iowa #Minnesota pic.twitter.com/zHvRNHoPuy
— 🤷🏾♂️ (@saiahxxl) October 21, 2023
Refs rule this was a fair-catch call, which negates Iowa’s go-ahead punt return touchdown with 90 seconds left in the game. pic.twitter.com/0wER8ryyYN
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) October 21, 2023
Fittingly, Minnesota won without scoring a touchdown, getting 4 field goals from Dragan Kesich in 5 tries.
There were 18 punts in the game, 9 each by Mark Crawford and Tory Taylor. Both punters dropped 5 kicks inside the opponent’s 20.
In total, there were 803 yards of punting.
Floyd of Rosedale goes back to the Twin Cities. pic.twitter.com/ZV1B9eJ38z
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) October 21, 2023