Bohnenkamp: It Feels Like a Big Game

Sam LaPorta was asked on Tuesday if he knew anything about the Iowa-Michigan game in 1985.

The Hawkeyes' tight end, who wasn’t born until 2001, said he had heard about the game, but not much else.

Iowa was No. 1 and Michigan was No. 2 at the time, he was told.

“So it was a big game then,” LaPorta said, drawing laughs.

It’s funny that when you’ve witnessed historic moments, you expect everyone to know something about them years after the fact.

There are a lot of us “old dudes” in the Iowa media (I may have to trademark that term, or at least make t-shirts for it) who remember that game in 1985.

Actually, I was a student at Iowa then, a sophomore that year sitting in the north end zone where Rob Houghtlin’s game-winning field goal tumbled into legend.

The magnitude of that game is lost on what we’re used to these days. It was a mid-afternoon start on national TV with lights at Kinnick Stadium, which is every game now. It was a big deal in 1985 to be on the CBS game at 2:30 p.m. — even that season, there were still 1 p.m. games at Kinnick that weren’t televised. And the lighting that day was only temporary.

That game was the last time Iowa was involved in a matchup of top-5 teams, which gives Saturday’s game between the No. 3 Hawkeyes and No. 4 Penn State that ultimate big-game feel.

It’s something that coach Kirk Ferentz, an assistant with the Hawkeyes in that 1985 season, has described to his team.

“The energy, when you walk in the stadium, it's rare,” Ferentz said. “There's certain games you can feel when you walk in the stadium, especially when the crowd gets in there. That part is really neat. You’ve got to be prepared for that.”

Every player at Tuesday’s media availability talked about how these were the games they’ve always wanted to play in, that when you’re a young player as a kid you think about walking into a stadium, and feeling that energy that Ferentz described.

While there have been those signature moments at Kinnick in Ferentz’s 23 seasons, this one has a different tone.

Anyone who was there in 1985 will get that same feeling on Saturday.

Back then, the biggest goal was winning the Big Ten, getting to the Rose Bowl, and then seeing how the polls shake out on January 2. That Iowa team looked like it could go undefeated — it didn’t — but you walked away from the stadium that day feeling like it could happen.

The winner will leave Kinnick undefeated, thinking about that Big Ten title, getting to the College Football Playoff, and seeing how it shakes out. The loser won’t have its hopes mortally wounded, but there will be a sting.

The Hawkeyes are at their highest ranking since 2015, when they had an undefeated regular season. This season felt like that one, which felt like 1985. It’s something you feel when you’ve gone through it.

It’s something you don’t feel very often.

So, anyone at Kinnick on Saturday — players, coaches, fans — take a moment to look around. Feel the energy that Ferentz described. You won’t forget it.

It’s No. 3 against No. 4 in Kinnick Stadium on an October afternoon on national TV.

So it’s a big game then.