Obviously the fake field goal ended badly. But I thought it was a great call. Just a quick recap of the situation: Iowa was up 17-14 with about 7 minutes left in the game and had great field position off of an A.J. Edds interception. After a near miss on 3rd and goal (Robinson fell after breaking wide open in the back of the end zone) Iowa sent out the field goal unit.
With Paul Johnson's aggressive reputation and with the fact that GT's kicker, Scott Blair, had already missed a 41 yard field goal earlier in the game, I don't think anyone Georgia Tech would have settled for a field goal had they gotten a chance later in the game unless is was 4th down and longer than 6 or 7 yards. Therefore, going up by 6 points instead of just 3 would do little for the Hawkeyes as a TD would still win the game for the Yellow Jackets.
Furthermore, a field goal would mean that Iowa would have to kick off to GT, with GT knowing a TD would win. Based on the results of the other kick off returns, Tech would have likely only had around 65 yards to go for the go ahead score. A turnover on downs, however, leaves Tech with 90 yards in front of them.
And, a touchdown there would have pretty much sealed the deal. It was a high reward, low risk situation. So, good call Coach Ferentz...well done.
The actual play:
In case you missed it, or forgot what it looked like, here it is on YouTube. From what I can tell Iowa executed the play as it was designed. The snap and subsequent pitch between the legs (which was kind of beautiful) were both executed perfectly by Schulze and Donahue. And Murray did everything he could (you can't really expect him to outrun anybody). I think the blocking was there too...I can't actually tell who they were, but both of the guys on the end got great block downfield.
The only problem with the play was that the Georgia Tech did not bite on the fake. There were 2 unblocked defenders on the outside (I think by design), one crashed towards the middle of the field and ran himself out of the play, but the other recognized the fake almost immediately and was able to run done Murray. If both players would have crashed to the middle, Murray could have walked it in.
Anyway, it was a fun play and in the end its failure was a non-factor as Georgia Tech went backwards on its next possession, the Hawks got the ball back and scored, and the rest is history.