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(Top) 1 Schedule 2 Roster 3 Game summaries 3.1 Northwestern 3.2 Iowa State 3.3 At Arizona 3.4 Utah 3.5 At Minnesota 3.6 At Ohio State 3.7 Purdue 3.8 Michigan 3.9 At Indiana 3.10 Wisconsin 3.11 At Michigan State 4 Team players in the 1979 NFL Draft 5 References

1978 Iowa Hawkeyes football team

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1978 Iowa Hawkeyes football
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	2–9 (2–6 Big Ten)
Head coach	Bob Commings (5th season)
Defensive coordinator	Larry Coyer (4th season)
MVP	Brad Reid
Captain	Jon Lazar, Tom Rusk, Tim Gutshall, Dave Becker
Home stadium	Kinnick Stadium
Seasons ← 1977 1979 →

1978 Big Ten Conference football standings
v t e	Conf					Overall
Team	W		L		T	W		L		T
No.5Michigan +	7	–	1	–	0	10	–	2	–	0
No.12Michigan State +	7	–	1	–	0	8	–	3	–	0
No.13Purdue	6	–	1	–	1	9	–	2	–	1
Ohio State	6	–	2	–	0	7	–	4	–	1
Minnesota	4	–	4	–	0	5	–	6	–	0
Wisconsin	3	–	4	–	2	5	–	4	–	2
Indiana	3	–	5	–	0	4	–	7	–	0
Iowa	2	–	6	–	0	2	–	9	–	0
Illinois	0	–	6	–	2	1	–	8	–	2
Northwestern	0	–	8	–	1	0	–	10	–	1

+ – Conference co-champions Rankings from AP Poll

The 1978 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa in the 1978 Big Ten Conference football season. This was Bob Commings' fifth and final season as the head coach of the Hawkeyes.

Schedule[edit]

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Attendance
September 16	Northwestern	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA	W 20–3	56,840
September 23	No. 20Iowa State*	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA (rivalry)	L 0–31	60,075
September 30	atArizona*	Arizona Stadium Tucson, AZ	L 3–23	46,851
October 7	Utah*	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA	L 9–13	51,170
October 14	atMinnesota	Memorial Stadium Minneapolis, MN (rivalry)	L 20–22	51,381
October 21	atOhio State	Ohio Stadium Columbus, OH	L 7–31	87,326
October 28	No. 17Purdue	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA	L 7–34	57,640
November 4	No. 8Michigan	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA	L 0–34	49,120
November 11	atIndiana	Memorial Stadium Bloomington, IN	L 14–34	33,167
November 18	Wisconsin	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, IA (rivalry)	W 38–24	44,444
November 25	at No. 14Michigan State	Spartan Stadium East Lansing, MI	L 7–42	57,007
*Non-conference game Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

^[1]

Roster[edit]

1978 Iowa Hawkeyes football team roster

Players

Coaches

Offense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
QB		Bobby Commings Jr.	So
QB	`12`	Pete Gales	Fr
C	`54`	Jay Hilgenberg	So
FB	`44`	Jon Lazar	Sr
RB		Rod Morton	Jr
RB	`18`	Dennis Mosley	Jr
WR	`87`	Brad Reid	Jr
QB	`16`	Phil Suess	So
TE		Jim Swift	Jr

Defense

Pos.	#	Name	Class
DB		Dave Becker	Sr
DL	`97`	Doug Benschoter	Sr
LB		Tim Gutshall	Sr
LB	`47`	Tom Rusk	Sr
DE	`45`	Steve Vazquez	Sr

Special teams

Pos.	#	Name	Class
K		Scott Schilling	So

Head coach

Bob Commings

Coordinators/assistant coaches

Del Miller – Offensive assistant
Tom Hayes – Defensive backs
Dan McCarney – Graduate assistant

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible

Injured
Redshirt

Game summaries[edit]

Northwestern[edit]

Northwestern at Iowa

	1	2	3	4	Total
• Wildcats	7	7	6	0	20
Hawkeyes	0	3	0	0	3

Date: September 16
Location: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa
Game attendance: 56,840

Scoring summary

1		IOWA	Brad Reid 55-yard pass from Rod Morton (Schilling kick)	Iowa 7–0

2	4:44	IOWA	Todd Simonsen 4-yard fumble return (Schilling kick)	Iowa 14–0

2		NW	Nick Mirkopulos	Iowa 14–3

3	2:15	IOWA	Brad Reid 5-yard run (kick failed)	Iowa 20–3

^[2]

Iowa State[edit]

^[3]

At Arizona[edit]

Utah[edit]

At Minnesota[edit]

^[4]

At Ohio State[edit]

Purdue[edit]

Purdue at Iowa

	1	2	3	4	Total
• No. 17 Boilermakers	10	7	0	17	34
Hawkeyes	0	0	7	0	7

Date: October 28
Location: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa
Game attendance: 57,460

Scoring summary

1	PUR	Sovereen 39-yard field goal	Purdue 3–0

1	PUR	Pope 11-yard run (Sovereen kick)	Purdue 10–0

2	PUR	Young 25-yard pass from Herrmann (Sovereen kick)	Purdue 17–0

3	IOWA	Reid 57-yard run (Schilling kick)	Purdue 17–7

4	PUR	Burrell 11-yard pass from Herrmann (Sovereen kick)	Purdue 24–7

4	PUR	Sovereen 27-yard field goal	Purdue 27–7

4	PUR	Eubank 3-yard pass from Herrmann (Sovereen kick)	Purdue 34–7

Michigan[edit]

At Indiana[edit]

Wisconsin[edit]

^[5]

At Michigan State[edit]

^[6]^[7]^[8]

Team players in the 1979 NFL Draft[edit]

Player	Position	Round	Pick	NFL club
Tom Rusk	LB	9	227	New York Giants

^[9]

References[edit]

^ "1978 Iowa Hawkeyes Schedule and Results". Sports Reference. Retrieved September 14, 2018.

^ "Iowa tops Northwestern, 20-3" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. September 18, 1978. p. 10. Retrieved September 14, 2018.

^ "Cyclones stun Hawkeyes" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. September 25, 1978. p. 10. Retrieved September 14, 2018.

^ "Hawkeyes'second half explosion falls short, 22-20" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. October 16, 1978. p. 10. Retrieved September 14, 2018.

^ "Iowa rolls past Badgers, 38-24" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. November 20, 1978. p. 7. Retrieved September 14, 2018.

^ "Michigan State explodes against Iowa in finale" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. November 27, 1978. p. 10. Retrieved August 18, 2019.

^ "The ax falls for 'fighter' Commings" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. November 28, 1978. p. 1. Retrieved August 18, 2019.

^ "Hayden Fry named head coach" (PDF). The Daily Iowan. December 11, 1978. p. 1. Retrieved August 18, 2019.

^ "1979 NFL Draft". Sports Reference. Retrieved September 14, 2018.

v t e Iowa Hawkeyes football
Venues	Iowa Field (1890–1929) Kinnick Stadium (1929–present)
Bowls & rivalries	Bowl games Iowa State Minnesota Nebraska Wisconsin
Culture & lore	History Herky the Hawk "Iowa Fight Song" Marching band Kinnick Wave
People	Head coaches Honorees NFL draftees Statistical leaders
Seasons	1889 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
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