Iowa Football heads back into Kinnick to face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights to start the Big Ten schedule. Here’s your game time preview.
It is on to week two for the Iowa Football program. Usually, at this time Iowa would still be in nonconference play and playing a low-level division one team. This Saturday will be different as the Iowa football teams steps into Big Ten play to take on the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers.
This is the first time that I can remember Iowa will be playing a Big Ten opponent this early in the season. Typically, week 4-5 is when you start conference play but the schedule was set up different this season.
For how long the Iowa football program and Rutgers have been around, this will only be the second meeting between these two. 2016 was the first time these two matched up and Iowa won a sloppy defensive game 14-7 at Rutgers.
Kickoff for the Hawkeyes and Scarlet Knights will be an early one compared to last week, with an 11 AM start on Fox Sports One. Announcers for this game is a three-man crew with Justin Kutcher doing the play-by-play, and Petros Papadakis and Shane Vereen doing the color commentary. As of last week, this game will be on Direct Tv channel 219 and Dish TV 150.
Heading into this game, the Iowa football team is going to be without its stud right tackle, Alaric Jackson. Jackson was injured last weeks game versus Miami of Ohio with a knee sprain that will keep him out for a couple of weeks. in addition to Jackson, last years starting guard Cole Banwart will most likely be a game-time decision after suffering an injury during fall camp. Because of this, the Hawks have had to reshuffle their line, which will be an interesting storyline heading into the game today. Outside of those two and Iowa’s backup corners Julius Brents and Riley Moss, the team is mostly healthy.
The Hawks are heavy favorites today, with Bovada putting the Hawkeyes as a 19.5 point favorite versus Rutgers and the over-under is set right at 49 points. Our staff was pretty against picking the Hawks to cover, but firmly believe Iowa will win.
With nice weather on tap for an early kickoff at Kinnick Stadium, I expect the Hawkeyes to get off to a much faster start than last week and get to a 1-0 start in the Big Ten and 2-0 overall after today’s ballgame.
Go Hawks!