Look – halftime was pretty damn bleak in my house.

I was lamenting the 1997 season, to BHGP HQ as well as friends privately. For the uninitiated – Iowa had a great team back that year. That team had a good defense featuring Jared DeVries, plus an offense with Tim Dwight, Tavian Banks, a good line, and competent quarterback play in Matt Sherman. It was there for a final send off for Hayden Fry, a team that should have won 9 or 10 games. Iowa had a stretch of at Ohio State and at Michigan back-to-back, with a bye sandwiched in the middle, but the rest was nothing crazy (Purdue Rule, Hoya??)

The season started at an unbelievable pace – Banks was a legitimate Heisman candidate. Iowa housed everyone out of the gate. They lost at Ohio State in early October – to be expected – but had the eventual national champs on the ropes in Michigan Stadium. Iowa was up 21-7 at half after a dazzling late first half punt return by Dwight, then 24-21 with a few minutes left and it just…fell apart. Michigan took the lead, helped by a dodgy pass interference on Plez Atkins on a third and long early in the drive. Sherman was injured on Iowa’s final drive, having hit his hand on a Michigan helmet (or after the game by punching a locker; Iowa conspiracy theorists – unite!) He tried squeezing a pass into Dwight while Banks was open for the game-winner, but the pass to Dwight was picked off. Enter Randy Reiners…who was injured right away. Scott Mullen entered the picture for a brief moment. Then they lost to Wisconsin for the first time in a generation. Then they lost at Northwestern in a snow storm. Fast forward a year and Hayden Fry was retiring. We entered a semi-nuclear winter for a couple of years while Kirk Ferentz tried to work his way out of it.

The thought crossed my mind. Kirk saved the program post-Fry. Legitimately, he saved it. Then he coached long enough to see himself become the villain in 2024. I lived that 1997 scenario once in my life. Football Gods – can we not do that again???

Minnesota hit an incredible rhythm in the second quarter and it looked bleak. Really, really bleak. Iowa had nothing going offensively. The defense looked to be guessing.

Then Kaleb Johnson turned the amp up to 11 – his amp definitely goes to 11 – and became part of the Monstars, Tim Lester dialed up some amazing misdirection, Minnesota stupidly returned a kick out of the end zone down 21-14 and the Iowa bench blew up when he was stopped short of the 20 and it was OVER.

Iowa completely destroyed the Gophers in the second half. Completely and thoroughly. That sentence is a fun one to write. All is right in this world. Floyd is BACK! It’s on to Ohio State.

Other thoughts:

– Kaleb Johnson comps? We had Banks, Shonn Greene, and Brandon Wegher floating around at BHGP HQ. He’s on the Banks level, which – all due respect to Greene, who was amazing in 2008 and consistently hammered people – is rare air. Honestly, Banks is in the top 2 most explosive players I’ve seen at running back pre-Kaleb (Banks and Jermelle Lewis are the top 2 for me). Kaleb is quickly entering that category. He rips off huge chunk plays all the time. Banks had the best feet imaginable – he could’ve been a professional soccer player had he gone for it – and Greene had better power and left some chalk outlines along the way. We only had a year of Wegher but he was a modern back in every sense. But the first Kaleb TD that wasn’t (nice job importing Premier League VAR into the Big Ten, you dorks) was just different. That play was dead on arrival yet he got that inside the 1? Yo. That’s nothing I’ve seen from an Iowa back. The comps keep coming back to Banks, a one-of-a-kind back, but Kaleb is in a class by himself. Enjoy this, Hawkeye fans. Enjoy the next two months with him. Because he’s outta here in January.

Seriously this stuff is INSANE from Kaleb.

– Jazz Patterson – thank you for not completely screwing around as 4th string out of camp. You never know when your number will get called. Guy runs angry all the time and is an excellent “I’m going to mess you up” deputy to the Clydesdale that is Kaleb Johnson.

– Iowa had three good quarters tonight. The previous three games it was one or two good quarters. The second quarter was really scary on all fronts, but they rode through it. That won’t fly in Ohio Stadium – duh – but it’s a step in the right direction.

– Passing game – still MIA. However…

– Seriously, up 21-14 and kicking off, Minnesota attempted to return the kick out of the end zone but was stopped short of the 20. The Iowa sideline blew up. I knew this game was over at that point. When you know, you know.

– The defense in the second half /fans self. Wow. They dominated Minnesota in every way possible. Just some nice tweaks from Phil Parker and Co. (sending a linebacker on blitzes). That extra man ensured Iowa was getting home with pressure. That meant wandering eyes for Max Brosmer. Once that started? Game over.

– Floyd is back, I’m glowing and watching that ridiculous CU-Baylor game – what an ending; I never thought I’d see a version of Kordell Stewart at Michigan again – but we have a problem at quarterback. Not great, you guys. Cade missed receivers, Iowa can’t stretch the field at all…we have issues. Kirk even said as much post-game on NBC, that the pass game needs work. I will say this – when Kaleb scored his game-tying touchdown on a brilliant piece of misdirection, Cade was the lead blocker and I wish he’d had a shot at someone. Show us you have that in your bag, at least (also please show us once you can uncork a 60-yarder; should’ve been that shot before half but we turtled up). But yeah, we HAVE to be better here or we will veer into 1997 territory.

– Who am I kidding? Floyd is back. We need some Lysol wipes, stat!