Opposing Sideline: Slow-Starting Iowa Doesn't Get That Luxury This Season

Iowa has to hit the ground running this season, with matchups against No. 17 Indiana and No. 7 Iowa State in the first two weeks of the season. The Hawkeyes have struggled out of the gate in the past, so there's a real sense of urgency to this season because of the brutal early showdowns.

John Bohnenkamp | Aug 25, 2021

Opposing Sideline: Slow-Starting Iowa Doesn't Get That Luxury This Season /

Editor's Note: No. 17 Indiana starts its 2021 college football season next Saturday with a huge conference game at No. 18 Iowa. Each week, we will also take a look across the sideline at the Hoosiers' opponent, and this is our first look at Kirk Ferentz's Hawkeyes.

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The luxury of easing into the college football season isn’t there anymore for the Iowa Hawkeyes, who are about to find that out the hard way with its schedule in the first two weeks of this season.

The Hawkeyes, ranked No. 18 in the Associated Press preseason poll, open at home against No. 17 Indiana on Sept. 4. Then Iowa plays at No. 7 Iowa State a week later.

Back-to-back brutality. No directional schools, no FCS programs, and no easy way to work out whatever problems you might have. Not this year.

It’s not just the two good teams that the Hawkeyes will be playing, Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. It’s two programs with “their arrows definitely are going up,” he said.

“They're both coming off historically good seasons,” Ferentz said. “They have a lot of veteran players coming back in both cases. So we're starting right off with a really tough schedule.”

Iowa has won seven of its last eight games against Indiana, a team that went 6-1 in the Big Ten a year ago and was ranked in the top-10 at the end of the regular season.

Iowa has a five-game winning streak against Iowa State, which went 9-3 last year and played in its first-ever Big 12 championship game, losing to Oklahoma.

That previous success against Indiana and Iowa State? None of that matters to the Hawkeyes in these first two games.

“We know,” said Iowa wide receiver Tyrone Tracy, an Indianapolis native, “that we have to be ready.”

The Hawkeyes weren’t ready in the disjointed 2020 Big Ten-only season. They lost their first two games to Purdue and Northwestern, but then the Hawkeyes won their last six.

The winning streak helped carry momentum into the offseason, but it doesn’t matter now. If anything, Ferentz said, last year’s start – rather than the finish – should be a lesson for the Hawkeyes that they need to be ready, or else.

“The margin for error is always tight, and we traditionally have not always been sharp early or at least where we need to be,” Ferentz said. “Last year is a good example of that. It's a good reminder for all of us that we don't have time to waste.”

The arrow may be pointing up for the Hoosiers and Cyclones, but Iowa’s arrow is in a neutral spot right now.

There is plenty of good — center Tyler Linderbaum is one of the best offensive linemen in the nation, running back Tyler Goodson is poised for a 1,000-yard season, Sam LaPorta looks to be another in the line of great tight ends, and the linebackers and the secondary are veteran groups.

But there are concerns.

Hawkeyes quarterback Spencer Petras, who had an up-and-down season in 2020, has had a normal offseason, which Ferentz said was the key to the evolution of his game. But he’ll face an experienced secondary with the Hoosiers, led by All-American Tiawan Mullen.

“We’re really not going to know the progress he’s made until we play Indiana in the opener,” Iowa quarterbacks coach Ken O’Keefe said. “When you have a veteran whatever, it’s usually an advantage. You just go out and play.”

Iowa’s offensive line depth chart had a shake-up before camp started, when senior right guard Kyler Schott broke his foot in an accident on his family’s farm. Justin Britt, a sophomore, moves into Schott’s position. The Hawkeyes will have two new starting tackles in Jack Plumb and Nick DeJong. Among the backups on the offensive line are redshirt freshmen Mason Richman and Tyler Elsbury, and true freshman Connor Colby.

The defensive line has its own inexperience — starting right tackle Yahya Black is a redshirt freshman, while backup tackles Lukas Van Ness and Deontae Craig are redshirt freshmen.

Easing into the season, then, is not an option. Questions that you usually have answered when the crucible of the Big Ten season rolls around in early October now need to be answered before Labor Day.

“We're kind of still in that individual growth period,” Ferentz said at Iowa’s media day earlier this month. “But at some point we're going to have to start putting it together and making things look harmonious, and it's really going to be true this year because nobody can guarantee both of those teams are going to be playing at a top level, but I would imagine that's going to be the case. So we gotta be ready.

“I think the bottom line is it's a real razor-thin edge, margin for error when you talk about playing college football games. And I think this year the margin is even that much thinner.”

The Hoosiers and Hawkeyes kick off on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 3:30 p.m. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. Iowa is a 3.5-point favorite as of Wednesday morning, according to the sports gambling website FanDuel.com

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