By Tyler Devine

IOWA CITY, Iowa – If tight ends Noah Fant and T.J. Hockenson continue on this path, the Iowa football team's offensive woes could soon be forgotten.

Fant, a sophomore, and Hockenson, a redshirt freshman, combined for 125 receiving yards and four touchdowns during Iowa’s stunning 55-24 rout of third-ranked Ohio State on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

Hockenson had five receptions for 71 yards and two touchdowns, all of which were career highs for the Chariton native.

Fant, a native of Omaha, Neb., also hauled in two touchdown passes from quarterback Nate Stanley, pushing his season total to seven, which is a team high. Fant's seven touchdown catches are also the most by an Iowa receiver since Marvin McNutt’s had 12 touchdown catches in 2012.

Hockenson gave credit to Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz for putting him and Fant in positions to be successful.

“It was awesome,” Hockenson said. “It was a lot of fun to see us competing with these guys and being able to make plays. The coaches trusted us, Stanley trusted us and we came out and competed our butts off and came out with a win.

“Coach Brian Ferentz did a great job putting us in a position to win and putting us in a position to go one-on-one with their guys and we executed.”

Sophomore quarterback Nate Stanley should also receive credit for Iowa's success in the passing game.

The 6-foot-5, 235-pound Stanley completed 20-of-31 passes for 226 yards and a career-high five touchdowns and no interceptions.

The only other player in Iowa history to achieve such a feat is former All-America quarterback Chuck Long, and no player from any tam has done it against Ohio State in 20 years.

Stanley now has 22 touchdown passes and just four interceptions on the season. The Wisconsin native needs six more touchdown passes to break Long’s single-season record of 27.

“I think you play best when you’re having fun,” Stanley said. “I’m not saying that I haven’t had fun, I’ve had a great time all year. I think when you can just go out and play and not worry about the pressure or the circumstances around that’s really when you can come out and excel.”

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz thinks Stanley's growth as a first-year starter has been the catalyst for the rest of the team growing and developing.

Kirk Ferentz also pointed out Stanley's ability to overcome adversity as a key to his development.

Stanley started the game just 1-for-6 in passing but he settled in late in the first quarter and was 19-for-25 the rest of the way.

"I talked about our team growing, and that's part of it," Ferentz said. "He's done a lot of good things this year and had some tough plays, which anybody that plays quarterback is going to. But the way he just keeps coming back, and he did a lot of really good things today against really good competition, so that was impressive. I think probably my favorite play is the one where he's got the guy bringing him down and he finds a way to get the ball in the end zone there for a touchdown. A lot of big throws by him, and he had five touchdown passes, so that's pretty good, too.

"Just the way he's playing right now, really proud of the way he's grown and developed."

The 6-foot-4, 232-pound Fant and  the 6-5, 243-pound Hockenson have different skill sets, but both create tough matchups for linebackers and safeties.

While Fant has the ability to stretch the field like a receiver, Hockenson grinds out the tough yards and does not shy away from contact.

Stanley said the plan all along was to take advantage of the mismatches created by Fant and Hockenson.

“The tight ends and the receivers all made plays today when we needed them to,” Stanley said. “All credit to them for making the grabs and running the routes that they’re supposed to.

“They had a great week of practice all week. Something we wanted to look at and do this week was isolate the tight ends on some linebackers and safeties and it’s something that we practiced all week and they came out and played a great game and executed what we wanted to do.”

Kirk Ferentz believes that Fant and Hockenson are just scratching the surface of their potential.

“It's like our team, it's week by week, and you just never know if they're going to have a breakthrough moment or when they're going to start,” Kirk Ferentz said. “Both those guys, they've got things they can get better at certainly, but I think they're certainly helping us out a lot, and Nate seems to find them, too, when they get that chance. 

“There's no magic, nothing magic I can tell you. It's just hopefully a part of the process.”

Injury report: Junior free safety Brandon Snyder sat out his third consecutive game since making his season debut against Illinois.

The 6-foot-1, 214-pound Snyder tore his anterior cruciate ligament during spring practice in April and missed the first five games before returning against Illinois.

He aggravated the injury against Illinois and has been listed as week to week.

Hooker houses it: Sophomore free safety Amani Hooker got Iowa on the board early with his first career interception return for a touchdown.

