Kaden Wetjen Rewrites Iowa History in Win Over UMass

Kaden Wetjen dropped an underwhelming performance against Iowa State last week. But the Iowa Hawkeyes' wide receiver turned it around with a record-breaking performance against the UMass Minutemen on Saturday.

Wetjen kicked things in the 13th minute of the first quarter. He collected the ball from quarterback Mark Gronowski and ran to the left side before swirling his way to the end zone for a 20-yard rushing touchdown, leaving six defenders dejected.

20 yards to the house 🏠@WetjenKaden x @BigTenNetwork pic.twitter.com/0bDN8TNJEY
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) September 14, 2025

The 23-year-old probably felt that he still needs to make up for the mistakes he made last week and went on to pull off a move that would etch his name in the history books with golden letters.

Wetjen caught the first punt of the second half near Iowa's end zone. He ran all the way to the right side of the field for 25 yards before rerouting to the centre for another 70 yards to score 95 yard punt return touchdown.

Reigning @bigten Returner of the Year doing returner of the year things 🙌@HawkeyeFootball's Kaden Wetjen is UNREAL 🤯

📺: BTN pic.twitter.com/b4TrMZDGRT
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 14, 2025

With this, Wetjen became the first player in the program history to score a receiving, rushing, kick return and punt return touchdown. He is also now tied with Tim Dwight for multiple 80-yard-touchdown in the Hawkeyes history.

Wetjen's 95-yard punt-return touchdown ties him with Bill Happel who set the school record at Minnesota in 1984. It's also the longest TD in Kinnick Stadium history.

Wetjen finished the game with one carry for 20 yards and one touchdown, one kick return for 34 yards and four punt returns for 182 yards and one touchdown.

The wide receiver addressed the media after the historic performance against UMass. Wetjen shared his feelings about bouncing back from a forgettable performance.

"I'm glad my performance and I mean the rest of the team's performance as well," Wetjen said. "I think we I mean like KF said, we had a really good bounceback win tonight and I mean all cylinders were firing and we kind of went back to the details because we kind of go away from it and some stuff and me personally with punt return last week was not my best week at all. So I kind of went back to the basics and thankfully that helped out."

The Hawkeyes dominated UMass right from the start, scoring the first touchdown in the second minute itself. They finished the first quarter with a 20-0 lead. They carried the momentum and went back to the locker room with a 30-7 scoreline at the end of the first half.

UMass' touchdown in the second quarter remained the only TD they scored throughout the night as the Hawkeyes clinched a dominating 47-7 victory.

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