The 1985 Iowa Hawkeyes football team represented the University of Iowa in the 1985 Big Ten Conference football season. The Hawkeyes were led by seventh-year head coach Hayden Fry and played their home games at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, Iowa.

Chuck Long declared that he would return for his senior season. He became an instant Heisman Trophy candidate, and Iowa was a preseason top five team. After three weeks in 1985, the Hawkeyes ascended to No. 1 in the national rankings for the second time in team history (1960). Three weeks later, in the sixth game of the season, No. 1 Iowa faced No. 2 Michigan at Kinnick Stadium. Iowa trailed 10–9 as the Hawkeyes regained possession of the football at their own 22-yard line with just 5:27 remaining in the game. Long drove the Iowa team to the 12-yard line with two seconds remaining to set up kicker Rob Houghtlin's game-winning field goal as time expired. After a rout of Northwestern, the Hawkeyes were upset by the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes in Columbus, Ohio. The loss to Ohio State cost Iowa their No. 1 ranking, but the Hawkeyes still won the Big Ten title outright for the first time in 27 years.^[3]

Long won a number of major national awards, including the Maxwell Award, given to the nation's top player and the Davey O'Brien Award, given to the nation's top quarterback, and the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the top player in the Big Ten. He was a consensus first-team selection to the 1985 College Football All-America Team and the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy to Bo Jackson of Auburn, losing by just 45 points.

Iowa lost Long's final game, the 1986 Rose Bowl, to UCLA by a score of 45–28. Long's Iowa teams compiled a 35–13–1 record. He graduated with 10,461 passing yards and 74 touchdowns on 782 completions.

Schedule

Date	Opponent	Rank	Site	TV	Result	Attendance
September 14	Drake*	No. 5	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa		W 58–0	66,135
September 21	Northern Illinois*	No. 4	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa		W 48–20	66,014
September 28	at Iowa State*	No. 3	Cyclone Stadium Ames, Iowa (Cy-Hawk Trophy)	ABC	W 57–3	53,202
October 5	Michigan State	No. 1	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa	CBS	W 35–31	66,044
October 12	at Wisconsin	No. 1	Camp Randall Stadium Madison, Wisconsin (rivalry)		W 23–13	79,023
October 19	No. 2 Michigan	No. 1	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa	CBS	W 12–10	66,350
October 26	at Northwestern	No. 1	Dyche Stadium Evanston, Illinois		W 49–10	47,269
November 2	at No. 8 Ohio State	No. 1	Ohio Stadium Columbus, Ohio	CBS	L 13–22	90,467
November 9	Illinois	No. 6	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa		W 59–0	66,120
November 16	at Purdue	No. 5	Ross–Ade Stadium West Lafayette, Indiana	CBS	W 27–24	57,762
November 23	Minnesota	No. 3	Kinnick Stadium Iowa City, Iowa (Floyd of Rosedale)	TBS	W 31–9	66,020
January 1	vs. No. 13 UCLA*	No. 4	Rose Bowl Pasadena, California (Rose Bowl)	NBC	L 28–45	103,292
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game

^[4]

