Iowa has put Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia in a blender early on at the Reliaquest Bowl, but it was a bizarre special teams play that helped open up the lead late in the second quarter. The Commodores were hit with an exceedingly rare penalty.
After Pavia was sacked for the fourth time in the first half, Vanderbilt set up to punt from deep in its own territory. The ball was at the 15-yard line.
Iowa defenders bailed on the punt coverage pretty early, leaving the whole right side of the field wide open. Vanderbilt punter Nick Haberer saw the space and began to run. The announcers thought he was going to take off on a fake to attempt to reach the first down marker, which was all the way up at the 42-yard line.
Either Haberer thought better of it, or the play was never designed to be a fake. He pulled up and booted the ball, but only after he had crossed the original line of scrimmage.
Officials flagged it for a penalty, which put the ball on the Vanderbilt 10-yard line. It was a huge swing, some 50 yards or so and a loss of downs. Iowa took over. You can view the crazy punt penalty below.
The penalty was incredibly costly for Vanderbilt. Instead of getting the ball around midfield, Iowa collected it at the 10-yard line with 45 seconds to play in the half.
The Hawkeyes would score on the ensuing play. Quarterback Mark Gronowski found Reece Vander Zee on the right side of the end zone for a toe-tapping 10-yard touchdown grab. That extended the Iowa lead to 14-3 just before the half.
Iowa mostly dominated defensively in the first half. Pavia was sacked four times, unable to generate any sort of rhythm.
Vanderbilt’s offense gained just 118 yards in the first half. Of that, 35 yards came on a last-minute drive just before the half.