The Hawkeyes are coming off a dominant, fun, and exhilarating victory over the Buckeyes. For a blowout that came out of nowhere, Iowa fans are hoping that they can continue the final games of the season in this fashion. This starts with a trip to Madison against rival Wisconsin.
The Badgers are unblemished this season, and could be the Big Ten’s final hope at getting to the college playoff. They took back the Heartland Trophy in Iowa City last season with a 17-9 victory. Iowa has had recent success in Madison including the 10-6 ‘slugfest’ in 2015 to preserve Iowa’s perfect record.
Wisconsin comes into the game with important injuries, but to this point have been able to do enough in their games to escape defeat. Freshmen Jonathan Taylor has been one of the best running backs in the country. And, head coach Paul Chryst has done a masterful job in his tenure as the head man with the Badgers. Taylor leads the conference in rushing yards and also is atop in rushing touchdowns in his first year of college ball.
The quarterback Alex Hornibrook has been efficient for the Badgers in his second season as he is 2nd in the conference in passer rating. Future NFL star tight end Troy Fumagali is 2nd in the conference in receptions, and 1st in yards for tight ends. The Badgers have strong pass rushers as well in Alex James and Garret Dooley.
This could be a rough time to be playing the Hawkeyes for Wisconsin as they haven’t exactly been blowing teams out. Wins over Northwestern and Purdue were under ten points, and they let Illinois hang around far too long for a Big Ten favorite.
Iowa kept both the CyHawk and Floyd of Rosedale trophies earlier in the season, and are still aiming to retain the Heroes Trophy against Nebraska in several weeks. The only rivalry trophy that was missing this past year was the Heartland. Iowa looks to run across the field to retrieve the ‘bull’ this weekend.
Winning the west is near impossible for the Hawkeyes at this point as it would require a complete meltdown from the Badgers, but it does not lower make the matchup any less meaningful.
We were able to get in touch with Noah Seligman of Badger of Honor to get some insight regarding the 9-0 Badgers.