For Iowa and Penn State’s tense White Out showdown, 2009’s classic clash sets the bar

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The last time an Iowa–Penn State game approached the level of surliness swirling before this weekend’s game, the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 5, they had suffered a recent soul-crushing loss as a top-five team at Kinnick Stadium, and Beaver Stadium was prepared for a prime-time White Out for the Big Ten opener.

Sounds strangely familiar, doesn’t it? This week, No. 24 Iowa plays at No. 7 Penn State in a designated prime-time White Out. Cue up “Seven Nation Army” and “Zombie Nation” and 109,000 chanting fans clad in white.

This week, Penn State’s vitriol for Iowa comes from their 2021 meeting, when the No. 3 Hawkeyes rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat the No. 4 Nittany Lions 23-20 in Iowa City. During the game, several Penn State players went down with injuries — some serious — and were greeted with jeers and boos from the Iowa faithful. Other Penn State players were accused of flopping, and the back-and-forth has turned social media interactions between the fan bases into a bottomless pit of insults.

Passions didn’t run quite as high in the lead-up to the teams’ 2009 meeting, with Twitter still in its infancy. But they were real. The previous year, unbeaten No. 3 Penn State traveled to Iowa City to face unranked and unlucky Iowa, which had lost four games by a combined 12 points. In a traditional Big Ten slugfest, the Hawkeyes rallied from a nine-point deficit to knock off the 9-0 Nittany Lions 24-23 on a last-second field goal.

Entering their 2009 meeting, Penn State vowed payback.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to get the phone call: ‘You got to get revenge. You remember what happened last year,’” Penn State quarterback Daryll Clark told reporters one week before playing Iowa.

The Hawkeyes had won six of seven against Penn State from 2000 through 2008, in every method from overtime shootouts to come-from-behind-epics to a 6-4 defensive struggle the day after the funeral of Kirk Ferentz’s father. In 2009, ESPN’s “College GameDay” broadcast from outside Beaver Stadium that morning. It rained all day, the temperature fell into the mid-50s at night, and ABC aired a soaked White Out.

“It was one of those perfect games as far as weather-wise, atmosphere, everything,” Iowa linebacker Pat Angerer recalled. “It was just phenomenal.”

A highly anticipated matchup devolved into a quagmire of physicality. Both teams ended the year with high-profile bowl victories and top-10 rankings. But for Iowa, the 21-10 win provided one of two signature plays in a special season. For Penn State, it was yet another near-miss.

Inauspicious beginning

The start was anything but perfect for Iowa. A quick three-and-out led to a punt to the Penn State 21. On the Nittany Lions’ first play, Clark hit receiver Chaz Powell up the left sideline for a 79-yard touchdown. Powell had gotten past All-Big Ten cornerback Amari Spievey and the White Out crackled like lightning.

“I remember Clark, their quarterback, flexing,” Angerer said. “He was like bigger and stronger than everybody I’d ever seen. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be a long day.’ I think me and (A.J.) Edds were running down the field for the PAT, and we looked at each other. We didn’t even say it. We’re like, ‘Oh, man, it’s gonna be a long day.’”

“We always talk about getting off to a good start, especially on the road, just to try to take the crowd out of it,” Ferentz said. “We did the exact opposite of that in ’09.”

After a long run to open Iowa’s next series, the Hawkeyes threw an interception three plays later. Penn State started again at its 21-yard line with 11:09 left in the first quarter. The drive ended after 20 plays, 10:09 off the clock and a Penn State 27-yard field goal to push its lead to 10-0.

As the rain fell, the task appeared insurmountable on the outside. To Iowa’s players, it was just another dose of adversity.

“The atmosphere that they were going for was intimidating,” Iowa guard Julian Vandervelde said. “But that year and that team, I don’t think we ever really felt like we were out of the game. So even going down early, it’s like, ‘Well, it’s a long game. We got a lot of time left.’”

Evening the fight

Iowa’s formula in 2009 is much like it is today: Play physical, turnover-free, complementary football with few penalties. The defense was built to stop the run with eyes on the quarterback. The offensive line sought to establish itself as a powerful force and use field position to stay in games. That’s exactly what Iowa did early in the second quarter.

After climbing to the Penn State 40, Ferentz chose to punt, and the ball was downed at the 6-yard line. On first down, Penn State picked up a false start, moving the ball back three yards. Two running plays totaled one lost yard. At third-and-14 from the 2, Clark dropped back in his end zone. Iowa defensive end Broderick Binns bull-rushed right tackle DeOn’tae Pannell, then ripped inside and crashed into Clark. The ball fell into the end zone and was recovered by Penn State for a safety.

“I don’t think, throughout that year, we ever thought that we were going to lose,” Angerer said. “We always thought that we had a shot. It was just a tough group of guys that were completely insane. I think we were too dumb to know that we were supposed to lose some games. We kept swinging, kept chipping away.”

At the end of the first quarter, Penn State had 147 yards of offense. Over the next two quarters, the Nittany Lions combined for 75 yards and three first downs. But the defenses held every advantage. Iowa had 15 NFL Draft picks participate, including eight starting defenders. Penn State had six draft picks on defense and 11 overall. Both were missing future NFL players (Bryan Bulaga and Tony Moeaki for Iowa, Sean Lee for Penn State) but after an Iowa field goal, it seemed safe to expect a big play was going to decide the outcome.

That’s exactly what Ferentz was expecting, too.

“You have to try to keep your composure,” he said. “It’s easier said than done. It’s easy to buckle in a situation like that. That was a good football team we had, and those guys hung tough.

“You find a way. You make a couple of plays. You never know how it’s going to come, where it’s going to come from.”

