Iowa Rolls Washington 41-24 in Seattle: Hecklinski Throws Three TDs in First Start, Moulton Runs for a Career-High 208

The short version: Iowa went to Seattle on a short week with a quarterback making his first career start — and produced its most complete performance of the season. Jeremy Hecklinski threw three touchdown passes, Kamari Moulton ran for a career-high 208 yards and two scores, and the Hawkeyes built a 27-0 lead on the way to a 41-24 win over Washington at Husky Stadium on Friday night. Iowa is 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the Big Ten heading into its bye week, and it climbed to No. 16 in the US LBM Coaches Poll released after the weekend.

SEATTLE — There are road trips that test a team, and then there is the one Iowa just survived: a cross-country flight, a Friday night kickoff, a short week of preparation, and a first-time starter under center because the usual starter, Hank Brown, was sidelined by injury. The Hawkeyes answered all of it by the middle of the second quarter, when they led 27-0 and the only real question left in Husky Stadium was the final margin.

A first start that never looked like one

Hecklinski, a third-year quarterback, completed 14 of 19 passes for 202 yards and three touchdowns, finishing with a 215.1 passer rating in his starting debut, according to the University of Iowa's official game recap. He spread his scoring throws between tight end DJ Vonnahme, who caught touchdown passes of 20 and 27 yards in the second quarter, and wide receiver Reece Vander Zee, who finished with three catches for 69 yards and a score of his own. Vonnahme's line — two catches, 44 yards, two touchdowns — was about as efficient as a receiving night gets.

The debut puts Hecklinski in rare company in the Kirk Ferentz era: he became just the fourth Iowa quarterback in that span to throw three touchdown passes in his first start, per game coverage compiled by BCSNN. More importantly for Iowa's purposes, he protected the ball and the plan. With the run game rolling early, Hecklinski was asked to be precise rather than heroic, and he was — completing nearly three-quarters of his attempts while Washington's defense sold out to stop the ground attack that was beating it anyway.

Moulton's career night on the ground

Moulton carried 26 times for 208 yards and two touchdowns, breaking his previous career high of 183 yards, set in the season opener against Northern Illinois. His 56-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter stretched Iowa's early lead, and his 3-yard score with 12:06 remaining in the fourth quarter closed the door after Washington's second-half push. He averaged eight yards per carry, piled up 97 yards in the first quarter alone, and passed the 100-yard mark on his first carry of the second quarter.

The performance was also a direct response to the week before. Against Ohio State, in Iowa's only loss of the season, Moulton was held to 27 yards on 11 carries in a 31-14 defeat. One week later, behind an offensive line that controlled the line of scrimmage from the opening series, he became the first Hawkeye to top 200 rushing yards in a game since 2024. As a team, Iowa rushed for 263 yards and totaled 465 yards of offense with 22 first downs.

The defense set the tone early

For all the offensive fireworks — a genuine novelty for a Ferentz team — this game was still won the Iowa way. The Hawkeyes held Washington to minus-4 rushing yards for the night, recorded six sacks and nine tackles for loss, and forced punts on each of the Huskies' first five drives. Washington managed just 14 total yards on 18 plays across those five possessions and 95 yards of offense in the entire first half.

Linebacker Xavier Styles led Iowa with nine tackles, while Cam Buffington and Jayden Montgomery added eight apiece. Buffington and Preston Ries each recorded two sacks. Kicker Caden Buhr handled the early scoring, hitting field goals of 51 and 27 yards — the 51-yarder his first career make from beyond 50 — and converting all five of his extra-point attempts.

Washington's night got harder before it got better

Washington (3-3, 0-3 Big Ten) lost starting quarterback Demond Williams Jr. late in the second quarter after he took a hit on a drive that eventually produced a 30-yard Tyler Robles field goal with 1:56 left in the half. Williams went to the locker room for X-rays and did not return, and head coach Jedd Fisch had no update on his status after the game, according to the Associated Press account of the game.

Backup Elijah Brown gave the Huskies a genuine spark. He led an eight-play, 75-yard drive to open the third quarter, finishing it with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Chris Lawson, and the teams traded touchdowns from there to a 34-18 score before Moulton's second score restored order. Brown also connected with Mason James on a 3-yard touchdown as time expired for the final margin. Dezmen Roebuck joined Lawson and James among Washington's touchdown receivers, but the Huskies never recovered from the 27-0 hole or solved Iowa's defensive front.

Why this one matters in Iowa City

The history attached to the win is not trivial. Per USA Today's Hawkeyes Wire, it was Iowa's first victory at Washington since 1963 and the program's first regular-season win in the Pacific time zone since 1965. The 41 points, meanwhile, marked the third time in six games this season that a Ferentz-coached Iowa team has scored at least 40 — something the Hawkeyes had not done across the opening six games of a season in 15 years, according to USA Today's game coverage.

Ferentz, in remarks reported by the AP, credited his players for handling a week full of built-in excuses — the road, the short turnaround, the lineup change — and playing well anyway. Iowa heads into its bye at 5-1 with a defense allowing almost nothing on the ground, a running back coming off a 208-yard night, and a new quarterback question that is the good kind: what to do now that the backup has played like that. Washington, winless in the Big Ten, heads the other direction, waiting on word about its quarterback's shoulder and searching for a first conference win.