Iowa’s 2004 Big Ten champion football team honored at Fryfest on Friday
By Pat Harty
CORALVILLE, Iowa – They are now in their mid-to-late 30s, raising families and working and doing what every typical adult does at that stage in life
Some have shrunk in size. Some have gotten a little bigger or stayed the same. And some have turned a little gray over the years, or a little thin on top.
The players on Iowa’s 2004 Big Ten champion football team are normal in so many ways with exception to one thing that occurred during one magical season 15 years ago that now makes them unique and special.
A team that lost two of its first four games, including a 44-7 beat-down at Arizona State in the third game of the season, and that had its running back position gutted by injuries, still found a way to defy logic by winning a share of the Big Ten title and by finishing 10-2 overall.
And with this being the 15-year anniversary of that historic season, the players from the 2004 squad were the featured guests at the 11th annual Fryfest event, which was held on Friday at the Coralville Conference Center.
The 2004 squad was 5-0 in games decided by seven or fewer points, and that included the 30-25 victory over Louisiana State in the Capital One Bowl, which was decided by maybe the greatest touchdown pass and catch in program history when quarterback Drew Tate connected with receiver Warren Holloway for a 56-yard touchdown as time expired.
“I remember every moment of that play very vividly,” Holloway said after signing autographs with some of his former teammates for over an hour on Friday.
Holloway was among about a dozen former players from the 2004 team who attended Fryfest on Friday. Hundreds of fans stood in line for over an hour just to get an autograph, to shake hands and to say thanks to the Holloway and his cohorts for giving them a season to cherish forever.
Members of the 2004 squad, including former All-America linebacker and retired NFL veteran Chad Greenway, will also be honored during the Iowa football team’s season opener against Miami of Ohio on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.
Greenway was a rising star as a junior on the 2004 team, and when asked on Friday what made the team special, he gave much of the credit to Kirk Ferentz, who is now entering his 21st season as the Iowa head coach.
“I thought it was one of coach Ferentz’s best coaching years in his career of finding a way and making the right decisions in tight games all the way through,” Greenway said. “And obviously, for us guys to have the fortitude to get those wins in tight games and big stops and big scores and all sorts of things, just overcoming obstacles, it was a very resilient group.
“It kind of epitomized coach Ferentz coached teams.”
In addition to having to overcome a rash of injuries to his players, Ferentz also had to overcome the death of his father, which occurred the day after Iowa had crushed Ohio State 33-7 in the sixth game of the 2004 season.
The players rallied around their head coach and they refused to let injuries be an excuse.
They also used the debacle in the desert against Arizona State as a rallying cry and as a wake-up call.
Iowa was coming off back-to-back seasons in which it finished 11-2 in 2002 and 10-3 in 2003, so there was lots of positive energy heading into the Arizona State, with Iowa being 2-0 at the time.
“In that instance, I think that team, we were coming off two really good years and expectations were really high,” Greenway said. “And I don’t think we were as deep as those teams in the previous two years and we had to find a way to be more creative.
“Once we got to 2-2, we realized that we were humbled and we weren’t quite as strong as the last two years, so we kind of doubled back.”
Iowa lost at Michigan 30-17 in the Big Ten opener, but then never lost again despite having to rely on walk-on running back Sam Brownlee to carry much of the rushing load.
Brownlee only gained 227 yards for the season, which is the third lowest total for Iowa’s leading rusher in a season since 1933, but he did so many of the unsung things that were crucial to winning.
“In a year like that, every yard mattered on the ground, especially,” said Greenway, who played for 11 seasons with the Minnesota Vikings before retiring in 2017. “Yards is one thing, but look at the protection, look at the ability to catch the ball out of the backfield, the screen game, all those type of things.
“Just to be able to be kind of multiple in the passing game is what Sam allowed them to do.”
Matt Roth was an All-America defensive end and one of the conference’s top pass rushers for Iowa in 2004. He played with high emotion and with high energy, and that made him a fan favorite.
Roth came to Iowa from suburban Chicago as a heralded linebacker recruit, and he was determined to stay at linebacker until former Iowa defensive coordinator Norm Parker, who passed away in 2014, finally persuaded him to switch to defensive end.
The position switch paid huge dividends for Roth, who would go on to become a dominant force in college before playing for seven seasons in the NFL with three different teams.
Roth was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the second round of the 2005 NFL Draft, and with the 46th pick overall.
“I was going to go to Nebraska and play rush end and I thought they were crazy because I wanted to play linebacker and then Norm moved me after a year,” Roth said. “It definitely changed my life. It set me up monetarily. I don’t have to worry about (money) for the rest of my life because I’ve been set up through the NFL.”
Roth also credits Iowa strength coach Chris Doyle for helping to mold him into a star player, and for helping to make the 2004 team tough and resilient.
“I think the biggest thing that kids don’t look at, and I looked at it very, very, very closely when I was coming out is strength coach, and that was Doyle,” Roth said. “I think he’s the X-factor.”
Doyle has been Iowa’s strength coach throughout the Ferentz era, and is now the highest paid strength and conditioning coach in college football, a distinction that is well deserved in Roth’s opinion.
“If you want to play at the next level, and you're serious about playing at the next level, he's the guy to get you there because I think that's one of the most undervalued things in recruiting,” Roth said of Doyle’s impact. “That was the difference, Doyle.”
Greenway was like so many of the players on the 2004 squad in that he came to Iowa as an unheralded recruit.
The South Dakota native would go on to become one of the top linebackers in program history, and then a star in the NFL.
And now Greenway has entered into the world of business as a co-owner of new line of vodka called Gray Duck Handcrafted Vodka, which is now available in five states, including Iowa.
Greenway will make appearances at two area Hy-Vee stores on Saturday to promote his new product.
“It’s been fun. It’s been growing,” Greenway said. “I never thought I’d be doing this. I kind of fell into it. It’s been an interesting experience to kind of be in the business and entrepreneurial side. So we just got our fifth state. We just picked up in Wisconsin.”