2009 Week 1

Coach Pelini in a post conference said, "Our offense sucked, our defense sucked, even our special teams sucked. I don't know how we won this game". The Hawkeyes stopped the first drive of the Huskies but upon the punt return, HB Nathan Guillroy fumbled the ball and gave the Huskies great field position in order to score a touchdown. The Hawkeyes defense was helped by Junior Left End Christian Ballard with a school and NCAA record breaking EIGHT sacks in the game. HB Nathan Guillroy also helped the special teams with a kick off returned for a touchdown. Pelini also stated that the Hawkeyes played a lot of the "clock game" meaning they ran the clock down as far as they could while having the ball and took their time selecting a defensive play until the other's team offense was ready. The team will be doing double duty during the week to be able to be ready to play a very tough Syracuse team.