MINNEAPOLIS -- Gophers tight end Maxx Williams has made some highlight-reel catches during his two years at Minnesota, but one his grabs Saturday against Iowa is going to be pretty hard to top.
With the Gophers leading 14-7 in the second quarter, Minnesota had the ball on 3rd-and-7 from Iowa's 48-yard line. Quarterback Mitch Leidner saw Williams break toward the far sideline and fired a pass toward his wide-open tight end. But the pass sailed on him and appeared to be out of reach for the 6-foot-4 Williams.
That's when Williams had his best catch in a Gophers uniform. He stretched out his arms to snare the ball as he headed out of bounds. More impressively, Williams dragged his toe on the turf before hitting the sideline.
The catch was so improbable that the referees ruled it an incompletion. After a video review, though, the call was overturned. Williams' unbelievable 25-yard grab helped set up a Gophers touchdown -- and was one of the biggest discussion topics after Minnesota's 51-14 victory.
"To be honest with you, I said it was probably out of bounds," said Gophers head coach Jerry Kill. "Until I'd seen it on the big screen, I didn't know. That kid, I've never seen anything like it. I've coached the game for 31 years and coached a lot of great players, but I've never seen anybody catch the football like that kid."
That grab was easily the most impressive of the game for Williams, but it was far from his last grab. In fact, Leidner found Williams for a 9-yard touchdown later that drive to reward his big tight end for keeping the drive alive.
Leidner connected with Williams once again before halftime, hitting on a 4-yard touchdown pass to put the Gophers up 35-7. Once again, Williams' footwork was impressive as he got both feet down despite the pass being a big overthrown.
"It's tough for defenses to try and defend him," Leidner said.
The third and final touchdown from Leidner to Williams came in the third quarter on Minnesota's first drive of the second half. Leidner rolled to his right and found Williams, who caught the pass short of the end zone but easily ran in for the score. Entering Saturday, Williams had never caught more than one touchdown pass in a game.
Against Iowa, he caught three.
"I'm glad he's on our team," Kill said. "We need to make sure we take good care of him and keep him healthy."
Williams finished with five catches for 46 yards and three scores Saturday, all three of which were team highs. The even better news for the Gophers: he's only a sophomore. So as good as the sideline catch was against Iowa, Williams knows he can add a few more to his highlight reel before it's all said and done.
As it stands right now, that catch will be hard to top.
"We'll see," Williams said. "I have a couple more years to play."
Weisman not a factor for Hawkeyes: In his previous meetings against the Gophers, Iowa running back Mark Weisman feasted on Minnesota's defense. In the Hawkeyes' win at TCF Bank Stadium last year, he rumbled for 147 yards on 24 carries. The year before that he had 177 yards and a touchdown in Iowa City as Iowa topped Minnesota 31-13.
The Gophers weren't about to let Weisman beat them again. It was clear early on that Minnesota's defense was intent on stopping the run in general and Weisman in particular. The final box score indicates that as well: just 21 yards on 14 carries for the Iowa senior. His longest run of the day? A measly five yards.
"You know he's going to get the football and you know they're going to run a lot of outside zone," Kill said. "Our kids just played with better discipline. They make you play disciplined. They're a well-coached, fundamental team. . . . We tackled good. That's the other thing."
As a team, Iowa finished with just 84 rushing yards on 30 carries, an average of 2.8 yards per carry. Akrum Wadley was the only player to have success running the ball against Minnesota as he gained 68 yards on just nine rushes.
Jet sweep gets Maye involved: Minnesota has tried to find ways to get wide receiver KJ Maye involved in the offense more. It looks as if the Gophers have found the solution.
Maye ran the ball 10 times, a career high. He turned those 10 carries -- all of which came on jet sweeps -- into 66 rushing yards. Minnesota ran with Maye early, too. The Gophers' first play from scrimmage was a 12-yard gain by Maye on the jet sweep.
Later in that same opening drive, it was Maye who scored from nine yards out on a similar sweep play. Iowa struggled to adjust to his speed around the edge, so the Gophers kept feeding him the ball.
"We knew we had to do some things to get the ball outside," Kill said. "We run the ball well inside and we felt like we had to get the ball outside, so it happened to be the opportunities that he was given. We kept staying with it. They were struggling with it."
Later in the game, the Gophers ran three straight sweep plays with Maye carrying the ball. The results were gains of 13, 10 and six yards as he helped set up a 4-yard touchdown pass.
Maye's previous career high for carries was six, which came against Syracuse in 2012. The most rushing yards he tallied before Saturday was 43 in the loss to Illinois two weeks ago. The addition of that sweep play gives Minnesota's offense another wrinkle as it looks to exploit some tough defenses in its final three games.
"All week we've been working on getting the ball on the perimeter and making those guys run side to side," Maye said. "I knew coming into the game that I was going to get those carries."
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