I’m covering Iowa football for my 22nd season.
I started writing for the North Liberty Leader in the third game of the 2000 season after Iowa State beat Iowa 24-14. That was the Clones third straight win over the Hawks.
My homeboy, Mike Scharf, stopped over one afternoon and told me Brian Fleck, who owned the Leader, was looking for someone to cover the Hawkeyes.
I told him “I’m in.”
I can’t remember exactly how it got started but I remember writing maybe two stories about the Hawks before I even met Brian. I didn’t get paid at first but that was okay because I got to write about my favorite team.
I started getting passes to the football, basketball and wrestling meets and even started getting paid.
So, for the last 22 years I’ve had my dream job.
The next new weeks I’ll look at the Iowa schedule and predict who will be favored.
September 3- South Dakota State Jack Rabbits
SDS finished 11-4 last year winning two games in the playoffs.
They beat North Dakota State 27-19 (their only loss) in the season but North Dakota State would win the Division 1 Football Championship.
The Jack Rabbits averaged 36 points per game on offense and gave up an average of 19.7 on defense.
This isn’t going to be a blowout but I’m excited to see what the front seven on defense will do as State likes to run the ball.
The Hawks will be favored.
September 10- Iowa State Cyclones
The Clones were rated 10th in the nation when Iowa beat them 27-17 at Ames last fall.
They finished 7-6 and lost their Bowl game to Clemson 20-13.
State has five starters back on an offense that averaged 31 points per game.
They have to replace quarterback Brock Purdy who passed for 3,188 yards and 19 touchdowns last fall. He threw eight interceptions including three against Iowa. They also have to replace All American running back Breece Hall who ran for 1,472 yards and scored 20 TD’s.
Iowa held Hall to 69 yards rushing last year.
Iowa State led the Big 12 in passing offense averaging 263 yards per game.
The defense, which returns three starters, gave up and average of 20.5 points per game.
The Clones led the Big 12 in pass defense giving up 188 passing yards per game.
The Clones play that funky 3-5-3 defense will be a challenge for the Hawks.
Playing at home, the Hawks should be favored.
September 17- Nevada Wolf Pack
The Wolfpack finished 8-5 last year including a win at California.
They have a 6-9 quarterback that transferred from Oklahoma State but have to replace nine starters on and offense that averaged 35 points per game, which was tops in the Mountain Division.
The defense, which gave up 26.5 ppg has three starters back including tackle Dom Peterson, who is a preseason all-conference pick.
Iowa needs to get out to an early lead and control the line of scrimmage.
The Hawks will be favored.
September 24- at the Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Rutgers finished 5-8 last season beating Illinois and Indiana in the Big Ten.
They joined the Big Ten in 2012 and Iowa has played them twice winning both games.
The Knights have five players back on an offense that averaged 19.7 points per game.
The defense has five starters back including all four defensive backs.
Rutgers defense gave up an average of 25.6 points per game.
Greg Schiano is in his third year of coaching the Scarlet Knights
Greg had three wins in his first season and took the team to a Bowl game last year.
Iowa should be favored.
October 1- Michigan Wolverines
Jim Harbaugh finally got the monkey off his back by not only beating Ohio State for the first time in six tries.
The Wolverines also won the Big Ten East for the first time as well as the Big Ten Championship beating the Iowa Hawkeyes 42-3.
I had a bad feeling early in the game when the score was 0-0 and Caleb Shudak, who missed only four field goals all season, missed a 33 yard field goal with 8:35 left the first quarter.
Michigan has seven back on offense including QB Cade McNamara, who passed for 2,576 yards and 15 touchdowns.
The Wolverine offense averaged 35.8 points which was second best in the Big Ten.
Michigan has three starters back on a defense that gave up an average of 17.4 points per game.
They held the Hawkeyes to 104 yards on the ground last year and 175 yards in the air.
This will be a tough matchup but hopefully a sellout crowd at Kinnick will give the Hawkeyes some juice.
Michigan will be favored.
October 8- at the Illinois Fighting Illini
The Illini finished 5-7 in Bret Bielema’s second year as head coach for Illinois.
When Bret was head coach at Wisconsin (2006-2012) the Badgers went to three straight Rose Bowls but they lost all three.
Iowa knocked them off last season 33-23 although the Hawks trailed 10-0.
Charlie Jones sparked the comeback with a 100 yard kickoff return.
I still don’t understand why Charlie left as he was a walk-on and earned a scholarship.
The offense averaged 20 points per game and they have five starters back including running back Chase Brown, who ran for over 1,000 yards.
The defense gave up 21.9 points per game and has six starters back including three defensive backs.
Bret is a good coach and could turn the program around…let’s hope it isn’t this year.
Iowa will be favored.
I have Iowa favored in five of the first six games.
Next week I’ll talk about home games with Northwestern, Wisconsin and Nebraska and away games with Ohio State, Purdue and Minnesota.
The Hawkeyes have sold out Iowa State, Nevada, Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Nebraska is close to a sellout.
That’s great the Hawk fans are coming out to support their team.
South Dakota State is close to a sellout.
