By Pat Harty

Complain or say what you want about Kirk Ferentz as he nears the end of his 26^th season as the Iowa football coach, but there is no denying his ability to persevere, and to stay the course no matter how difficult it might be.

Iowa’s 69-year-old head football coach just capped an emotional and distraction-filled week by leading his team to a 29-13 victory over Maryland on Saturday in College Park, Maryland.

There was no great mystery as to how Iowa would approach the Maryland game from an offensive standpoint.

With fourth-team walk-on Jackson Stratton starting at quarterback, and with Iowa leading the Big Ten in rushing, it was obvious that offensive coordinator Tim Lester would rely on the running game to carry the load.

And it did so in spectacular fashion as Iowa rushed for 268 yards, led by Kaleb Johnson’s 164 yards on a career-high 35 carries.

Stratton threw just enough passes to where he couldn’t be ignored, completing 10-of-14 passes for 76 yards and zero interceptions.

But it was the running game, and the Iowa defense holding Maryland to just 277 yards that paved the way to victory number seven this season.

Johnson also set the Iowa single-season record for most rushing touchdowns on a 2-yard run in the second quarter. It was the Ohio native’s 21^st rushing touchdown this season.

Johnson and Shonn Greene had previously shared the record at 20.

Johnson was interviewed by the Big Ten Network on the field after Saturday’s game and he spoke highly of Stratton’s performance under tough circumstances.

“I’m so proud him” Johnson said. “I told him to be calm. He told me, ‘alright let’s do it.’ So we did it. Fist pump and after that he did great today.

“I can’t give nothing but props to him. He played with the team on his back and he helped us win, coming out there and doing what he needed to do.”

Besides his usual weekly preparation for an opponent, Kirk Ferentz also had to deal with all the drama that was unfolding at quarterback, and with having his son, former Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, as a member of the Maryland coaching staff.

This past week had been filled with numerous distractions, and yet, when it came time to play on Saturday, Kirk Ferentz had his depleted squad ready.

In addition to being without quarterbacks Cade McNamara and Brendan Sullivan due to injuries, Iowa also played without graduate cornerback Jermari Harris due to what Iowa said is a medical issue, and without starting right tackle Gennings Dunker due to an injury.

Saturday’s game also came less than 24 hours after McNamara had released a statement in which he denied a rumor that he had recently quit the team, calling it baseless accusations.

McNamara started the first eight games this season, but he hasn’t played since suffering a concussion in the win over Northwestern on Oct. 26 at Kinnick Stadium.

Sullivan had started the previous two games, but he suffered an ankle injury early in the third quarter of the 20-17 loss to UCLA on Nov. 8 in Los Angeles.

Redshirt freshman Marco Lainez has returned from a broken thumb on his non-throwing hand, and he traveled with the team to Maryland and was in uniform for Saturday’s game. But his left hand was in a cast and he didn’t play.

It was Stratton’s game to win or lose, and the California native did just enough to help Iowa win.

“I’m really proud of Jackson. He really played with great poise,” Kirk Ferentz said on the Learfield post-game radio show. “And also awareness for a guy who’s never started a game, and actually he’s had time to think about that fact since our last game.

“It didn’t seem to affect him at all. He really did  good job of preparing himself and then he did a really nice job of asserting himself. I thought he really played a good game.

“And then compliments to the line, too, not only for blocking, run and pass, but also when you have a new quarterback the cadence is a little bit different, and that’s one of the things you don’t think about. But there’s a lot of subtle things that are going on our there that make it a bigger challenge.

Iowa was coming off a bye week and hadn’t played for 15 days, since the loss to UCLA in which Stratton made his Hawkeye debut in relief of Sullivan.

“Bye weeks, they’re good, but this was one was agonizing,” Kirk Ferentz said. “We needed to get on the field, and we needed to show up and compete and play like a winning football team should play.

“So, I was just really proud of our guys. I thought their effort was outstanding, and mixed in some next-man-in stories and it makes for a pretty good story.”

Iowa now faces a short week with Nebraska up next on Friday at Kinnick Stadium in the regular-season finale.

Maryland also had issues at quarterback as starter Billy Edwards missed most of Saturday’s game with a thumb injury. He only completed 5-of-8 passes for 26 yards.

Edwards entered the game leading the Big Ten in passing yards with an average of 285.5 yards per game.

Stratton had a hand-off to Kamari Moulton that was fumbled and lost in the first quarter, but that was about all that went wrong for Stratton in the game.

He made some nice throws and showed that he clearly has the strongest arm of all the Iowa quarterbacks.

Moulton would go on to redeem himself with a 68-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that gave Iowa a 25-13 lead with 9 minutes, 19 seconds left to play.

Moulton also surpassed 100 rushing yards, finishing with 114 yards on 12 carries.

Iowa led 13-0 at halftime and outgained the Terrapins 139 to 13 on the ground in the first two quarters.

Johnson rushed for 109 yards in the first half on a whopping 22 carries.

The second half would be more of the same as Iowa continued to shred Maryland’s run defense, while Drew Stevens made three of his program record five field goals in the second half from 50, 49 yards and 26 yards.

The Iowa defense also finished with three sacks, seven tackles for loss and two interceptions.

Maryland star receiver Tai Felton caught two touchdown passes in the second half, helping the Terrapins to stay within striking distance.

But Iowa, thanks partly to interceptions by linebacker Jay Higgins and cornerback T.J. Hall in the second half, withstood every threat by the Terrapins as Kirk Ferentz left Maryland with his 203^rd win as a Big Ten head coach.

He is now just two wins from tying the legendary Woody Hayes (205) for first place in Big ten history.

A coach doesn’t reach that point without being resilient.

Iowa also improved to 21-3 in November dating back to the 2019 season.

That also says a lot about Kirk Ferentz’s resilience.

Iowa 3 10 6 10 – 29

Maryland 0 0 6 7 – 13

I – Drew Stevens 27 FG

I – Kaleb Johnson 2 run (Stevens kick)

I – Stevens 54 FG

I – Stevens 50 FG

M – Tai Felton 8 pass from MJ (Morris) pass failed

I – Stevens 49 FG

M – Felton 12 pass from (Morris (Jack Howes kick)

I – Kamari Moulton 68 run (Stevens kick)

I – Stevens 26 FG