As a transplanted Hawkeye, I’m sure I follow Iowa football more closely than anyone else on FishDuck.com or the Our Beloved Ducks forum. Here are a few things you should know about this year’s Hawkeye football that even Mr. FishDuck took a break from his gaming fun at online sports betting to learn. Phil Steele’s 2025 College Football Preview This ...

What You Need to Know About the IOWA HAWKEYES

Don, thanks for that deeper look st the Hawkeyes 2025 squad. I firmly agree that they will give the Ducks all that they can handle......

While there is no comparison in the talent and depth level between the two teams, the Hoosiers gave the Hawkeyes the game plan/blueprint to pressure and confuse Dante. They also have a defensive unit that can carry it out.

We shall see if WS can game plan some a suprises for the Hawkeyes........

A fast start by OBD's offense would put Iowa behind the 8 ball, however the Ducks start slow against any defense that has a pulse.Offensively, Iowa should not be able to overpower the Ducks D unit. Reaching 20 points should be a challenge for the Hawkeyes.

Can the Ducks score 21points? I think they can and will.......

Before the season started, a number of Forum members felt Iowa could be a potential 2nd loss on the schedule. They might or they might not!

Either way this game should be another rock fight in the rain similar to the Whisky game. If OBD's play clean the Ducks win 21-16. If not?

Go Ducks

Thank you, Don, that was a Dandy!

Iowa Drinking Game to play if you want to stay sober: Chug one down when an announcer refers to Kirk Ferentz as having the most B1G L's in the history of the conference. (The number is 89, which OBD hopefully turns into 90 on Saturday.)

If you want to over-serve yourself: Any mention of the Children's Hospital, including waving at the Hospital, Woody Hayes, Amos Alonzo Stagg, the Broyles Award, Phil Parker and his D-Fence, Grono's accomplishments in FCS football, TEs in the NFL, and the biggest number of games won by a B1G coach. 😁

60 degrees in November! YES! Rain to slow down OBD's athletes. In 2025, I already watched this movie and gave it 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thanks again, Don. This will not be an easy out. 2-loss Iowa has plenty to play for.

Kick Kirk Over the Ferentz, all the way to Ames!

It is fun to have a guest writer, and Don has been a loyal reader of this forum, as well as a great Oregon and Iowa fan. Superb information, and thanks Don!

The Ducks have the hardest B1G row left to hoe. Oregon's next four B1G opponents are a combined 24-9:

at Iowa, Minnesota, USC, and at UW.

USC - Northwestern, Iowa, at Oregon, UCLA

Michigan - Bye, at NW, at Maryland, Ohio State

Ohio State - at Purdue, UCLA, Rutgers, and at Michigan

Indiana - at Penn State, Wisconsin, Bye, and at Purdue

Iowa - Oregon, at USC, Michigan State, and at Nebraska

UW - at Wisconsin, Purdue, at UCLA, and Oregon

Oregon has road games left at Iowa and UW. Tuesday night, both teams could and should be in the PO committee's top 25.

Fortunately, Indiana has a Bye before facing the Boilermakers on the road. 😁

Go Ducks!

Excellent assessment Don. Kaden Wetjen is a BEAST! He has deceptive speed, and he is explosive. Is he a WR for Iowa? He should be. Right on target concerning QB Gronowski. I personally believe he is playing better than he did at South Dakota State, and his accuracy is improving downfield. As for their defense-they aren't elite, but you have to beat them. They make few mistakes, and they are ferocious when they blitz. QB Moore will have to demonstrate he can read what they throw at him (does Stein have a full session in practice dedicated solely to recognizing blitz packages and his perceived weakness at reading zone coverage? I wonder).

I'm all over Ducks -2 if that is the point spread. I recognize many Duck fans are truly concerned about OBD, but the talent advantage is far too much to ignore. I've been sunshine and buttercups lately for a reason. Let's see how things pan out. Thanks Don, you presented a fairly accurate picture of an improved Iowa team that is deadly if you don't match their intensity and effort (as far as I have studied).

Nothing cute. RTDB! (*run the damn ball)

Feed Davison early and often and set the pass up so that Iowa will be hesitant to bring the house.

Its time do more with what we have than LESS than what we have. We should beat Iowa by 20. Coach up that talent!!!!!

Iowa's Kinnick Stadium has one of the closest sidelines in college football. There is very little sideline space between the first row of fans and the field. Visting teams need to ignore fans who want to engage with players.

