Ronnie Harmon with 22 yards per catch, 5 touchdowns as a sophomore WR. Huge win over PSU 42-34 was special dropping Joe Pa and the Nittany Lions to 0-3
Year School Conf Class Pos G Att Yds Avg TD Rec Yds Avg TD Plays Yds Avg TD
1982 Iowa Big Ten RB 11 7 16 2.3 0 16 255 15.9 1 23 271 11.8 1
1983 Iowa Big Ten WR 11 22 185 8.4 2 29 639 22.0 5 51 824 16.2 7
*1984 Iowa Big Ten RB 13 190 907 4.8 11 32 318 9.9 1 222 1225 5.5 12
1985 Iowa Big Ten RB 11 209 1111 5.3 9 49 597 12.2 1 258 1708 6.6 10
Career Iowa 428 2219 5.2 22 126 1809 14.4 8 554 4028 7.3 30
Story from New York Times from 1983 Hawkeye victory ....
Penn State today became only the second major college football team in history to open with three straight defeats after being named the top team for the previous season.
Iowa became the latest team to humble the Nittany Lions as the Hawkeyes rallied in a wild game to win, 42-34, before 84,628 at Beaver Stadium. Penn State lost to Nebraska (44-6) and Cincinnati (14-3) earlier.
Texas Christian, undefeated and ranked No. 1 in 1938, opened the 1939 season with four straight losses. No other team that was ranked No. 1 in either The Associated Press poll, which started in 1936, or the United Press International poll, which started in 1950, got off to so poor a start.
Chuck Long, Iowa's quarterback, did most of the damage to the sluggish Penn State defense by completing 16 of 30 passes for an Iowa game record of 345 yards. This was also an individual passing yardage record for Beaver Stadium, where such fine quarterbacks as Todd Blackledge, Chuck Fusina, Milt Plum and John Hufnagel have played for Penn State and Roger Staubach of Navy, Gary Beban of U.C.L.A., Jim Kelly of Miami of Florida, Dan Marino of Pittsburgh and Boomer Esiason of Maryland have played for the opposition.
Long threw for two touchdowns and scored once on a 5-yard option keeper-run over the left side. Long's yardage was the single largest contribution to a game that produced 1,079 yards of total offense by the two teams (587 for Iowa and 492 for Penn State).
Owen Gill, Iowa's junior tailback from Tilden High School in Brooklyn, rushed for 131 yards.
Doug Strang, who started again as Penn State's quarterback, had his best day, completing 17 of 36 passes for 254 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Entering this season, which began on Aug. 29 against Nebraska, it was felt that Penn State's strong and fairly experienced defense would keep the team on track while the of fense found itself behind a new quarterback.
But Iowa continued to destroy that myth. And Coach Joe Paterno, who was not happy, said: ''This is the poorest tackling football team I've ever been associated with.''
Only once before in the 18 seasons under Paterno has Penn State lost three in a row. Those were the second, third and fourth games of 1976 and Iowa beat Penn State, 7-6, in that losing streak. Penn State has not lost its first three games since 1964 when the Nittany Lions recovered for a 7-4 record. No previous Penn State team scored 34 or more points and lost the game. 'An Emotional Week'
Paterno said: ''This has been a very emotional week. We thought we were going to win the game.''
Penn State may have thought it had a chance when it led, 7-0, after a costly mistake by Long gave the Lions a chance in the first two minutes of the game. Penn State kept thinking it might win when it led, 21- 14, at intermission and by 28-21 after less than four minutes of the third period.
But Penn State could not contain Long or his good runners and lost the ball on two big fumbles to set up the two Iowa touchdowns that decided the game. Strang Fumbles
Leading, 28-21, Penn State turned the ball over when D. J. Dozier, a freshman tailback, fumbled and Iowa recovered. On the next play, Long completed a 46-yard pass to Dave Moritz to put the ball on the Lions' 5. Long went left into the end zone off the option on the next play. Tom Nichol's fourth of six conversions tied the score at 28.
Seven plays later, Strang was sacked and he fumbled. Iowa again recovered and again, on the first play after the turnover, Long connected for 39 yards to Gill, who had 61 yards on 3 receptions. On the next play, a lot of Penn State tacklers had a shot at Norm Granger, the fullback, but none was successful as he went 23 yards for the touchdown and a 35-28 lead.
Long put icing on the cake with a perfect 77-yard touchdown connection to Ronnie Harmon, a wingback. He beat Mark Fruehan at the 31 for the catch and ran down the sideline for the score.
Playing the way its defense did today and with three losses thus far, Penn State will be hard pressed to avoid having its first losing season since 1938.
Kenny Jackson, Penn State's excellent receiver, who had only 2 catches today for 19 yards and 1 touchdown, said, ''I know we are going to come out of it. When we do, it's going to be a great feeling.''