‘Thud’

Penn State opened the fourth quarter with a pair of third-down conversions and reached the Iowa 47 before stalling. Inside of 13 minutes left, punter Jeremy Boone stood near his 40-yard line and waited for the ball. What happened next changed the trajectory of two seasons.

Penn State long snapper Andrew Pitz was Angerer’s high school teammate at renowned Bettendorf (Iowa) High School. Angerer, who always had a wild streak, wanted to get a shot at his old buddy while they were in punt safe mode.

The Hawkeyes planned a return, but right defensive end Adrian Clayborn was there to press the punter. At the snap, he powered past the inside shoulder of Penn State’s wing. The upback took off up the field and Clayborn rumbled unencumbered toward the left-footed Boone. Clayborn reached up with both hands and the ball bounced off his arms.

“It was a great sound. Never forget that sound,” Ferentz said.

Boone stood stunned as the ball caromed behind him and popped up to Clayborn in stride. The All-American scooped it up around his knees and raced the final 35 yards for a touchdown.

“I have never been more excited for a play in college football in my life, maybe even more than the Michigan State play,” said receiver Marvin McNutt, who scored the season’s second epic touchdown four weeks later. “That play signified a moment for our team. It was like, this was the best thing that had ever happened. I screamed and just ran down the sideline.”

“I was just trying to take a nice little shot at my old high school teammate,” Angerer said, “and Clayborn just freaking murdered the guy off the wing. It’s a hard thing to be a wing because it’s usually just some guy that’s a little bit athletic. To go against a 280-pound, just freak of a human being, that’s a tough task.”

“I didn’t realize that he had that kind of straight-line speed,” Vandervelde said of Clayborn. “He’s a big dude. To be a defensive end, you’ve got to be fast, obviously. But he kind of opened it up and really showed us sort of conditioning-like running.”

ABC’s top announcing crew of Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit had the call that night. With perfect cadence and delivery and an economical use of language, Musberger encapsulated the moment.

“Blocked … Scooped up. … This is going to be a Hawkeye touchdown. This is Clayborn, the big defensive end. Blocks it and takes it in. … And the Hawkeyes take the lead.”

The crowd’s reaction was stunned silence.

“You heard the crowd go, ‘Ooooo,’” Angerer recalled. “All right, we’re gonna win this game.”

“I’ve never heard Happy Valley get that quiet after that play,” McNutt said.

Clayborn, who did not respond to interview requests, proved to be the catalyst of that season. He went on to become the Orange Bowl MVP later that season, a first-team All-American in 2010 and a first-round draft pick. He recorded two tackles that night but got consistent pressure on Clark.

“It’s a good sound or a bad sound, depending what sideline you’re on,” Ferentz said. “He’s a special player and a special person. And it’s funny how that works sometimes, too. Guys like that just spark a team. And after that, we had a little different demeanor the rest of the way.”

The finish

After Clayborn’s scoop-and-score, followed by an unsuccessful two-point conversion, the Hawkeyes led 11-10 with 12:17 left. Penn State got in an offensive rhythm and moved to the Hawkeyes’ 49. But on third-and-7, Clark threw toward the middle of the field, and the ball bounced off running back Evan Royster’s hands and into the hands of Angerer, who was in high-to-low coverage. Angerer, who finished with a game-high 14 tackles, returned the interception 38 yards to the Penn State 24.

In the offseason, all of Iowa’s linebackers were assigned to study a fellow college linebacker. Angerer had chosen the injured Lee, whose film showed him how to defend that route.

“They put a guy in front of you, they put a guy behind you, and it’s so hard not to jump that guy in front of you,” Angerer said. “He was so good at that route and actually, the reason why I played that play like I did was because of Sean Lee.”

With momentum clearly in their favor, the Hawkeyes’ running game took off. With three consecutive rushing attempts, Adam Robinson was in the end zone for a touchdown and an 18-10 lead. Still down only one score, Powell returned the ensuing kickoff 57 yards, and an Iowa penalty tacked on 15 more. On the next play, Royster took off for 18 yards, but Angerer punched out the ball from behind and defensive tackle Karl Klug pounced on it at the Iowa 18.

The Hawkeyes gained only 13 yards on their next possession but cut the time remaining from 8:15 to 4:06. When Penn State got the ball again after a punt, Iowa linebacker A.J. Edds intercepted Clark — the Nittany Lions’ fourth turnover of the second half. After another field goal, the Hawkeyes had secured a 21-10 win.

The Hawkeyes collected three turnovers, one blocked punt and churned 9:02 off the clock in the fourth quarter. They ran for 61 yards and didn’t throw a pass.

“We’ll just keep pounding, keep trying to break the rock,” Vandervelde said. “Eventually, we’ll get through. It’s a good feeling when you’re in the fourth quarter, and you can just kind of start to impose your will.

“We had the guys, we had the skill, we had the toughness,” Angerer said. “Obviously we had trust in old Rick Stanzi to lead us to victory. It’s nice when you’ve got a quarterback that’s just as crazy as your middle linebacker.”

The win became a statement for Iowa, which finished 11-2 and ranked seventh in the final AP poll. The Hawkeyes beat ACC champion Georgia Tech 24-14 in the Orange Bowl. Penn State rallied to an 11-2 finish of its own and beat LSU in the Citrus Bowl, finishing at No. 9.

Since Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1993, the series is tied 11-11. Ferentz is 10-8 against the Nittany Lions, and the teams have engaged in epic clashes for three-plus decades. Before the 2009 game, Ron Bracken for the Centre Daily Times wrote, “If a rivalry is rooted in two closely matched teams who are frequently spoiling each other’s season, then Penn State’s real Big Ten rival should be Iowa.”

Expansion, realignment and distance may have dulled that potential. But with a projected rain-soaked White Out in Happy Valley this Saturday, for Iowa and Penn State, the past often parallels the present.