Iowa football: How the Big Ten West fared in week three
By Andrew Wade
The contenders
This list has gotten considerably smaller from last week to this week. At this point it’s just the surprising Minnesota Gophers and the Iowa football team. Both teams are 3-0 before heading into Big Ten play.
Iowa Hawkeyes
The Iowa football program takes on #18 Wisconsin this weekend, and this is a huge opportunity to take an early lead in the race for the Big Ten West crown. After a week three loss to BYU, Wisconsin is looking a lot more vulnerable than originally thought. They still possess a very talented offensive line and Heisman candidate Jonathon Taylor, but outside of that there isn’t much to be excited about on offense.
If the Hawks pull this off, they have a pretty winnable next three games at Minnesota, at Indiana, and vs Maryland. There is a very realistic possibility they could head into a matchup for the Penn State Nittany Lions with a 7-0 record. Needless to say, this weekend is huge for the 2018 Iowa football team.
The biggest issue in Iowa’s way is their home/away schedule. After the Wisconsin game, the Iowa football team only has one home game in the next five. Not an easy way to work their way through the Big Ten.
Minnesota Gophers
I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to place Minnesota on this list, but they have performed pretty well so far. Granted, the teams weren’t top quality outside of Fresno State, which just blew out UCLA.
Regardless, if there is one thing to take away from this past weekend, winning a non-conference game isn’t easy.
On Saturday the Gophers take on a Maryland program that saw early season excitement fade after a big loss to previously 0-2 Temple. They then have a bye week before facing off against a potentially 4-0 ranked Iowa football team.