Welcome back to our countdown to the 2026 Iowa football season!

Since May 28, we've been counting down the final 100 days until the Hawkeyes storm out of the Kinnick Stadium tunnel to "Back in Black" for their season-opener against Northern Illinois on Sept. 5. 

Each day primarily features an article profiling a member of the team based on the jersey number that they wear falling on the respective day of the countdown, but that's not the case today. 

READ MORE: 77 Days Until Iowa Football: George Nahas

Since no Hawkeye wears No. 77, we're going to instead revisit one of the most bizarre games in Iowa football history - the 2022 lightning delay-filled contest against Nevada. 

Iowa City experienced a major power outage on June 10 after a thunderstorm ravaged the area, so it makes perfect sense to shift the clock back to September 2022. 

Iowa had fairly high expectations entering 2022 after going 10-4 in 2021, but any hopes of making noise in the Big Ten were essentially dashed after only two weeks. The Hawkeyes had yet to play a conference opponent yet, but their putrid offense managed just one touchdown through the first two weeks of the season, which included a painful touchdown-less 7-3 victory over South Dakota State in the opener. 

Iowa followed that outing up with an uninspiring 10-7 defeat to rival Iowa State at home (ISU's first triumph over Iowa in eight years), so the mood entering a primetime clash against Nevada was far from optimistic. 

The Hawkeyes finally got their offense going (by their standards) en route to a 27-0 victory. Spencer Petras tossed 175 yards and a touchdown, while a true freshman running back by the name of Kaleb Johnson tallied 103 yards and two scores on just seven carries. 

But that wasn't close to the story that emerged from this game - not even close. 

A steady rain fell throughout the first half, but Mother Nature would stamp her claim to fame in the third quarter. With Iowa leading 17-0, a lightning strike came at 10:02 in the period, forcing the game to be delayed for 1 hour and 19 minutes. 

When play finally resumed, another bolt resulted in a 1 hour, 50-minute delay. If you thought that would be the end of it, you'd be dead wrong, as a third delay forced the game to trickle into Sunday morning.

The subsequent stadium evacuations after each delay made most of the 70,000 rain-soaked fans in attendance that day opt to drive home, but it still didn't stop a few-hundred locals, Iowa students, and even their canine friends from trotting inside Kinnick Stadium. 

The delays lasted a whopping 3 hours and 56 minutes and didn't end until 1:39 a.m. 

Kirk Ferentz summed up the bizarre game with this simple remark. 

“Three rain delays and seven hours, and we found a way to win the game,” he told the Associated Press.

Weird games like this will sometimes re-energize a season, but it didn't work out that way for the 2022 Hawkeyes. Iowa was 3-4 by the midway point of the season, but still had a chance to return to the Big Ten Championship Game with a win over rival Nebraska in the regular season finale. 

The Hawkeyes lost that game in disappointing fashion and would finish the 2022 campaign at 8-5. 

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]