Iowa’s run defense faces a tough challenge in Saturday’s game at Minnesota. Gopher running back Mo Ibrahim is averaging a shade over 140 yards on the ground in Big Ten play and has 18 touchdowns.

That’s Iowa linebacker Seth Benson. The Hawkeyes won last year’s game 27-22 in Iowa City but the Minnesota offense rolled up 189 yards of rushing and had 83 snaps. After a 3-4 start the Hawkeyes have won three straight. Senior linebacker Jack Campbell.

Campbell never wavered in his belief the Hawkeyes would turn their fortunes around.

Defensive lineman Logan Lee credits head coach Kirk Ferentz for helping navigate the Hawkeyes through a tough stretch.

Lee says the 3-4 start is history and so is the three game win streak.

Iowa used a 19-3 first half run to take command in an 83-67 win at Seton Hall. Kris Murray tied a career high with 29 points, Tony Perkins had 18 and Filip Rebraca had 10 points and 11 rebounds. The Hawkeyes were 28 of 33 at the foul line.

Rebraca says defense was the key to the win.

Iowa coach Fran McCaffery says the Hawkeyes answered the physical challenge from Seton Hall.

The Hawkeyes only made five three pointers and only attempted 16.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State seniors Xavier Hutchinson and Will McDonald IV have accepted invitations to play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, held Saturday, Feb. 4^th in Mobile, Alabama.

Played annually since 1950, The Reese’s Senior Bowl is one of the nation’s best collegiate all-star games.

The NFL Network will broadcast the game.

Hutchinson, a Jacksonville, Florida, native, has had an outstanding senior season. He broke his own single-season school record and has 97 receptions, which leads all FBS players. He also leads the Big 12 in receiving yards per game (105.9) and total receiving yards (1,059). Hutchinson has 39 more receptions than the next best player in the Big 12. This season, he’s had at least eight receptions in every game.

Hutchinson also broke Iowa State’s career mark with 244 receptions.

He’s a two-time All-Big 12 First Team pick by the league’s coaches and was the 2020 Big 12 Offensive Newcomer of the Year. He’s on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List this season.

McDonald is one of the nation’s most-feared pass rushers. He’s second all time in Big 12 history with 33.0 career sacks, including 3.5 this season. He enters Saturday’s game against Texas Tech one sack shy of the league record.

A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native, he also has 40.0 tackles for a loss and nine forced fumbles in his career.

McDonald was a First-Team All-American last season by the FWAA as well as being named Big 12 Co-Defensive Lineman of the Year. Like Hutchinson, he’s also a two-time All-Big 12 First Team pick.

Hutchinson and McDonald will play their final home game at Jack Trice Stadium this weekend against Texas Tech. Tickets are still available to purchase.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Eleven players — four from the Hawkeye State — have signed on to join the University of Iowa baseball program in the fall of 2023, it was announced Wednesday by head coach Rick Heller.

The class consists of five position players: Ryan Brosius (OF, Dubuque, Iowa), Max Burt (C, Mason City, Iowa), Joe Connolly (UT, Omaha, Neb.), Jaixen Frost (IF, Kellerton, Iowa) and Ty Plummer (IF, West Des Moines, Iowa).

Iowa also signed six pitchers: Elliot Cadieux-Lanoue (LHP, Saint-Pie, Quebec, Canada), Drew Deremer (RHP, Omaha, Neb.), Rowan Donels (RHP, Cedar Rapids, Iowa), Sam Hart (RHP, Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Tanner Paschke (RHP, O’Fallon, Mo.) and Doug Taylor (RHP, Mason City, Iowa).

All 12 recruits are top 500 rated players nationally by Perfect Game and two are inside the top 500 by Prep Baseball Report.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — University of Iowa senior defensive back Kaevon Merriweather is one of 20 semifinalists for the sixth annual Jason Whitten Collegiate Man of the Year. The announcement was made Wednesday by the Jason Whitten Selection Committee. Three finalists will be announced on Dec. 14 and the winner will be presented in February.

Merriweather, a native of Belleville, Michigan (Belleville High School), has started all 10 games at strong safety. He is second on the team with three interceptions and ranks fifth on the team with 41 tackles. He has been a team captain each week of the season.

Merriweather recovered and returned a Rutgers fumble 30 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter of Iowa’s 27-10 win over the Scarlet Knights. It ranks as the fifth longest fumble return touchdown in school history. Later in the contest, Merriweather collected his first interception of the season, returning the theft 33 yards.

Merriweather had his second interception of the season in Iowa’s 33-13 Homecoming win over Northwestern and added his third theft in the 24-3 win at Purdue. He also has two tackles for loss and one forced fumble.

Off the field, Merriweather has taken a leadership rolea as he has been involved in nearly 80 hours of leadership, community engagement and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programming within Student-Athlete Academic Services (SAAS) Hawkeye Life Program. Merriweather is also a leader in Student Services Multicultural Focus Group and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programming and was a participant in the B1G Life Series: Selma to Montgomery trip this past July, an immersive and educational experience at the center of the civil rights movement.

