Big Ten Roundup : Fry Feels the Heat as No. 1 Iowa Gets By Wisconsin, 23-13

Iowa Coach Hayden Fry is finding out how tough it is being ranked No. 1. His Hawkeyes, although getting 175 rushing yards and one touchdown from Ronnie Harmon, struggled to a 23-13 victory over Wisconsin Saturday in a Big Ten game at Madison, Wis.

“We want to have a chance to be No. 1 at the end of the season,” Fry said, “but it’s going to be tough to stay undefeated. I don’t know if we’re No. 1. We surely didn’t play like it today. But Wisconsin had a lot to do with that.”

The Hawkeyes, who haven’t lost to Wisconsin since Fry became coach in 1979, are 5-0 overall and 2-0 in the Big Ten. Wisconsin is 3-2 and 0-2.

Wisconsin Coach Dave McClain said Iowa was “just a little better football team. We made a lot of little mistakes. They were the difference in the game. Missed tackles, bad passes, mental errors. Those things killed us.”

Harmon, who a year ago broke his right leg against the Badgers at Iowa City, helped put the game away with a 12-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that made it 20-13.

Harmon, who got his 175 yards in 20 carries, also caught 8 passes for 62 yards.

Fry said that quarterback Chuck Long, who passed for 167 yards and one touchdown, had been “extremely hazy” after being hit in the back early in the game.

“He doesn’t remember much of what happened in the first half,” Fry said, adding that Long would be ready for next Saturday’s nationally televised showdown against third-ranked Michigan at Iowa City.

Wisconsin quarterback Bud Keyes, who replaced starter Mike Howard at the start of the second half, twice led Wisconsin within three points of Iowa in the third quarter.

But Harmon’s touchdown run and a 35-yard field goal by Rob Houghtlin in the fourth quarter gave the Hawkeyes some breathing room.

Purdue 30, Illinois 24--A goal-line pass deflection in the closing seconds preserved the Boilermakers’ victory at West Lafayette, Ind.

“I was scared to death on the play,” said Purdue defender Rod Woodson, who knocked the ball from the hands of Illinois’ David Williams, averting a tying touchdown by the Illini. “We knew they were going to him. I just tried to play up on him. Our hands were there at the same time. Luckily, I knocked the ball down.”

Woodson and the rest of the Boilermakers had reason to believe the pass would go to Williams, who caught a school-record 16 passes for 164 yards and 3 touchdowns in a game dominated by the passing of Purdue’s Jim Everett and Illinois’ Jack Trudeau.

Everett completed 27 of 47 passes for a career-high 464 yards and 4 touchdowns, while Trudeau completed 39 of 66 for 413 yards and the 3 touchdowns.

Counting a 12-yard completion by backup Illinois quarterback Jim Bennett, the two teams combined for 67 completions in 114 attempts for 889 yards.

“It was a great win, the best win I’ve ever been involved with,” Purdue Coach Leon Burtnett said.

After the final incomplete pass to Williams, the Boilermakers, 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten, ran out the clock to drop Illinois to 2-3 and 1-1.

Everett, a fifth-year senior, led the Boilermakers to a 30-17 lead. But Illinois drove 72 yards to make it 30-24, with Trudeau hitting Williams with a five-yard touchdown pass.

Illinois got the ball back again with less than two minutes to go and drove to the Purdue 14 before Trudeau missed four straight pass attempts and Purdue took over on downs with 42 seconds left.

Ohio State 48, Indiana 7--John Wooldridge, filling in for the injured Keith Byars, scored four first-half touchdowns and rushed for 104 yards as 15th-ranked Ohio State cruised past previously unbeaten Indiana before 89,846 fans at Columbus, Ohio.

With Byars in uniform on the sideline but his broken foot not yet healed enough for him to play, Wooldridge scored on runs of 1, 4 and 7 yards and caught a 27-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jim Karsatos.

Wooldridge gained only 38 yards in Ohio State’s 31-28 loss at Illinois the previous Saturday. “I wanted to make up for last week,” Wooldridge said.

The Buckeyes are 4-1 overall and 1-1 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers (4-1, 2-1) have lost 30 straight to the Buckeyes.

Karsatos completed 8 of 14 passes for 156 yards and 2 touchdowns before leaving the game early in the third quarter.

Indiana quarterback Scott Bradley, who entered the game seventh in the nation in total offense, completed only 7 of 18 passes for 86 yards. He left the game late in the second quarter after making the tackle on his second interception of the game.

Minnesota 21, Northwestern 10--At Evanston, Ill., Rickey Foggie threw touchdown passes of 61 yards to Kevin Starks and 17 yards to Valdez Baylor as the Gophers spoiled Northwestern’s Homecoming.

Minnesota, playing its first game away from home and outdoors, is 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference. Northwestern is 2-3 and 0-2.