IOWA CITY, Iowa -- A parade of buses rolled toward Kinnick Stadium on Saturday as the Iowa football players on board glanced through their windows at "hordes of people," receiver Matt VandeBerg said. Right away, the Hawkeyes knew that this night would be special.
"The electricity was already there," said VandeBerg, a junior who caught a team-high six passes for 74 yards in Iowa's 40-35 victory over Minnesota.
The win was historic for the fifth-ranked Hawkeyes, 10-0 for the first time in school history and within one triumph of a Big Ten West title.
It was more memorable, though, for the sea of humanity that returned like a black wave of energy, hungry to embrace -- or, in the case of some, to meet -- these Hawkeyes.