The Iowa football team takes on Illinois Saturday, but unlike in previous years, the Hawks can’t afford to underestimate the Fighting Illini.
You may have missed this, but the Iowa football team and Illinois are tied for third in the Big Ten West division at 3-3, and the Fighting Illini sit just one game behind the Hawks in wins.
Qualifying for a bowl game for the first time since the 2014 season, this isn’t the same old Illinois team that Kirk Ferentz and the Iowa football program have beat up on over the past five seasons.
They’re actually a talented bunch, and former NFL Head Coach Lovie Smith has this team buzzing with momentum. After beating the previously undefeated Wisconsin Badgers, Smith’s team has churned out three more wins in a row to go from 2-4 to 6-4.
While this team is certainly not as talented as the Iowa football team, a team that is playing this confident is dangerous no matter which way you slice it.
But there is reason to believe, outside of confidence, that this team is different.
Despite finishing near the bottom of the entire nation in points per game (the highest finish they’ve had since 2014 is 87th), they are scoring 30.7 points this year, which is good for 59th. For those of you taking notes at home, that’s better than the Iowa football team.
Defensively, they’ve shown significant improvement as well. In the past five seasons, Illinois has finished worse than 91st in the nation in points allowed four times with 2015 being this weird outlier where they finished 38th. This year? 54th.
It isn’t world-beating, but it’s way better than we’ve seen.
At Quarterback, they’ve got former four-star quarterback and Michigan transfer Brandon Peters who actually has a better QB rating than our very own Nate Stanley, who put on an impressive performance Saturday versus Minnesota. And at running back, they are led by senior Reggie Corbin who’s 5.2 yards per carry are sixth-best in the Big Ten (for running backs with more than 100 carries).
They’ve got playmakers on offense and their defense is stiffening up. They’re already bowl eligible (which is a far cry from the projected last-place finish in 2019), and heading to Kinnick, they’re playing with house money.
Nobody expects them to win this game, especially not Action Network who has them at +12 Saturday.
Iowa football fans, don’t underestimate this team. They’ve proven quite a few people wrong this season.