Iowa freezes Iowa State kicker into game-winning field goal

Kirk Ferentz actively helped the Iowa State Cyclones beat his Hawkeyes in regulation.

He held onto one of Iowa's timeouts even as the Cyclones wound down the clock to the game's final seconds, ensuring the Hawkeyes wouldn't have a meaningful last-ditch possession if Iowa State were to hit its last-second field goal. And then he used it as ISU's Cole Netten wound up for the potential game-winner... which it looks like he missed:

And the second one, after the timeout, was true.

It's not fully clear Netten's first field goal missed. It was certainly close, but above the upright, so it's not certain either way. One referee under the upright signaled the play dead, the other signaled missed field goal, but it would've been reviewable, so that initial judgment only would've mattered if video evidence was inconclusive.

Either way, Ferentz chose to use his last timeout to mess with the psychology of a kicker -- which, kinda just gave him a practice kick -- when he could've used it for actual game reasons. And that's never really a good thing.

UPDATE: WE NOW HAVE FERENTZ'S REASONING

Kirk Ferentz on timeout before ISU FG miss: "We called a timeout. We had 1 left & that's the reason I called it"

— Brett McMurphy (@McMurphyESPN) September 13, 2014