MIAMI — Two months ago, Iowa junior quarterback Ricky Stanzi was sacked in the North end zone of Kinnick Stadium. The vicious hit stunned the Hawkeye faithful, as it resulted in an ankle sprain that shortened the Mentor, Ohio native’s season.
But nothing was going to keep Stanzi from being on the field for the 2010 FedEx Orange Bowl against No. 9 Georgia Tech. And to say the least, he made the most of this moment.
The 6-5 quarterback finished completing 17 of 29 passes in his return for a total of 231 yards and two touchdown passes in No. 10 Iowa’s 24-14 win over the Yellow Jackets on Tuesday.
“Coming into the game, I felt great,” Stanzi said. “You know, this layover was a long time, but in a sense, it was probably a good thing for me because I was able to heal up completely and not feel anything, any type of pain tonight.”
Slinging dart after dart into the hands of his receivers, Stanzi completed his first eight pass attempts of the game. In fact, two of those completions were for touchdowns that helped give Iowa a 14-0 lead out of the gate.
The first strike came on a fade route in the corner of the end zone to sophomore wide receiver Marvin McNutt, who had fumbled on the Hawkeyes’ previous possession, that gave Iowa a 7-0 lead.
Before finding McNutt in the end zone, however, he completed a big play-action pass to senior tight end Tony Moeaki that resulted in 54 yards.
“They bit hard on the run and Rick got me the ball in a place where I could run with it after and had some big yards on that,” Moeaki said.
The second touchdown pass came after another big throw to junior Derrell Johnson-Koulianos for 31 yards. Stanzi looked down field and found an open Colin Sandeman for a 21-yard score that put the Hawkeyes ahead two touchdowns. It was the first time Sandeman had reached the end zone all season long.
Then if that wasn’t enough, Stanzi also made one of the biggest runs of the evening in the fourth quarter with Iowa ahead 17-14.
Facing a 3rd-and-7 from his own 31-yard line, Stanzi scrambled out of the pocket and found an opening. As he was being chased down by Georgia Tech defensive end Derrick Morgan, who is considered one of the nation’s best, Stanzi found the first-down marker and the sidelines, and got to the 40-yard line for a first down.
Not only that, but Morgan only finished with three tackles the entire evening against an Iowa squad that made a shift in its offensive line, starting senior Kyle Calloway at right guard and redshirt freshman Riley Reiff at right tackle to help block Morgan.
“We try not to change schemes. We really try to encourage our guys just to really focus and play with great technique,” head coach Kirk Ferentz said. “When you play a guy like Morgan, you really have to be on the top of your game each and every play because he is an explosive player. If you give him a crack, he’s going to get through it.
“It’s probably as good, as well as we’ve played maybe up front all season.”
At the end of the evening, it came down to execution, which is something Stanzi and the entire Iowa offense was successful with all night.
“We’ve had so many practices that we knew what our game plan was and we just wanted to execute,” Stanzi said. “I think everyone felt good about what the game plan was and how we could attack them and kind of exploit some things.”
— by Brendan Stiles
