Drew Stevens’ game-winning kick takes down Michigan State, 20-17

IOWA CITY — Play with fire, you’ll get burned. Except Iowa football found a bucket of water in the 11th hour.

After Michigan State throttled Iowa last season in East Lansing, it felt almost impossible to see the 2025 Spartans do it again. The Spartans entered Kinnick Stadium without a Big Ten win, while Iowa was working to end a two-game skid against West Coast-based conference foes that knocked it out of College Football Playoff contention.

After trailing the entire second half, the Hawkeyes threw together two scoring drives inside the two-minute timeout. One tied the game, the other set up kicker Drew Stevens to make a 44-yard field goal and defeat Michigan State, 20-17.

Returner Kaden Wetjen chose his final game at Kinnick Stadium to be the game where he broke the program record for most kick returns by a Hawkeye in program history (6).

The redshirt senior had a 44-yard return for his first return, being pushed out of bounds by Michigan State’s punter — who was the last remaining defender to pass through. Wetjen made sure his second chance, a 62-yard return, made it into the south end zone.

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Wetjen is tied for first in the country for punt returns in a season (3) and broke the school record previously held by Tim Dwight.

Meanwhile, Iowa’s offense had just 24 passing yards in the first half.

Despite throwing the ball three times in the first two drives, all three passes fell incomplete. Quarterback Mark Gronowksi’s fourth attempt was intercepted at the Michigan State 6-yard line.

Gronowski finished the game 9-for-19 with 93 passing yards, one touchdown pass and the interception. He recorded 57 yards on the ground.

The first completion was a simple 5-yard catch by running back Kamari Moulton, who’d already recorded 33 rushing yards by then. Iowa’s offense didn’t have any success in the passing game until its final drive of the first half, but there was no success.

That’s when the first round of boos reached Kinnick Stadium, engulfing the stadium as the Iowa offense trotted off the field.

The offensive creativity from last week? Gone. The Hawkeyes tried running the ball, but they mustered up 77 yards on the ground. The best pass of the first 30 minutes was an 8-yard reception to Jacob Gill to set up a 53-yard field goal attempt kicker Drew Stevens missed — which came after defensive back Zach Lutmer recorded his second interception of the season.

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The missed field goal led to Michigan State’s first lead of the game in the third quarter — a 45-yard touchdown pass to Chrishon McCray. McCray caught his second touchdown of the game on the subsequent Spartans drive.

Iowa finally made it into the red zone in the fourth quarter after a three-minute drive, but Gronowski’s third down pass bounced off the goal post crossbar. Stevens kicked the 26-yard field goal to make it a one-score game.

But then came the boo birds again, growing frustrated that Iowa’s offense couldn’t put together a coherent drive and was stuck with a three-and-out afterward. Even with a Michigan State 11-yard punt in the final 10 minutes of the game, the Hawkeyes made it into the red zone just two times.

Their second appearance tied the game with 1:21 to play, with Gronowski throwing a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Gill.

This wasn’t a defensive slug-fest by either team, although Michigan State recorded three sacks — two coming after the shanked fourth quarter punt. This was a shell of what Iowa’s offense, and a Michigan State offense that found the right plays at the right time.

But when it mattered, after Iowa’s lost its biggest games of the season by a handful of points, the Hawkeyes finally had their chance to win it late. Stevens kicked a 44-yard field goal with three seconds to play, giving him the game-winning, Senior Day moment that saved Iowa from an extended losing streak.

27 seniors left Kinnick Stadium for the final time on Saturday, and bear-hugged Stevens at midfield before swarming off the field one final time.

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