The No. 23 Iowa Hawkeyes defeated the No. 14 Vanderbilt Commodores 34-27 in the ReliaQuest Bowl Wednesday afternoon at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.
Iowa finished the season 9-4 and Vanderbilt posted an 10-3 record.
Topeka Highland Park alumnus Tre Richardson, who also played college football at Hutchinson Community College and Washburn University in Topeka, scored on a 75-yard touchdown pass for the Commodores.
Richardson caught the TD pass from Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia with 8:34 left in the third quarter.
Richardson, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound speedster, caught 6 passes for 127 yards. He finished the season with 44 receptions for 785 yards and six touchdowns.
Richardson also rushed for 62 yards on 12 carries this season and returned 17 kicks for an average of 27 yards per return.
Vanderbilt’s Junior Sherill caught 8 passes for 123 yards.
Pavia completed 25-of-38 passes for 347 yards with two TDs. He also threw a 16-yard TD pass to Joseph McVay and a 47-yard pass play to Sherrill to set up his own 1-yard TD run. Pavia led the Commodores in rushing with 36 yards.
Pavia previously played quarterback for the New Mexico Military Institute Broncos and New Mexico State Aggies. He placed second in this year’s Heisman Trophy race to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
Iowa quarterback Mark Gronowski passed for two TDs and ran for another. He was named the ReliaQuest Bowl Player of the Game. Gronowski passed for 212 yards and rushed for 54.
Gronowski, who transferred to Iowa after being South Dakota State’s starting quarterback for four seasons (he gained an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic), finished his career with a record 58 victories.
Gronowski ran for 59 TDs and passed for 103 during his career.
Iowa tight end DJ Vornahme caught 7 passed for 149 yards. Reece Vander Zee caught 4 passes for 33 yards and one TD. Kamari Moulton rushed for 95 yards and scored one TD.
