On Friday night the Iowa Hawkeyes and Nebraska Cornhuskers met for the final game of the regular season for each program.
Both were already bowl eligible heading into the final game, but wanted bragging rights heading into next season. Well, the Hawkeyes emerged with the victory and bragging rights thanks to a 53-yard field goal from from Drew Stevens, who gave Iowa a 13-10 win as time expired.
While the last-second field goal caught fans’ attention, it’s what happened before the game that was the lasting image from the contest.
As Iowa and Nebraska players met at mid-field for the coin toss, Hawkeyes players approached Huskers for a handshake. They refused.
Following the loss, fans called out the Huskers program for its «classless» behavior.
«As a life long Husker fan and having family deeply rooted in this program. This is what 6-6 and mediocre teams do with no pride and no respect for tradition. This is not championship football, this is not Nebraska football. A reason Iowa is better,» one fan said.
«Classless,» offered another bluntly.
«People always show their true colors when the road gets tough. Seems like the same can be said for a program!» added a third.
Following the game Iowa linebacker Jay Higgins spoke with the media about the incident. “We went out there, the captains went out there, we usually shake hands, wish everybody good luck. They didn’t reach out their hands. So that was a little weird,» he said.
Higgins knew the Hawkeyes were destined for the win after the game. “The moment he didn’t shake our hands, I knew we won,” Higgins said.
That wasn’t the only infraction for Nebraska, though.
“Our guys are warming up, doing our pregame and their head coach (Matt Rhule) walked through the warmup,” Higgins said, via Hawk Central. “So we immediately knew what type of game this was.”
In the end, Iowa walked out with the win to move to 8-4 on the season while Nebraska fell to 6-6.