I felt into my pool on Sunday morning. No, that’s not a euphemism or an allegory, I literally fell into my pool. I was taking the dogs for their morning constitutional after sleeping in later than normal
(it’s overseeding season so my regular golf course is shut down until November) and thought to myself, I’ll just do the pool chemicals now, why not. So I grabbed a bag of shock, cut it open using the rustiest pair of scissors you’ve probably ever seen, and headed towards the deep end of the pool. I wasn’t looking at my phone as I walked (no, it was secure in my pocket) and couldn’t tell you what happened, but all of a sudden I was in pain, wet, and cold (said pool is not heated). It took me a few seconds to figure out what the hell had just happened when I realized that I had simply put my left foot directly into my pool, gravity took care of the rest.
As I waded to the nearest steps (suddenly realizing that I had expensive electronics in my pocket) what had happened finally hit me and I started laughing. My right knee (which had slammed into the concrete pool deck and been drug into the pool) hadn’t yet started repaying me for my carelessness, and I didn’t even notice the scrapes on my knee, ankle, foot, and big toe, so I did what anyone would do in that situation. I set my phone on the grill and went about the business of pool chemicals. Once that was taken care of I wrung out my shirt and left it in the sun to dry, then went inside to put on non-wet clothes. Standard practice, I assume, for having just fallen into one’s pool.
My foot hurt, and my knee felt a little weird, but even as I noticed the strawberry (reminiscent of my days playing slow pitch softball on the fields, made primarily of gravel, at C Street in CR) on my knee and blood welling up on my big toe, I thought to myself, meh, just some scrapes, you’re fine. I could feel my knee tightening a bit so I grabbed an ice pack and headed for the couch. Once the wife got up we went about our day, which included spending a few hours shopping for clothes for an upcoming wedding, getting ice cream for dinner (don’t tell Jr.), and playing Valheim with some of my buddies.
What does any of this have to do with Iowa football? Well, nothing really, except that on Saturday night, this Iowa team fell into their own pool, took a few minutes, and then went about the business of getting themselves out and finishing what they had come to do. Now, I’m not trying to compare my awkward senior moment to a college… wait, no, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Bear with me, I swear this will make sense.
Falling into the pool
Iowa has shot themselves in the foot many times over the 40 years I can recall watching them play football. Sometimes they get out of it (see the 2009 Indiana game), sometimes they don’t (see the 2025 Indiana game). On Saturday night they came out firing, they just forgot to pull the gun from their holster first.
Dropped passes have been a hallmark of this season, and of the 4 INTs Mark Gronowski has thrown, two of them came from passes deflecting off receivers that likely should have been caught. Credit where it’s due, Zakee Wheatley did make a hell of a one-hand grab to pull this in, but still, Gill should have caught that ball, he didn’t and Penn State did, and they made Iowa pay for it. Once they had the ball back the Hawks put together a decent drive, but couldn’t convert on a 3rd down inside the 30 and so Drew Stevens picked up his first points of the afternoon. Not much happened for the rest of the half until Xavier Nwankpa picked up his first INT in 2 calendar years, setting up a tush-push TD (Gronowski’s 9th rushing TD of the season) to give Iowa the lead at 10-7. Ethan Grunkmeyer went back to work, but couldn’t get anything going and Iowa had the ball back with about 40 seconds to half. That’s when Iowa went back to the trigger:
I can’t blame Drew Stevens for this either, hell, Kirk saw him leave it 5 yards short when Terry Stevens tried to ice him on the first go and he still chased the points. Also, that’s a 1 in a million bounce right? Normally the ball ricochets off the blockers hand towards a sideline, or ends up 20 yards downfield, but not this time, nope, one hop straight to a fellow Nittany Lion with no one between him and the goal line. Kirk went riverboat gambling and lost.
Wading to the side
I cannot recall how many times I thought to myself “that’s it, game over” during this game. The first time was, definitely, as I watched Elliot Washington sprint toward the endzone with no time left on the clock, but there were many, many more times. Thankfully, this Iowa team (especially Mark Gronowski) couldn’t hear my internal doomtrack. Every time Kaytron Allen fell forward for 5 yards, every time Iowa missed a tackle and Penn State picked up a 3rd down, every time Ethan Grunkemeyer looked like a 3 year starter instead of a RS Freshman making his first collegiate start, I thought “that’s it, that’s the game”. But this team refused to quit, even as they fell behind double digits, they kept the fires burning. They picked each other up, dusted each other off, and got back to the business of football. I didn’t think it could happen until Mark Gronowski broke off his first big run of the night.
That lead to his 10th rushing TD a few plays later. Then the D got a stop, Kamari broke a good run and Drew kicked another FG. Then, with just over 5 minutes left, Koen Entringer clotheslined Grunkmeyer (apparently on a draw, but if that’s not a sack I don’t know what it) to hold PSU to a field goal and keep the game within reach. Even so, the doomer in me said “there’s not enough time, they can’t score in 4:30”. Two plays later Kaden is busting into the endzone and Iowa is out front, if only by one.
Finishing what you started
I am quite sure that I am not the only Iowa fans who’s first thought was “Shit, did we score too fast?” I mean, I know I wasn’t because half of the BHGP Discord felt the same way. We couldn’t stop Penn State from at least getting to FG range could we? As it turns out, we could, but even then, there was 1:14 left and Penn State had two TO’s, could this Iowa team actually pick up a 1st down in crunch time, to win a game? Again, yes, yes they could.
It’s been a long time since I’ve screamed as loud as I did as I watched Gronowski make his second big naked bootleg to seal the deal in a very, long time. This team just kept going until the job was done, led by a QB that most of us (and them) had, likely, never even heard of 10 months ago, a QB who hadn’t convinced most Iowa fans that he was worth the NIL check it took to get him here, wary of a second letdown. Well that QB, and this team, proved me wrong on Saturday night and I don’t think I could’ve been happier in that moment.
Not unlike my knee, I’m sure they all felt it the next morning. Xavier Nwankpa had to get stitches after the game for the second straight week, Gronowski probably needed about 2 hours in the ice bath to keep down any residual swelling on his knee, and the linemen that spent all night fighting against incredibly talented opponents were likely bruised in all manner of places, but they finished the job, and that certainly made the pain a little less acute. I don’t know if Kirk cried in the locker room after the game, but he should have. This team put him on their back and won for him, and for each other. This win proved that this team isn’t done.
Just in case you’re concerned, my knee feels much better today, there’s some stiffness but it’s nothing serious and the limp I had yesterday has all but subsided. I’ll likely still use it as an excuse to avoid dancing at the wedding this weekend (the wife knows I don’t dance), but hey, at least the pool looks good.