Year School Conf Class Pos G Att Yds Avg TD Rec Yds Avg TD Plays Yds Avg TD
1982 Iowa Big Ten RB 11 7 16 2.3 0 16 255 15.9 1 23 271 11.8 1
1983 Iowa Big Ten WR 11 22 185 8.4 2 29 639 22.0 5 51 824 16.2 7
*1984 Iowa Big Ten RB 13 190 907 4.8 11 32 318 9.9 1 222 1225 5.5 12
1985 Iowa Big Ten RB 11 209 1111 5.3 9 49 597 12.2 1 258 1708 6.6 10
Career Iowa 428 2219 5.2 22 126 1809 14.4 8 554 4028 7.3 30
Story from New York Times from 1983 Hawkeye victory ....
Penn State today became only the second major college football team in history to open with three straight defeats after being named the top team for the previous season.
Iowa became the latest team to humble the Nittany Lions as the Hawkeyes rallied in a wild game to win, 42-34, before 84,628 at Beaver Stadium. Penn State lost to Nebraska (44-6) and Cincinnati (14-3) earlier.
Texas Christian, undefeated and ranked No. 1 in 1938, opened the 1939 season with four straight losses. No other team that was ranked No. 1 in either The Associated Press poll, which started in 1936, or the United Press International poll, which started in 1950, got off to so poor a start.
Chuck Long, Iowa's quarterback, did most of the damage to the sluggish Penn State defense by completing 16 of 30 passes for an Iowa game record of 345 yards. This was also an individual passing yardage record for Beaver Stadium, where such fine quarterbacks as Todd Blackledge, Chuck Fusina, Milt Plum and John Hufnagel have played for Penn State and Roger Staubach of Navy, Gary Beban of U.C.L.A., Jim Kelly of Miami of Florida, Dan Marino of Pittsburgh and Boomer Esiason of Maryland have played for the opposition.
Long threw for two touchdowns and scored once on a 5-yard option keeper-run over the left side. Long's yardage was the single largest contribution to a game that produced 1,079 yards of total offense by the two teams (587 for Iowa and 492 for Penn State).
Owen Gill, Iowa's junior tailback from Tilden High School in Brooklyn, rushed for 131 yards.
Doug Strang, who started again as Penn State's quarterback, had his best day, completing 17 of 36 passes for 254 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Entering this season, which began on Aug. 29 against Nebraska, it was felt that Penn State's strong and fairly experienced defense would keep the team on track while the of fense found itself behind a new quarterback.
But Iowa continued to destroy that myth. And Coach Joe Paterno, who was not happy, said: ''This is the poorest tackling football team I've ever been associated with.''
Only once before in the 18 seasons under Paterno has Penn State lost three in a row. Those were the second, third and fourth games of 1976 and Iowa beat Penn State, 7-6, in that losing streak. Penn State has not lost its first three games since 1964 when the Nittany Lions recovered for a 7-4 record. No previous Penn State team scored 34 or more points and lost the game. 'An Emotional Week'
Paterno said: ''This has been a very emotional week. We thought we were going to win the game.''
Penn State may have thought it had a chance when it led, 7-0, after a costly mistake by Long gave the Lions a chance in the first two minutes of the game. Penn State kept thinking it might win when it led, 21- 14, at intermission and by 28-21 after less than four minutes of the third period.
But Penn State could not contain Long or his good runners and lost the ball on two big fumbles to set up the two Iowa touchdowns that decided the game. Strang Fumbles
Leading, 28-21, Penn State turned the ball over when D. J. Dozier, a freshman tailback, fumbled and Iowa recovered. On the next play, Long completed a 46-yard pass to Dave Moritz to put the ball on the Lions' 5. Long went left into the end zone off the option on the next play. Tom Nichol's fourth of six conversions tied the score at 28.
Seven plays later, Strang was sacked and he fumbled. Iowa again recovered and again, on the first play after the turnover, Long connected for 39 yards to Gill, who had 61 yards on 3 receptions. On the next play, a lot of Penn State tacklers had a shot at Norm Granger, the fullback, but none was successful as he went 23 yards for the touchdown and a 35-28 lead.
Long put icing on the cake with a perfect 77-yard touchdown connection to Ronnie Harmon, a wingback. He beat Mark Fruehan at the 31 for the catch and ran down the sideline for the score.
Playing the way its defense did today and with three losses thus far, Penn State will be hard pressed to avoid having its first losing season since 1938.
Kenny Jackson, Penn State's excellent receiver, who had only 2 catches today for 19 yards and 1 touchdown, said, ''I know we are going to come out of it. When we do, it's going to be a great feeling.''
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