The Iowa football team is back in action Saturday versus Middle Tennessee State University, and it will be the first contest ever between the two teams.
Saturday is a historic moment for the Iowa football team and Kinnick Stadium. I mean, not as historic as Nate Stanley possibly breaking a record that spans three decades in Chuck Long’s career touchdown record, but still historic in its own, small, right.
One the game actually begins, it will be the first time these two teams have ever faced off, and it will be the first time the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders have ever ventured north to historic Kinnick Stadium.
While the Iowa football team has limited (re: none) experience against Middle Tennessee State, they’ve been pretty successful against the Conference USA. Multiple conference realignment’s make this a bit difficult, but from what I can gather, the Iowa football team has gone 6-1 versus CUSA with their lone loss coming to Tulsa back in 1996 when they weren’t even in the CUSA.
When looking at MTSU’s history, it’s not exactly tradition-rich. After spending much of their time in D-1AA, they moved up to D-1/FBS back in 1999. In that time, they have won more than eight games just once (2009) and have appeared in eight bowl games going 3-5.
Since joining Conference USA in 2013, Middle Tennessee State has been about as average as a team could be with win totals between six and eight in all six seasons.
When the Blue Raiders attempt to upset the Iowa football team, it will be their 7th meeting since becoming an FBS program against a Big Ten school, and historically speaking, the previous results haven’t been so good as they have gone 0-6 with three losses to Minnesota and one loss each to Purdue, Illinois, and Michigan.
With the constant push towards a more difficult non-conference schedule, my guess is this could very well be the first and last time we ever see the black and gold square off against the Blue Raiders so enjoy the probable beatdown that we put on them Saturday Iowa football fans.