THE DAY AFTER: Hawkeyes' receivers are having a lot of fun

Iowa’s wide receivers room seems like a fun place.

“It is,” Tyrone Tracy Jr., said, laughing.

They’re having a lot of fun these days.

The top three in receiving for the No. 14 Hawkeyes are all wide receivers — Ihmir Smith-Marsette (15 catches, 254 yards), Brandon Smith (15-170) and Nico Ragaini (11-148). All eight of Iowa’s touchdown receptions belong to the receivers — Smith-Marsette and Smith each have three, and Tracy and Oliver Martin each have one.

There is a top-this mentality with the receivers — someone does something, and the rest want to do something a little better.

“Us in the receivers room, we have a good time,” Smith said after Saturday’s 48-3 win over Middle Tennessee State at Kinnick Stadium. “When Ihmir makes a great play, Tyrone, Nico, we’re all on the sideline, having a great time. We all feed off each other.”

“We really do feed off each other,” Tracy said. “If you do something, if you come to the sideline after you score, or whatever, we evaluate what happened, we talk about how we can do things differently. We give tips to each other. We try to make each other better.”

Seven Hawkeyes caught at least one pass in Saturday’s game. All but four of the 20 completions went to wide receivers.

That was different than last season, when tight ends T.J. Hockenson and Noah Fant, who went on to be first-round NFL draft picks, were the first options for quarterback Nate Stanley. Wide receiver Nick Easley had the most receptions last season with 52, but Hockenson and Fant combined for 84 catches and 13 touchdowns.

“We've got better balance at the receiver position, first and foremost,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “Coming into the season expecting production and good play from Ihmir and Brandon Smith, to see Tyrone Tracy jump up there and do a good job. Nico came up with a great third-down play. Get a lot of guys involved and the backs are doing a good job with their role. If we spread it around, it's always a good thing.”

“We knew we were going to have to take some more of the load,” Smith said. “We’re up to the challenge.”

Tracy has been one of the surprises. Smith said Tracy got his “Sweet Feet” nickname back after some of his moves in Saturday’s game.

“He definitely earned the ‘Sweet Feet’ back,” Smith said. “He’s definitely ‘Sweet Feet.’”

“You could give it to Ihmir, too,” Tracy said. “He had some good moves (on a 14-yard touchdown run in the third quarter).”

He laughed.

Such is the fun life for the receivers these days.

✅ Juke

✅ Spin

✅ Hurdle

You'll love reliving these @HawkeyeFootball highlights. pic.twitter.com/r1cGM5cGmu
— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) September 28, 2019

Other takeaways:

2. Goodson’s moves

Speaking of nicknames, Smith has given one to freshman running back Tyler Goodson.

“I called him the ‘Human Joystick,’” Smith said. “Because man, he’s like PlayStation. Press circle, get spin. Press triangle, he’s jumping over somebody. He’s like one of our electric players.”

“He’s definitely got some nice moves,” running back Toren Young said.

Goodson had 12 rushes for 97 yards in Saturday’s game. He’s become one of the three main options in Iowa’s running game, along with Young and Mekhi Sargent. Those three combined for 319 of Iowa’s 351 rushing yards in the game.

Goodson has 34 carries this season, second-most on the team. He ranks third with 202 rushing yards, but has yet to get into the end zone, even though he had a couple of opportunities in Iowa’s final scoring drive of the game.

“He's an aggressive player, physical player and he's getting better every week, too,” Ferentz said.

Nate Stanley threw for 276 yards and two touchdowns, Toren Young added a career-high 131 yards rushing and @HawkeyeFootball dominated Middle Tennessee 48-3. pic.twitter.com/jr6Ii93Pwo
— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) September 28, 2019

3. Steady Stanley

Stanley has thrown 118 passes without an interception this season.

He came close to one in the first half on Saturday, when his pass went through the hands of Middle Tennessee State’s Reed Blankenship and ended up being caught by Tracy for a 33-yard gain.

Two passes later, Stanley threw a touchdown pass to Smith.

“That’s like one of the best feelings you can have, knowing you have an outstanding quarterback like Nate,” Smith said. “You know he’s going to put the ball exactly where it’s supposed to be. He makes it a lot easier for us.”

4. Points in every quarter

Iowa has scored in every quarter this season.

It’s interesting how the numbers have been spread out — 30 points in each of the first two quarters, 34 in the third and 40 in the fourth.

"We're thrilled to be 4-0, at this point." pic.twitter.com/HCWlUEO4Mf
— Iowa On BTN (@IowaOnBTN) September 29, 2019

5. Poll physics

Iowa had a convincing win, and went nowhere in either of the national polls.

The Hawkeyes remained at No. 14 in the Associated Press and coaches rankings, but there wasn’t much movement ahead of them.

Alabama and Clemson switched spots at 1 and 2 in both polls. Ohio State and LSU swapped the 4-5 spots in the AP poll and the 5-6 spots in the coaches poll. Notre Dame and Florida swapped the 9-10 spots in the AP poll.

The Hawkeyes did receive more points in each poll — 731 (up 17 points) in the AP rankings and 790 (up 12) in the coaches rankings.

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