PITTS­BURGH – Kirk Ferentz is learn­ing to em­brace his in­ner riv­er­boat gam­bler. And, for the mo­ment, the I­o­wa coach is on a roll.

Mark Weis­man ran for 88 yards and two touch­downs, in­clud­ing a 1-yard plunge with 6:56 left, to lift the Hawk­eyes to a 24-20 vic­to­ry over pre­vi­ous­ly un­beat­en Pitts­burgh. The seni­or run­ning back's 20th ca­reer score came at the end of a 13-play drive in which Ferentz opt­ed to go for it twice on fourth down rath­er than at­tempt a short field goal.

"He has con­fi­dence in us," Weis­man said. "So it's our job to get it done some way, some­how."

The Hawk­eyes (3-1) trailed by 10 at the half but C.J. Bea­thard, who re­placed in­jured Jake Rudock at the start of the third quar­ter, hit Damond Powell for a 62-yard gain to start the come­back. Weis­man fol­lowed with a 10-yard sprint into the end zone. His se­cond TD gave I­o­wa its first lead.

"It's a re­sili­ent team, this team," Weis­man said. "The best I­o­wa teams are."

ASSOCIATED PRESS