Iowa had the last laugh, but they found nothing funny about Nebraska’s actions — and made sure they knew it.
Following Iowa’s 13-10 win over rival Nebraska on Friday, Hawkeyes linebackers Jay Higgins and Nick Jackson called out Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule and the team’s captains for their pregame antics.
They claimed Rhule walked through Iowa’s pregame warmups.
“So we immediately knew what type of game this was,” Higgins said.
Soon after, Nebraska’s captains refused to shake hands with Iowa’s captains during the pregame coin toss, instead either staring straight ahead or down at the ground when the Hawkeyes reached out their arms.
Higgins claimed that on Iowa’s first defensive drive, he told Rhule “It probably wasn’t a good idea to not shake our hands,” to which he says Rhule replied, “Who are you?”
Nebraska entered halftime up 10-0, though, before falling apart in the second half.
“How good did they feel at halftime? Didn’t shake our hands, up 10, they were probably in that locker room going crazy. But it felt great to beat them. Trophy game, everything was on the line.”
Iowa then scored 13 unanswered points in the second half, culminating in a game-winning 53-yard field goal from Drew Stevens as time expired.
After the game, Higgins made a beeline toward Rhule at midfield in order to shake his hand.
When asked if Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz would ever do anything similar, Higgins took another shot.
“No, no, no, never,” Jackson said. “Come to Iowa and be a Hawk, see the difference.”
Iowa finished the regular season 8-4 overall and 6-3 in the conference, while Nebraska finished 6-6 overall and 3-6 in the conference.
“I can’t imagine being some of those seniors, and then just happening like this again against Iowa, especially the way we played,” Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said after the game.
Iowa’s social media department even got in on the fun, posting a video on X of Nebraska’s refusal to shake hands with the caption “ope” accompanied by a laughing emoji.