Iowa Football Stock Report: Market Crashes, but a Few Hawkeyes Are Still Climbing

The stock market for the Iowa Hawkeyes had a bad, bad day against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Things did not go well, and a few areas saw the market crash for Iowa in its 13-10 loss on the road to Minnesota.

The offense bottomed out, the turnovers were backbreaking, the errors made by this team were costly, and it wasted one of Iowa's best defensive performances in quite some time as the Hawkeyes let the Floyd of Rosedale slip away.

Iowa, now sitting at 5-2, heads back to Iowa City to try to pick up the pieces against a Wisconsin team that sits at 5-2 as well after handling No. 16 USC. As the Hawkeyes regroup, let's dig into the stock portfolio this week.

Stock Down: Quarterback Play

With the controversy about who would play going into this game leading the storylines, the Hawkeyes are now faced with the issue of figuring out whether either Hank Brown or Jeremy Hecklinski can rebound from this.

It was missed throws, bad reads, poor decisions, and a costly effort from the quarterbacks.

The two combined to go 20-for-37 for 198 yards and a touchdown that tied the game, but the three interceptions proved too costly to overcome. It also doesn't help how inconsistent it was. Two catch-and-run completions accounted for 94 passing yards, showing it was otherwise dormant.

Stock Up: Run Defense

Iowa's run defense is elite. There is no other way to put it this year. The front seven was a question mark coming into 2026, and that has long been put to bed by this group that relies on each other rather than one or two stars.

On a day when Minnesota mustered just 209 total yards of offense, the run defense did its part. Iowa limited Minnesota to 72 rushing yards on 35 attempts. It was outstanding work from this group to keep Iowa within striking distance despite the offense's showing.

Stock Down: CFP Chances

We have to talk about it. Iowa went into this game with everything in the palm of its hand. The Hawkeyes had a chance to get to 6-1 out of the bye week and create even more momentum. Now, sitting at 5-2, things have turned upside down, and the road looks a lot longer.

Stock Up: Secondary Play

Minnesota quarterback Drake Lindsey is viewed as a potential NFL talent in next year's draft. Iowa, for the second year in a row, had him looking completely out of sorts in the passing game. Lindsey couldn't find open receivers for most of the day.

Iowa held Lindsey and the talented Minnesota wide receivers to a 14-for-26 outing for just 137 yards and an interception. It was unfortunate timing that 39 of those 137 yards came on the final drive of the game to set up Minnesota's walk-off field goal.

Add us as a preferred source on Google