Iowa-Minnesota: Greene Sets School Mark for Rushing Yards, Hawkeyes Win 55-0

It was a night to forget for the Minnesota Golden Gophers as the Iowa Hawkeyes trounced the home team in their final game at the Metrodome.

Iowa improved to 8-4 on the season and with this convincing 55-0 victory, they could be well on their way to the Alamo Bowl come New Year's.

The Hawkeye defense stymied the Gopher offense, allowing only six first downs the entire game.  They also held Minnesota to seven total yards of rushing.

The same could not be said about the Minnesota defense, which allowed 483 yards of Hawkeye offense, 222 of which was on the ground.

Iowa's stellar ground game was led by star running back Shonn Greene, who had 22 carries for 144 yards and two touchdowns on the day.

Greene became the first back since Curtis Enis of Penn State to rush for 100 or more yards in every Big Ten contest in a single season.

He also broke Tavian Banks' single-season Iowa rushing total with 1,729 yards this year to go along with 17 rushing touchdowns.

However, Greene's record-setting day was somewhat overshadowed by the play of the man who hands him the ball: sophomore quarterback Ricky Stanzi.

Stanzi completed 15-of-28 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns, leading the Iowa offense to its finest offensive performance of the season.

Stanzi went early and often to wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos who had seven catches for 181 yards, highlighted by a beautiful touchdown catch.

Minnesota quarterback Adam Weber was unable to find a groove against the stingy Iowa defense, completing only 50 percent of his passes with two interceptions, one of which was returned by Amari Spievey for a touchdown.

Leading receiver for Minnesota Eric Decker had only two catches for 33 yards, looking rusty after missing last week's game with an injury.

Iowa will maintain possession of the Floyd of Rosedale as I anticipated, and they did it in convincing fashion.  The Hawks have won five of their last six games, and tonight they looked like the most complete team the Big Ten has to offer.