The Iowa Hawkeyes snuck up on much of the competition last season, especially in the Big Ten. They stormed to the Big Ten West Division title and made their first appearance in the Big Ten Championship Game. They carried an unbeaten record into that game. Had they won it, they would have been in the College Football Playoff. They very nearly beat Michigan State, but lost in the final 90 seconds. The team then got torn apart by Stanford in the Rose Bowl, which took a lot of luster away from the season.
Can Iowa regroup and put together another special season? That’s the question everyone is asking.
Biggest Team Weakness
The Iowa Hawkeyes offense was good enough to consistently win last season, but everyone knows that the defense usually carried the workload. Iowa was able to make important plays when it needed to, maintaining leads and draining clock in the second halves of games. The running game occasionally busted loose, with a committee of running backs destroying Northwestern with a series of big runs. In other games, Iowa quarterback C.J. Beathard was able to keep plays alive with his legs and convert important third downs to sustain drives. Against the weaker defenses of the Big Ten, Iowa runners were able to get five, six, seven yards per carry and establish complete control of a game. However, Iowa did not play Michigan or Ohio State, and when the Hawkeyes played Michigan State in what was not a regularly scheduled game, their offense didn’t have very good answers.
Iowa has to find bigger plays in the passing game, and Beathard has to be better than the player he was last year. If Beathard is merely the same, it won’t be a disaster for Iowa, but the Hawkeyes will probably lose once or twice before the month of December. Last year, they were unbeaten heading into the month.
Biggest Team Strength
Iowa’s defense is ferocious and will keep the team in just about every game it plays. The Iowa Hawkeyes are especially loaded in the secondary, where Desmond King anchors the unit as a shutdown cornerback. Fellow cornerback Greg Mabin has made nearly every possible start over the past two seasons and knows exactly what to do on the field. Miles Taylor and Brandon Snyder are highly-regarded safeties. This team won’t make anything easy for opposing offenses.
Schedule
As noted above, Iowa – fortunately placed in a division without Ohio State, Michigan State or Michigan, won’t have to play all three teams in most seasons. In some seasons, it won’t even have to play two of them. Last year, Iowa drew none of those teams in the 12-game pre-scheduled slate, but faced Michigan State by advancing to play the Spartans for the Big Ten title on a neutral field in Indianapolis.
This year, the Iowa Hawkeyes play Michigan. That should be a loss, but the rest of the schedule remains very manageable. Not playing Michigan State or Ohio State is still a big help. Iowa could obviously play one of those teams if it repeats as Big Ten West champion and goes to Indy once more.
The rest of their schedule includes mostly winnable games. The Hawkeyes will only play five true road games this year and while some of them should be a challenge, many should be games where they have a clear advantage. For example, they should be favored at Penn State, at Illinois, at Purdue and at Rutgers. However, beating Minnesota on the road could be an arduous task. Also, the Hawkeyes have a pretty easy non-conference schedule. They’ll start with Miami of Ohio (at home) and then host Iowa State, who is rebuilding, and then North Dakota State. That should produce three wins.
Outlook
The Iowa Hawkeyes will lose to Michigan but beat everyone else on its regular schedule. They might get a challenge from someone like Minnesota, but for the most partk, the Hawkeyes look like the top team in the Big Ten West. That’s why we’re projecting that they will win the Big Ten West again. They’ll lose to Ohio State in Indianapolis.
Projection: 1st In Big Ten West
