Hello again Western Washington Hawkeyes! Hopefully your hearts have stopped racing from last week's thrilling overtime win over the pesky Northwestern Wildcats, when Iowa prevailed 17-10 on a touchdown catch by TE CJ Fiedorowicz. This week's Hawkeye game has the #22 Wisconsin Badgers (5-2) bringing their run-heavy offense into Kinnick Stadium to battle for the Heartland Trophy. The Badgers and Hawkeyes haven't butted heads since 2010,
where the Badgers nipped Iowa 31-30 in Kinnick Stadium. The rivals' overall series record is currently tied, 42-42-2.
Wisconsin is coming off a bye week, and a 56-32 win at Illinois the week prior. They are led by the Big 10's leading rusher, Melvin Gordon, who already has over 1,000 yards rushing. He also ranks fourth nationally at 144 yards per game. The Badgers rank 11th in the nation in total offense at 514 yards per game. As if they weren't already an imposing opponent for the Hawkeyes, the Badgers also have the nation's sixth best defense, only allowing 285 yards per game.
The Hawkeyes are no slouch on defense either, having the nation's 12th best defense while only allowing 321 yards per game. They still have only given up 2 rushing TD's this year. Iowa's defense produced last week's Big 10 Defensive Player of the Week in Senior LB James Morris. Morris recorded 8 tackles, two sacks, and an interception against the Wildcats.
This Saturday's game is Iowa's annual blackout game, and no, this isn't an event started by Vodka Samm. The Iowa fans going to Kinnick this Saturday are encouraged to wear all black. This week's game is also preceded on Friday night by the Rusty Toolbox game, which pits each teams' football managers against each other in a flag football game for the honor of taking home a rusty toolbox trophy for the year. The Badgers managers won last year, but Iowa's managers lead the overall series 11-6.
We hope to see you at the game watches this week! At the Buckley’s Queen Anne locale, the drawing for the cornhole boards will take place at halftime, so if you haven't bought tickets for the drawing yet, track down our Alumni President Nik Pflugrath by halftime to purchase a final chance at those sweet boards!
On Iowa and go Hawks!
