Iowa football: Hawkeye record watch with four game remaining

With at least five games left in the season, here are the records the Iowa football team and it’s players are close to breaking.

Before the 2019 season began, I wrote an article about the records that were most likely to fall in 2019 for the Iowa football team. Unfortunately, only one of those records still has a chance of being broken. The other two would take some herculean efforts over the final third of the season. Ihmir Smith-Marsette has just 199 yards on kick returns while averaging just 22.1 yards per return and AJ Epenesa has just 3.5 sacks, which is off the pace from even last year’s season, let alone the sack record.

But there are still team and individual records that could be broken with five, possibly six games remaining.

Let’s start with the one record I may actually have predicted correctly on (even if it’s a bit off track too). Nate Stanley entered this season needing 19 touchdown passes to break Chuck Long’s record of 70 career touchdown passes, and through the first quarter of the season, it looked like it wasn’t going to be a matter of if, but when.

However, over the last four games, he has thrown just two touchdowns leaving him eight away from tying Long and nine away from breaking Long’s record, which means he would need to average just under two touchdown passes a game to do it.

He’s also on track to possibly break Chuck Hartleib’s single-season yardage record after putting up 1,950 yards so far. Hartlieb’s 1988 record of 3,738 yards leaves the signal-caller 1,788 yards away, which means Stanley needs to throw for 357.6 yards a game in five games (or 298 in six games) to tie it.

Another individual record that is almost certainly going to fall is the single-season field goal record, which currently stands at 21. Keith Duncan, who has been a stud this season, has 19. That should be a piece of cake. What might be more difficult is reaching the single-season points record of 120 set by Nate Kaeding and Shonn Greene. Currently, Duncan sits at 75 points, 45 points shy of the record. If he can knock in 15 more field goals, or more realistically 8 field goals and 21 extra points, he will at least get to the record.

Again, barring something crazy, these are likely the only individual records broken this season, but there is also one team record that could fall. Back in 1981, the Iowa football team’s defense allowed a school-record 79.7 rushing yards per game. Through eight games, the 2019 defense has allowed 87.8 yards per game.

It’s not impossible, but it will be difficult with heavy running teams like Wisconsin and Illinois coming up.

As of right now, the Hawks have allowed a total of 702 yards per game and in a 13-game season, they would have to allow fewer than 1036 yards (or in a 14 game season it would be 1115 yards) to get to the 79.7 rushing yards per game record.

If the Iowa football team can stop Wisconsin’s rushing attack next week, they stand a chance at possibly reaching this lofty record.

At 6-2, to have the opportunity to break possibly five records is pretty impressive all things considered.