– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN — A win five years in the making for the Iowa Hawkeyes ended up requiring a thrilling last-second finish whose memories will last a lifetime.
Hank Brown threw a touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee on the last play of the game, lifting No. 17 Iowa to a stunning 20-19 victory over No. 18 Michigan inside Michigan Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The winning score capped a frantic 91-yard drive in less than two minutes, kept alive by a key unnecessary roughness penalty on third down near midfield with 28 seconds remaining, and the Hawkeyes scored the winner four plays later. Brown’s 29-yard pass to Addison Ostrenga was the penultimate play of the game and left two seconds on the clock, enough time to pull off the stunner on the next snap.
“We prep for situations like these throughout the week in practice all the time,” Brown said. “Why do you prepare for it? For a moment like that.”
Iowa won its first game against a ranked Big Ten opponent since topping then No. 4 Penn State in Iowa City in 2021, and had lost 13 consecutive games against the Top 25, conference and non-conference games, before its win against then No. 14 Vanderbilt in last December’s ReliaQuest Bowl.
Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to JJ Buchanan early in the fourth quarter — their second scoring connection of the game — but Michigan failed on the two-point conversion to try and go up by seven, then gained just 24 yards of offense and one first down for the rest of the period.
“We would’ve liked to run the clock out,” Michigan head coach Kyle Whittingham said. “That was disappointing.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 23 pictures in total.
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