The 6-foot, 210-pound Hooker ended Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett’s streak of 16 straight completions, returning the interception 30 yards on the first play of the game to put Iowa ahead 7-0.

Hooker said he had envisioned making a play like that before.

“It was kind of like a dream,” Hooker said. “It was kind of like a deja vu kind of thing. I felt like I’d seen it in a dream before but I knew when I caught it I had to score and set the tone."

It was Hooker’s second interception this season.

Hooker has started all but one game this season.

Bad Bosa: Ohio State lost arguably its best defensive lineman in the second quarter when sophomore Nick Bosa was ejected for targeting on a hit against Nate Stanley.

The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Bosa came into the game as Ohio State’s leader with four sacks and 10 tackles for loss on the season. The penalty led to an Iowa first down and the drive ended with the Hawkeyes scoring a touchdown to expand their lead to 31-17.

Catch by Kluver: As if things weren’t crazy enough on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium, Iowa’s senior long snapper, Tyler Kluver, caught the first pass of his career on a fake field goal in the third quarter.

Sophomore punter Colten Rastetter acted as the quarterback on the play, completing the second pass of his career.

Kluver nearly scored on the play but stumbled and fell at the 2-yard line. 

The next play would result in a Stanley throwing a touchdown pass to Hockenson that put Iowa ahead 38-17.

Kluver said after the game that he didn’t believe the play was called at first.

“We were on the field, and obviously we’ve run a few fakes this year with Colten but not to me,” Kluver said. “I ran on and (junior offensive lineman) Keegan Render who is our right guard, he looked at me and he goes ‘polecat’, that’s the name of the play. And I was like ‘really? We’re running it? OK.’ And I double checked and triple checked with my holder. Obviously in a game like this we knew we were going to need stuff like that to compete. 

“I was just ready to make a play. I’m glad we got the first down and T.J. and the offense capitalized right after that. I was a little upset that I fell at the one yard line but I’m just happy we got points out of that. It was a huge part of the game.”

Going bowling: With the win, Iowa is now bowl eligible for the 16th time in the last 17 seasons.

Senior linebacker Josey Jewell wishes Iowa would have accomplished the feat earlier in the season but is happy to add another game to his final season as a Hawkeye.

“It’s good we get to be able to play another game, a game added to the end of the season,” Jewell said. “You always look forward to accomplishing that as quickly as possible during the season. We haven’t done that, we’ve finally done that now. It’ll be nice to understand we’ve got that one more game after but we’re going to have to keep on going and finish the season right.”

The 6-foot-2, 236-pound Jewell led Iowa with nine tackles and now has 391 career tackles, good for seventh all-time in program history.

Jackson’s hat trick: Junior cornerback Josh Jackson tied a school record with three interceptions. The only other plays in school history to do so are Tyler Sash and Grant Steen.

The 6-foot-1, 192-pound Jackson now has five interceptions this season and in his career.

Jackson said that the three interceptions are a first for him at any level.

“No (I’ve never had a day like this),” Jackson said. “I give credit to God and all my teammates for just pushing me and everybody pushing each other this week in practice and just coming in and really just try to enjoy the moment and execute today.”

Iowa intercepted Barrett four times on Saturday. Barrett had thrown just one interception all season coming into the game.

First timers: The one touchdown pass by Stanley that was not caught by either Fant or Hockenson was caught by senior fullback Drake Kulick. It was the first touchdown catch of Kulick’s career.

Senior running back James Butler had 75 yards rushing, his most as a Hawkeye. His 53-yard rush in the third quarter was his longest as a Hawkeye.

Freshman running back Toren Young scored his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter. His 34-yard rush on the drive was a career long. 

Quick hitters: Iowa handed Ohio State just its second road loss under head coach Urban Meyer…Iowa held Ohio State to 24 points, which is 22 points below the Buckeyes’ season average. Iowa has held eight of its nine opponents below their scoring average this season…Iowa has won four of its last five games against opponents ranked in the top five, the last coming against third-ranked Michigan last season…The 31-point margin of victory is the highest for Iowa in its 65 meetings with Ohio State…Senior running back Akrum Wadley rushed 20 times for 118 yards. It is his 13th career 100-yard rushing game. He now has 3,340 career all-purpose yards, good for 11th In program history.