66-yard field goals are hard to make, and this is especially true for college kickers.
But Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz decided to give Drew Stevens a shot.
Not only did it not work, it ended up with Penn State scoring a touchdown on a block by Xavier Gilliam that Elliot Washington took all the way.
It’s easy say given the result, but even without hindsight, the risk outweighed the reward for what Ferentz was trying to do. The most realistic scenario was Iowa missing the kick. Even if, somehow, Stevens made the kick, Iowa still would have only been up by one possession, with Penn State getting the ball to start the second half.
What ended up happening was the worst case scenario.
A “block 6” was the signature moment of James Franklin’s Penn State tenure, so it’s fitting that Penn State did it again in the first game after it.