Roster

1985 Iowa Hawkeyes football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class OL 55 Dave Alexander Jr OL 75 Kevin Angel Sr FB 23 Richard Bass Fr RB 13 Rick Bayless So OL 69 Mike Bennett Sr FB 35 Fred Bush Sr OL 78 Malcolm Christie So TE 49 Craig Clark So TE 84 Marv Cook Fr WR 82 Pat Coppinger Jr FB 25 Marshall Cotton So OT 61 Dave Croston Jr OL 63 Jeff Croston Fr OL 58 Greg Divis So WR 1 Quinn Early So TE 86 Mike Flagg So OL 74 Chris Gambol Jr RB 22 Grant Goodman Fr WR 80 Steve Green So OT 79 Mike Haight (C) Sr WR 40 Bill Happel Sr RB 28 Kevin Harmon So RB 31 Ronnie Harmon (C) Sr QB 8 Chuck Hartlieb  Fr WR 87 Scott Helverson Sr QB 15 Jay Hess Jr FB 20 David Hudson Fr G 65 Tom Humphrey Sr G 70 Bob Kratch Fr QB 16 Chuck Long (C) Sr WR 81 Derrius Loveless So RB John Marchese Sr WR 26 Peter Marciano Fr WR 47 Jim Mauro So TE 89 Dave Murphy Jr OL 66 Kelly O'Brien Sr TE 85 John Palmer Fr QB 14 Tom Poholsky Fr OL 67 Jim Poynton Fr RB 33 Kevin Ringer Fr FB 30 John Rudolph Jr OL 60 Bob Schmitt So FB 17 Tim Sennott Sr C 56 Mark Sindlinger Jr WR 2 Robert Smith Jr OL 53 Mark Spranger Jr QB 12 Mark Vlasic Jr OL 71 Chuck Waggoner Fr TE 88 Tom Ward So OL 73 Herb Wester So	Defense Pos. # Name Class DL 68 Tim Anderson So LB 93 Tim Batterson So DE 92 Jeff Beard So DE 48 Tyrone Berrie Fr LB 43 Jeff Blake So DB 19 Mike Bolan Jr DE 5 Mike Burke So DE 90 Doug Burrell Sr DB 3 Kerry Burt So CB 29 Nate Creer Sr DB 18 Kyle Crowe Sr LB 37 George Davis Jr DL 76 Jeff Drost Jr DE 83 Mike Ertz Fr DE 94 Bruce Gear Jr DE 96 Robert Grafton Jr DL 64 Dave Haight Fr DL 54 Eric Higgins Fr DB 42 Tork Hook Fr DB 19 Carl Jackson So DL 77 Myron Keppy Jr DB 4 Lloyd Kimber Jr LB 34 Vernon Little Fr DE 98 George Millett Sr DB 21 Devon Mitchell Sr DE 97 Joe Mott Fr DB 45 Jay Norvell Sr DL 50 Hap Peterson (C) Sr DE 71 Chris Pigott Fr DE 99 Richard Pryor Jr LB 32 J.J. Puk Jr LB 95 Jim Reilly Fr LB 38 Shawon Respress Fr DE 91 Sean Ridley Fr DB 11 Rick Schmidt Jr DL 72 Joe Schuster  Jr DB 44 Keaton Smiley So DB 9 Ken Sims Jr LB 36 Larry Station (C) Sr DB 41 Mark Stoops Fr LB 39 Tyrone Taylor So DL 95 Eric Underberg Jr DL 57 Jon Vrieze Jr DL 51 Bill Weires Sr LB 46 Dan Wirth So DB 10 Anthony Wright Fr	Special teams Pos. # Name Class K 84 Marv Cook Fr K 6 George Murphy Fr K 7 Rob Houghtlin So P 27 Gary Kostrubala Jr	Head coach Hayden Fry Coordinators/assistant coaches Bill Snyder – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks Bill Brashier – Defensive Coordinator Kirk Ferentz – Offensive line Carl Jackson – Running backs Del Miller – Offensive assistant Dan McCarney – Defensive line Barry Alvarez – Linebackers Don Patterson – Defensive Backs Bernie Wyatt – Defensive Ends/Recruiting Coordinator Bill Dervich – Strength and Conditioning Bob Stoops – Volunteer Assistant Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Rankings

^[5]

Game summaries

Drake

^[6]

Northern Illinois

Senior WR Bill Happel had a big day with 207 yards receiving and 3 touchdowns. The yardage total marked the first time a Hawkeye had more than 200 yards receiving in a single game and stood as the school record for two years.

^[7]

at Iowa State

The Hawkeyes earned the third of 15 consecutive wins over their in-state rivals. To date, this remains the largest margin of victory in the series. The convincing win vaulted Iowa to the #1 ranking in the country, a spot they would occupy for five consecutive weeks.

^{[8] [9]}

Michigan State

In their first game since ascending to the #1 ranking, the Hawkeyes survived a wild, back and forth thriller. The teams combined for well over 1,000 yards of total offense. Chuck Long (30-39, 380 yards, 4 TD) scored the winning touchdown on a 2-yard bootleg with 27 seconds remaining.

^[10]

at Wisconsin

^[11]

No. 2 Michigan

The #1 Hawkeyes dominated the game statistically — holding major advantages in total yards (422-182), offensive plays (84-41), and time of possession (38:05-21:55) — but could not find the end zone. Rob Houghtlin kicked a 29-yard field goal as time expired to lift the top-ranked Hawkeyes to victory over the #2 "Wolverdinks", as Houghtlin referred to them.^[12]

^{[13] [14] [15] [16] [17]}

at Northwestern

On a windy day in Evanston, Chuck Long went 19-26 for 399 yards and a Big Ten record-tying 6 TDs. Bill Happel hauled in three touchdowns, finishing with 117 yards on 5 receptions.

^{[18] [19] [20]}

at No. 8 Ohio State

^[21]

Illinois

^{[22] [23] [24] [25]}

at Purdue

^{[26] [27] [28]}

Minnesota

In the battle for the Floyd of Rosedale, Iowa beat the Golden Gophers in Lou Holtz's last game as Minnesota's head coach. Chuck Long, in his final game at Kinnick Stadium, became the first player in Big Ten history to eclipse 10,000 career passing yards.

^{[29] [30]}

vs. No. 13 UCLA (Rose Bowl)

^[31]

Awards and honors

• Chuck Long, Quarterback – Big Ten Player of the Year, Davey O'Brien Award,^[32] Maxwell Award,^[32] and Runner-up for the Heisman Trophy. Consensus First-team All-American.^[33]
• Larry Station, Linebacker – Consensus First-team All-American.^[33]

Team players in the 1986 NFL Draft

^[34]

Future head coaches