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IOWA CITY – If Iowa’s football program gets an invitation to the Bowl Championship Series in two weeks, Norm Parker’s defense should request first-class seats on the plane.

With an offense that mustered just 171 yards and was a meager 1-for-13 on third down versus the Big Ten Conference’s eighth-ranked defense, Iowa piggybacked off its defense Saturday.

The Hawkeyes forced three Minnesota turnovers, stopped the Gophers on third down 16 of 20 times and put together a goal line stand en route to a 12-0 victory on senior day at Kinnick Stadium.

As a result, 13th-ranked Iowa (10-2, 6-2 Big Ten) kept the Floyd of Rosedale bronze pig trophy for a third straight year and remains in the hunt for a BCS at-large bowl berth.

“We’ve got to have it,” Iowa receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos said. “We were 10 points from a perfect season (seven-point loss to Northwestern and a three-point defeat at Ohio State).

“We’ve got one of the best defenses, if not the best, in the country. And we’re going to get our leader Ricky (Stanzi) back.”

If the Hawkeyes get selected to a BCS bowl, it will likely be the Orange Bowl in Miami, Fla., on Jan. 5 or the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 4. Orange Bowl committee member Larry Gautier was at Saturday’s game, while the Fiesta had representatives at Kinnick earlier in the season.

“Iowa is definitely in the mix and on our short list, but there’s a lot of football left,” Gautier said.

Iowa, meanwhile, has to wait and watch.

Invitations to the Fiesta and Orange bowls will be announced Dec. 6. If Iowa isn’t chosen for a BCS bowl, it will either go to the Capital One Bowl in Orlando or the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Fla., bowls affiliated with the Big Ten.

“Look at our body of work on the road,” said linebacker A.J. Edds, referencing Iowa’s 4-1 road record with its lone loss at Ohio State in overtime nine days ago. “We’ve done a lot, and we’ve done all we can. Now, we’ve got to let it shake out and see what happens.”

Ferentz’s team bolstered its BCS chances by earning double-digit wins in a season for just the seventh time in the program’s history.

And it did so behind a defense that blanked the Gophers for the second consecutive year - the first time that has happened since 1955-56.

Asked where Saturday’s defensive performance ranked in a season full of close calls and low-scoring affairs, defensive end Adrian Clayborn didn’t hesitate.

“It’s definitely No. 1,” he said. “The defense was on the field a lot today, and we still were able to shut them out.”

Iowa’s offense didn’t do much to help.

The Hawkeyes put together an impressive 68-yard drive in the game’s opening five minutes, but they mustered just 103 yards over the next 55 minutes.

Redshirt freshman quarterback James Vandenberg saw a heavy dose of blitzes from every direction.

“They brought everybody,” Vandenberg said. “It was hard to tell where they were going to come from.

“We never got in a rhythm.”

The biggest defensive stand came in the fourth with Iowa leading 12-0.

After a Vandenberg fumble gave Minnesota the ball at Iowa’s 29, Hawkeye cornerback Shaun Prater was whistled for pass interference to give the Gophers first-and-goal at the 2.

On first down, linebacker Pat Angerer shot through the gap and tackled MarQueis Gray. On the next play, Angerer and Edds stuffed tailback Duane Bennett.

On third down, Prater atoned for his penalty with a nifty breakup in the end zone.

Then, on fourth, Broderick Binns flushed Minnesota quarterback Adam Weber out of the pocket before he was run down by Clayborn and Christian Ballard.

“We just looked at each other and said there’s no way they’re going to get into the end zone,” Angerer said.

“We just had to put out the fire,” Binns said.

Minnesota coach Tim Brewster called it “heartbreaking.”

“They’ve got as good a front four as there is around,” Brewster said. “Their whole defense is excellent.”

And thanks to that defense, the BCS is still in the equation for Iowa.

Iowa 12, Minnesota 0

Minnesota                   0 0 0 0 —   0

Iowa                   3 6 3 0 — 12

First Quarter

Iowa — Daniel Murray 30 FG, 9:56

Second Quarter

Iowa — Brandon Wegher 1 run (kick blocked), 0:52

Third Quarter

Iowa — Murray 45 FG, 7:10

Team statistics

                                   Minn.      Iowa

First downs  13  12

Rushes-yards  36-48  36-54

Passing yards  153  117

Comp-Att-Int.  14-42-1  11-24-1

Total yards  201  171

Punts-avg.  8-38.8  9-37.7

Return yards  38  25

Fumbles-lost  3-2  1-1

Penalties-yards  4-34  3-28

Time of possession  31:37  28:23

Individual statistics

Rushing

MINNESOTA — Kevin Whaley 11-38, MarQueis Gray 7-23, Duane Bennett 4-5, Ben Kuznia 1-3, Jon Hoese 3-2, Team 1-(-4), Adam Weber 9-(-19).

IOWA — Adam Robinson 12-72, Brandon Wegher 15-26, Paki O’Meara 1-2, Team 4-(-7), James Vandenberg 4-(-39).

Passing

MINNESOTA — Weber 14-40-0, 153 yards; Gray 0-2-1, 0 yards.

IOWA — Vandenberg 11-24-1, 117 yards.

Receiving

MINNESOTA — Da’Jon McKnight 4-63, Troy Stoudemire 2-22, Bryant Allen 2-12, Gray 2-8, Nick Tow-Arnett 1-24, Kuznia 1-12, Bennett 1-9, Hoese 1-3.

IOWA — Derrell Johnson-Koulianos 7-63, Trey Stross 3-26, Marvin McNutt 1-28.