Iowa (6-4, 4-3) travels to Minnesota (7-3, 4-3) Saturday (3:05 p.m. CT, FOX) before hosting Nebraska (3 p.m. CT, BTN) on Friday, Nov. 25 to close the regular season. The Senior Day contest in Kinnick Stadium is sold out.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa deer hunters are often asked to donate venison to help feed the hungry, but they’re also urged to donate deer hides for use in the Veterans Leather Program. Lisa Widick, state spokeswoman for the Iowa Elks, says the state’s Elks lodges collected more than four-thousand deer hides for the program this past hunting season. The hides were trucked to a tannery in Missouri, then the finished leather is sent back to Iowa — and the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown. “They use the leather as craft program and turn around and make moccasins, backpacks, gun cases, oh my gosh, all kinds of things,” Widick says. “It’s amazing to see, utterly amazing.”

The leatherworking program is used as therapy for recovering veterans, but she says it’s entirely reliant on the charity of Iowa’s deer hunters. “We talk to hunters and ask them, ‘What do you do with your deer hides?’ and most of them say, ‘We throw them in the ditch. Why would we want them?’ Or they’ll take them to Tyson and trade them for a free pair of gloves,” Widick says. “That’s all good and fine. I get it. People need free gloves, too, but look at what your deer hide can do for a veteran.”

Hunters who would like to donate hides should contact the nearest Iowa Elks lodge, and there’s a website (www.elks.org/lodges) where you can locate all 31 of them in the state. “Every time we mention the word ‘veterans,’ people’s ears perk up. It means a little bit more than just talking about a deer hide and that it’s going to make a pair of leather gloves for a guy in a wheelchair or a pair of moccasins you can buy to wear,” Widick says. “It’s about veterans and keeping them busy and helping them somewhat rehab and be able to have a little bit of production in their life.”

A wide range of veteran-made products, including leather goods, ceramics and beadwork, are available to the public through the Iowa Veterans Home Gift Shop.

On the web at: https://ivh.iowa.gov/about/gift-shop

Photo credit: Iowa Central

Taylor McCreedy continued her stellar week of running by helping Iowa Central to the NJCAA Women’s Half Marathon National Championship.

McCreedy finished in 6th place with a time of 1:29.03 in the race in Tallahassee, FL. Her teammates Chloe Garcia Grafing and Zinash Valen finished 4th and 5th respectively to aid the championship finish. The Tritons had 15 points, 8 points ahead of runner-up New Mexico Junior College.

Faith Nyathi of El Paso won the individual title with a time of 1:19.59.

The team title was the 6th in school history in the event for Iowa Central. It was the second strong run of the week for McCreedy who finished 11th in the Women’s D1 5000M at the NJCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa trapping season is underway, and a D-N-R expert says the prospects are good. Furbearer biologist, Vince Evelsizer, says there shouldn’t be any trouble finding furs. “Most of our species of furbearers and Iowa are doing well, the populations are either stable, or increasing slightly,” Evelsizer says. “Examples of that would be things like coons and beavers, even red fox, that sort of thing.” Evelsizer says the only two species that they’re concerned about are foxes and muskrats — which have seen declining populations. He says making a profit from trapping is a little less certain.

“It does look like there continues to be a relatively weak, wild fur market going into this fall and winter. However, some species like bobcats, and beavers, have increased a little bit in value,” he says. Evelsizer says the price of the furs is influenced by several things. “In general, it has to do with the garment industry, and where supply and demand issues are. Right now, for example, in the past six, eight years, especially China and Russia, were two countries that were the bigger for buyers,”Evelsizer says, “and relations with those two countries in the U-S has been tense past few years, and that can affect trade on things like wild furs.” He says there’s been around 14 to 15-thousand licensed fur harvesters the past few years.

“When the fur market is weak, it does tend to lead to a lower harvest or effort from our harvesters,” Evelsizer says. “But that being said, there’s still a lot of fur harvesters that go out and do it. You know, your regardless of the fair market value, they go and do it because they love trapping or they love predator hunting or they love running their coon dogs.” Evelsizer says some trappers aren’t concerned about the fur price.” Some folks are interested in the meat, you know, things like a beaver, for example, can be actually very good eating,” he says.

Trappers don’t have to sell their furs this year — Evelsizer says they can keep them for one year and see if prices go up before they have to sell. He says there is one more beginning trapper event for the year this Saturday in St. Charles. It’s for beginner trappers of all ages and you can sign up on the Iowa D-N-R ‘s website to register.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says the Hawkeyes need to focus on the task at hand and not the help they need. The Hawkeyes take a three game winning streak to Minnesota and need two wins and an Illinois loss to claim a second straight division title.

Iowa stood 3-4 after getting clobbered at Ohio State and the season appeared to be unraveling. They have won three straight to climb back into the division race.

Ferentz says Minnesota has become a consistent winner under P.J. Fleck.

Iowa’s struggling offense has gone up against several highly ranked defenses and the Gophers are the next one.

Ferenz says they are prepared to face either Minnesota quarterback in redshirt freshman Athan Kaliakmanis or senior Tanner Morgan. Kaliakmanis went the distance in last week’s win over Northwestern.