IOWA CITY – With three seconds left, fresh off a strip sack by Max Llewellyn and the game tied at 10, Iowa junior kicker Drew Stevens hit a 53-yard kick to give the Hawkeyes a 13-10 victory over rivals the Big Ten send Nebraska home on Friday night.

The kick gave Iowa its ninth win in its last 10 games against the Cornhuskers, and it was the fourth time since 2018 that Iowa scored a game-winning field goal against the Huskers.

A year ago, Stevens missed field goals of 30 and 24 yards in this game at Memorial Stadium. On the final field goal of the game Kirk Ferentz Insert a backup transfer kicker from Central Michigan, Marshal Meerder for the game winner.

A year later, Stevens received his redemption story.

“Drew just grew up. He worked hard. He deserved everything he got,” Ferentz said of his kicker aftermath. “He did the hard work. He shot with great confidence in windy conditions last week and tonight it wasn’t a chip shot. I think we all felt like, Hey, he’s going to make it.”

Stevens remembered the moment from last year and said it made Friday’s kick all the better.

“That means everything,” he said. “It sucks when someone else is out there doing a job, I mean, I’ll be honest. This sucks, especially if you train all year round. That felt really good, but I was confident and ready to do it. “Go out there and do it.

Strangely enough, he didn’t even remember the kick and “nothing” went through his mind before the game-winning shoe.

“It’s a hard feeling to explain,” he said. “I mean, it happened last year, like at Northwestern, or it’s like a blackout. It’s hard to explain, but like the second you step off the sideline, you just act on what you’ve practiced.”

Ferentz said all the practice Stevens put in culminated in the winning kick.

“Generally he practices well, but I think everyone knows the maturity,” Ferentz said. “He is a completely different player than he was last November and all his teammates know that and the way he played. That’s why everyone has trust in him. He deserves this.”

His teammates were actually confident.

“I had no doubt,” senior linebacker Nick Jackson said. “You saw his kicks this year. It looks like a 55-yarder has 10-15 yards left.”

Stevens even scored a practice field goal when Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule tried to put him on ice last time out with the Huskers.

“The first one looked like money,” said fellow LB senior Jay Higgins. “The first one looked so good, I think that helped us. To give him a practice piece.”

“That was really good coaching (taking the time out),” Jackson added.

Jackson and Higgins didn’t feel the need to give their kicker any encouraging words before he took the field.

“Oh Devil No!” Higgins laughed.

“There’s nothing to say about Drew,” Jackson added. “I think people take it for granted because you only get one shot at it last week and two big goals tonight in 20 degrees, that goes without saying.

Even Iowa’s leader didn’t feel the need to support his kicker’s game-winning attempt.

“Right, wrong or indifferent, I’m kind of letting these guys go. They are in their own zone. They don’t need me to say the obvious, like ‘You can do it’ or ‘Go get it’.”

And there clearly There was no need to encourage him at the last minute. Stevens was ready for the moment.

“That was the most tired I’ve ever experienced in a football game,” Stevens said of his postgame celebration. “People ask me, ‘Are you planning your celebrations?’ And what we actually talked about in the second quarter or something, I think we should lead the team to the Cup if we hit him, and then Max basically takes the ball from Mahomes Jr. and then it starts.”

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