College Football Picks: Iowa vs Iowa State

Written September 12, 2009 by Hector Garza

iowa-iowa-state-predictions-091009 Everyone is bustling this week as Iowa goes to Iowa State to add to their already storied in-state rivalry at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames. Kickoff is 11:00 a.m. CST and Iowa is favored by 6.5 points with an over/under at 44 points according to the college football odds. Here’s why Iowa State deserves a good look.

The #22 ranked Hawkeyes had trouble putting points on the board last week against an FCS defense. While QB Ricky Stanzi showed promise in his debut (22 of 34, 242 yards, 1 TD, no int), 10 of his 22 completions were to TE Tony Moeaki, who will undoubtedly be a focus point of the ISU defense. The Hawkeyes running game must do better than the 87 yards from last week as well. Adam Robinson (RFR), who averaged 4.2 yards last week, will be getting the start to try to turn that around.

LB Pat Angerer played up to expectations with his 12 tackles, and is looking for a repeat performance. Iowa is looking to build on its solid performance last year against the run (#9) and scoring defense (#12), despite the loss of DT’s Matt Kroul and Mitch King. They’ve compensated by moving last year’s starting DE Christian Ballard to DT and are looking for big plays out of DE Broderick Binns. So far the formula has worked against the run as they’ve limited their first opponent to only 84 yards on the ground. The secondary is the major concern after allowing 270 yards in the air.

Iowa State is known for getting excited about this rivalry. They lost 10 of their 12 regular season games last year, but played Iowa to 12 points. This year they’re sporting a new look with a no-huddle spread offense that put up 34 points last week, with 204 on the ground and another 237 in the air. Despite QB Austin Arnaud throwing behind some receivers and a few dropped balls, he showed promise as a dual threat rushing 17 times for 78 yards and a touchdown. 1st year head coach Paul Rhoads is extremely high on his offensive line saying “they finish blocks as good as any offense you are going to see all season long.”

Defensively Iowa State will be looking to stop the run. Last week they gave up an unacceptable 210 yards on the ground in a game that was close through the 3rd quarter. LB Jesse Smith will need to replicate his 15 tackle performance along with DE Rashawn Parker, who tallied his first 2 sacks and a pressure. If the defense can shut down TE Moeaki and contain the run game, they’re sure to have success against an Iowa offense with limited threats.

Iowa will need to improve greatly to win at a stadium that they have lost 4 of their last 5 matchups, and is most definitely on upset alert this week. The Cyclones have had over a week to prepare for Saturday’s game, and they will test Iowa’s defense against the run and the pass. Both teams will no doubt come out hungry, but if this game turns into a shoot out, I give the edge to Iowa State’s more explosive spread offense.

Garza’s Pick: Iowa State Cyclones +6

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2 Comments

Comments

2 Responses to “College Football Picks: Iowa vs Iowa State”

Frank B on September 12th, 2009 5:59 am

GO CLONES! Great pick by the way.

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Kongi on September 12th, 2009 6:18 am

Whatever the Clones, HAWKEYES ALL THE WAY!

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