Iowa narrowly avoids catastrophic error on game-winning Michigan touchdown

An added layer to Iowa's improbable comeback victory over Michigan goes down in the "what if" category. Remember how the ending actually occurred.

Addison Ostrenga's epic catch off of a deflection over the middle got Iowa down to the 16-yard line, which means the clock stopped for a first down as Iowa races to the line of scrimmage. The Hawkeyes get set and snap it, but the whistles stop the play. It was frantic, and what happened next will forever overshadow it, but if you look at the clock, you'll note there were exactly two seconds left.

It is against the rules to spike the clock with under three seconds remaining, thanks to a 2013 NCAA rule change. CBS color analyst Charles Davis clocked it in real time.

"I don't know that you can [spike it] at that stage," Davis said.

Moments later Davis added:

"He wasn't going to spike it. It looked like he was going to fake it and run a play."

It's unclear what exactly Iowa quarterback Hank Brown was going to do. A real spike would have been an absolute disaster and one of the great game management mistakes anyone can remember (the week after CJ Bailey's botched safety against Vanderbilt ). Brown certainly runs through his role of a pantomimed spike.

At the snap, a couple of his offensive linemen do get into a pass set, and Ostrenga actually begins to release downfield, but other than that, nobody else moves as the whistle had already been blown.

Brown didn't directly say whether he was actually going to spike it, but he did say they were ready in the moment during the fire drill for what was coming next.

"I think it [the stoppage] helped a ton," Brown said. Just being able to huddle up and talk to what we're going to do now. Whether he would have went down or not, I think we prepared for that point in the field of what we're going to do," Brown said.

The Hawkeyes also benefited from the fact that Daley went down because Michigan's best pass rusher was then not on the field for the final play of the game.

If he was going to fake the spike and throw it to the end zone, it would have gone down in the annals of fake spikes in football history, if completed

Josh Rosen's spike for UCLA in 2017 capped a furious comeback at the Rose Bowl:

> Josh Rosen Fake Spike TD! What a comeback!! pic.twitter.com/jYMYw4TQXH — Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 4, 2017

:

Western Michigan also hit a fake spike against Toledo in 2020.

> FAKE SPIKE OMG OMG #MACtion pic.twitter.com/f6vLl4TOkR — MACtion (@MACSports) November 12, 2020

However, the fake spike that will forever be the standard came over three decades ago when Dan Marino faked a spike against the Jets and threw a touchdown to cement a comeback.

> Exactly 30 years ago today: Dolphins QB Dan Marino fake spikes the football, then throws a game-winning, 8-yard touchdown pass to Mark Ingram, who beats Jets CB Aaron Glenn. pic.twitter.com/eSnmseAMyj — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) November 27, 2024

Thankfully for Iowa, what actually did happen was epic enough. The completion, instead to Reese Vander Zee will go down in Hawkeye history.

"We're just trying to get everybody in the end zone and just give somebody a chance,"

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/iowas-last-second-td-michigan-meltdown/)._