The Iowa football team is heavily favored heading into Saturday’s game versus Middle Tennessee State, but the Hawks shouldn’t overlook the Blue Raiders.
There has never been a game between these two teams in the history of college football, and if we’re being honest, there probably won’t be many more to come. Many Iowa football fans, including myself, are looking at this game and thinking, “let’s just crush these guys, get some good things going, get ready for Michigan, and never see the Blue Raiders again”. Not the worst line of thinking, but it’s flawed.
The inclusion of Michigan has been prevalent (even by me) in discussing the upcoming matchup versus the Blue Raiders, but we should only be thinking about Middle Tennessee State. This isn’t a team that is just going to roll over and die when they walk into Kinnick. They’ve got some good players, and they’re not a bad team.
More concerning is that the Iowa football team is coming off a bye week after an emotional rollercoaster of a game against Iowa State (that seemingly will not end). That’s a lot of things to mentally process for 18-22-year-old kids.
And then there is the matter of the Iowa football team as a unit. We’ve seen them start off slow before against teams they should blow out of the water. Just look at Miami of Ohio. The game was 10-7 heading into the half despite the Iowa football team being heads and toes better than the RedHawks.
This Blue Raiders team, as I said above, can play football, and they’ve got a quarterback who has some moxie in big games against big teams. Against Michigan in The Big House, Asher O’hara outplayed former five-star recruit Shea Patterson and got the Blue Raiders off to a 7-0 lead before Michigan put their foot on the pedal.
What I am trying to say here is that while the Iowa football team could and should easily win this game, there a lot of mental factors working against the team that could favor a hungry and motivated Middle Tennessee State team.
That being said, if there is any coach I trust to make sure his players are ready and not looking ahead, it’s Kirk Ferentz.