Saturday’s matchup between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Minnesota Golden Gophers featured a controversial ending that certainly has fans feeling robbed.
The game, like most Iowa football games, was a defensive slugfest, with not much offense to speak of on either side. However, Iowa came up with a huge special teams play that would have won the game. Or so we thought.
Iowa was set to get one last chance to come back in this game, facing a 12-10 deficit with only 1:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Minnesota was forced to punt the ball back to Iowa, and Iowa punt returner Cooper DeJean pulled off one of the most improbable punt returns of the college football this season, juking out countless Minnesota players to score a touchdown to take the lead.
Iowa touchdown! Everybody but the offense bailing out Brian Ferentz once again!! pic.twitter.com/sPVk8s8PPL
— Sidelines Sports Network™ (@Sidelines_SN) October 21, 2023
However, the play was controversially called back, as the officials determined that DeJean had actually called for an “invalid fair catch signal” by signaling to his team to get away from the bouncing ball on the punt.
THE IOWA TD IS CALLED BACK AS IT IS CALLED A FAIR CATCH! pic.twitter.com/hDN2j5zOwf
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) October 21, 2023
Iowa still had a chance to win the game even after this call, but starting quarterback Deacon Hill was intercepted just three plays later, clinching a Minnesota victory.
Picked Off. Iowa Loses. pic.twitter.com/z2bNgA1vl9
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthew_CFB) October 21, 2023
Clearly this loss is a result of Iowa’s struggling offense. But the controversial call on the punt return is also hard to ignore, as fans ripped the officials for this ruling.
i think iowa getting screwed too . punt returner pointed at ball but was nowhere near a fair catch signal. then he had big return that was brought back to spot #CFB
— Gabriel Morency (@sportsrage) October 21, 2023
Iowa football got cheated. The Ref called it a “fair catch” #Iowa #Minnesota pic.twitter.com/zHvRNHoPuy
— 🤷🏾♂️ (@saiahxxl) October 21, 2023
A lot of misinformation out there, here we go:
1. Cooper DeJean did not call for a fair catch.
2. A fair catch signal has to be over the head.
3. It was not called on the field.
4. It is not reviewable.
5. Iowa was robbed.
6. Iowa can be bad on offense and still robbed. #Hawkeyes— Cody Hills (@ByCodyHills) October 21, 2023
Oh no Iowa.
Cooper DeJean house call overturned after it was ruled a fair catch.
pic.twitter.com/Fjqve46yP9— Barstool Gambling (@stoolgambling) October 21, 2023
That is an absolutely ridiculous call in the Iowa game
No way that is calling for a fair catch— Big Game Bengal (@BengalYouTube) October 21, 2023
The loss for Iowa drops them to 6-2 on the year, which is a significant number of losses because it probably rules them out for the College Football Playoff consideration.
