{"id":18517,"date":"2021-08-20T00:37:48","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T00:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=18517"},"modified":"2021-08-20T19:11:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T19:11:55","slug":"no-18-iowa-hawkeyes-season-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/ncaaf\/no-18-iowa-hawkeyes-season-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 18 \u2013 Iowa Hawkeyes Season Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Kirk Ferentz is the longest tenured head coach in college football. Ferentz is the only head coach in the FBS that was in charge of his program in the 20<sup>th<\/sup> Century, and he has become even more of an institution than his predecessor Hayden Fry. One of those two coaches have been on the sidelines for every Iowa game since 1979, giving Iowa <a href=\"https:\/\/classic.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/futures-and-props\/ncaaf-team-wins\">unparalleled consistency<\/a>. Although Iowa does not compete for national championships, the Hawkeyes are consistently going to bowl games and occasionally challenging for Big Ten supremacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Iowa Regular Season Win Total<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Over 8.5 Wins +100<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Under 8.5 Wins -130<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>OFFENSE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Spencer Petras should be better in his second season at the helm of Iowa\u2019s offense. Petras got off to a sluggish start in 2020 with rough performances against Purdue and Northwestern, but he steadied himself by the end of the year. He isn\u2019t going to throw for a ton of yards in this offense, and that\u2019s not what Iowa needs from him. As long as Petras can be reliable and not turn the ball over, this offense will be in good hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tight end Sam LaPorta will be the top target with Ihmir Smith-Marsette in the NFL. Iowa has a rich tradition of quality tight ends under Ferentz, and LaPorta is next in line. He had 27 receptions for 271 yards and a touchdown in 2020. Nico Ragaini is the only other returning receiver with more than 15 receptions last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NCAAF Big 10: Kelly O&#039;Donnell and Tom Lucci look at the odds to win conference championships\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UHctvs3XUj8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This ground game is the strength of the offense and should be one of the best in the Big Ten. Tyler Goodson is a fringe Heisman Trophy contender with Mekhi Sargent gone. Goodson led the Hawkeyes with 762 yards (5.3 YPC) and seven touchdowns last season, and he was a quality receiver out of the backfield to boot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iowa\u2019s offensive line is continually one of the best in college football. Center Tyler Linderbaum is the leader of this unit, and many consider him the best center in the game. However, only Linderbaum and Cody Ince were starters last season, and that inexperience could really hurt the Hawkeyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DEFENSE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hawkeyes figure to have one of the best secondaries in the nation. All of their starting defensive backs return from last year, and they have done a great job with development. Iowa doesn\u2019t recruit well, but the coaches are some of the best at bringing along players. Riley Moss and Jack Koerner are the two standouts of this unit, and Matt Hankins might be primed for a solid year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, there isn\u2019t a ton of experience in the front seven. This two-deep is littered with underclassmen, and the only senior of the bunch is Zach VanValkenburg. VanValkenburg was decent in 2020, but more will be needed from him now that Chauncey Golston and Daviyon Nixon are now in the NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iowa hasn\u2019t surrendered more than 20.0 PPG since 2015. The Hawkeyes are great at limiting opponents from converting big plays against this defense, and their games figure to be among <a href=\"https:\/\/classic.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/futures-and-props\/ncaaf-team-wins\">the lowest scoring in the nation again this year.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SCHEDULE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This schedule pulls no punches right out the gate. Iowa must face resurgent Indiana in its season opener before heading to Ames to face dangerous in-state rival Iowa State the following week. Kent State isn\u2019t a pushover either, and that could be a real scare for the Hawkeyes if they overlook the Golden Flashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Iowa won\u2019t have to face Ohio State in cross-division play, but the Hawkeyes will have to welcome Penn State to Kinnick Stadium. That game and a road trip to Wisconsin will go a long way to determining their season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>PREDICTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hawkeyes should win either eight or nine games this season. Ferentz is very consistent, but <a href=\"https:\/\/classic.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/futures-and-props\/ncaaf-team-wins\">the under is probably a better play<\/a> than the over considering their inexperience in key areas and daunting schedule early in the campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow our&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/betonline_ag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to our&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betonline_ag\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kirk Ferentz is the longest tenured head coach in college football. Ferentz is the only head coach in the FBS&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":12937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaaf"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18546,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18517\/revisions\/18546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}