Iowa's secondary plays "hit hard and ask questions later" in an effort to intimidate receivers. The philosophy is that referees will not throw flags on every play.

Iowa games are often low scoring. It is big britches football...3 yd run, 4 yd run, 3 yd run..first down...3 yd run, 4 yd run...and so on...as the clock runs to limit possessions by the opponent, and keep the D-line fresh for aggressive defensive play calling. They have undoubtedly studied Indiana film until the film wears out. The Iowa O-line will exert their will until an opponent proves otherwise.

Oregon is favored by 6-1/2 initially. I suspect that will narrow as kickoff approaches. I wouldn't be surprised if a FG win it, one way or the other.

Mendoza threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Sarratt with 1:28 to play in the game to give No. 11 Indiana a 20-15 win over Iowa on Saturday.

The closest win of the season for the Hoosiers was one coach Curt Cignetti called a “gut check,” and his players agreed.

Indiana was held to 337 yards and its lowest scoring output of the season. But the Hoosiers got two touchdown passes from Mendoza, who threw for 233 yards

“It was the good, the bad, and the ugly, and there was a lot of the bad and the ugly,” Indiana's Cignetti said.

And that, is the Iowa game plan. Drag your opponent into the mud, play ugly, then look up at the scoreboard at the end.

Great stuff! I really hope to see Davison start and pounding it up the gut to be a part of the early game plan. I know that would be a good on good battle but we seem to have too many slow starts trying to work the edges and short passes early. A couple early Stanford esque first downs may open up the outside game.

I'm just an arm chair OC I know but I think this will be an alpha dog pissing match early and I think we need to set the tone. Really excited for this one.

If you look at the team stats Iowa vs Indiana, you can see that it was a close defensive minded game. This is also a big10 team, not a pac12 team, so the average difference between those two leagues would be one has better QBs and athletes, the other has better linemen. Most likely this will be the case.

I don't think this game will be easy. This could be a loss that sets up struggles for games with USC and Washington, or it could be a nice win that sets the Ducks up for the playoffs. A loss will make it hard to make the playoffs and drop the team way down in the polls. A win will make a case for best one loss team.

I think the Ducks laid an egg vs Indiana. I think this game will tell us what kind of a team the 2025 Ducks really are. In my opinion, Oregon has a roster capable of winning a national championship this year. This team can also break down and become dysfunctional at times. We are in November, so the kinks should be worked out by now.

I am not too worried about the players. I am mostly concerned about the coordinators and what kind of plays they will call. I am also a little uneasy about which players they will go with, especially at running back and linebacker. The one Duck player I will be paying close attention to is Matayo - can he break out of his 'funk' and start making plays again?

I also hope they play a clean game and don't cost the offense first downs with holding penalties or give the other team first downs with pass interference calls. Coaching is going to matter this game. I'd like to see the special teams keep doing good things. The special teams coordinator is the one assistant I don't want to lose.

I doubt the CFB PO Committee will be in lockstep with the AP Poll. Five ways in which the rankings could differ.

NOTE: The PO Committee will only have 12 members this season. Member and ASU graduate, Randall McDaniel, is on a leave of absence and has not been replaced.

I agree that A&M could be ranked 1st, and Indiana could be ranked ahead of Ohio State. I also think that Iowa, No. 26 in the AP, could and IMO, should be ranked. Ditto AP No. 24 Washington.

If a G6 team is ranked above or instead of these two, the Committee is kowtowing to the politics of the PO format.

OBD could be ranked lower than No. 6. 7-1 is impressive, but the opposition, sans Indiana, has not been good. For PO seeding purposes, it would help if Iowa, USC, and UW were all ranked.

FanSided

College football rankings: 5 biggest discrepancies we'll...

AP Top 25 college football rankings for Week 11 Ohio State BuckeyesIndiana HoosiersTexas A&M AggiesAlabama Crimson TideGeorgia BulldogsOregon DucksOle Miss Rebe

Our OLine has to come out road grading. I think they are the biggest offender of slow starts on the entire team and it hurts when we can't run the ball early. At the same time Will can't wait until almost halftime to figure out Iowa is loading the box. That's why you run scripted plays for the first 2 series to see their game plan for a variety of our looks.

First team to 27 wins.

If Iowa could-have, should-have beaten Indiana....then they can beat Oregon. Better have the chin straps on tight!