Sometimes you can be really good, but your schedule holds you back...and sometimes you can be mediocre and your schedule does you some tremendous favors. For this Iowa team, it's definitely the latter. In a "normal" B1G schedule (i.e. having 2-3 of Michigan, MSU, OSU, PSU), this team has 7-5 written all over it. But with NONE of those 4 teams on it, we could most definitely end up at 10-2. I see it this way:
UNI - closer than it should be as they have been preparing for the last 7 months for this game. But Iowa's depth and talent win out. 27-14
Ball State - Good last year....not so much this year. 38-10
ISU - Not good last year....even worse this year. 48-17
Pitt - Tough loss in 2008 with an unsettled QB position and, quite possibly, the worst in-game decision in Ferentz's tenure (except for maybe the end-around against Texas in the Alamo Bowl), but we still damn near won. I like Ruddock on the road. 24-21.
Purdue - They just aren't a good team at all. 35-17.
Indiana - This team has given us trouble since the day KF started here. This will be closer than it needs to be, but Kinnick is the deciding factor. 35-31.
Maryland - One of the most experienced teams in the country with 17 returning starters. An injury last year kept their record looking worse than it would have otherwise. I think Iowa picks up their first loss here. 24-28.
Northwestern - Another team whose record isn't indicative of the quality of team they were last year. Took us to overtime, lost to Nebby on a freak hail mary and lost to Michigan on one of the craziest last-second field goal hurry-ups you'll ever see (and I'm still not convinced they were set when the ball was snapped). Sometimes you can overcome a tough schedule with depth and, likewise, sometimes you can overcome injuries/lack of depth with an easy schedule. NW had the worst of both worlds last year....insanely tough schedule coupled with injuries. I think (read: HOPE) Kinnick is the difference in the end. 27-21.
Minnesota - We've had Kill's number lately and will continue to until he figures out a way to stop our power running game. We wear them down in the end. 31-24.
Illinois - Just a bad, bad team with a bad, bad coach. 38-17.
Wisky - What goes around eventually comes around. We owned them in the 80's, they owned us in the 90's. We owned them from 2002 thru 2009, they got us good in 2010 and last year. We take back the mojo this year. 34-31.
Nebraska - With the victory the previous week against Wisky, I predict that going into this game, us and Wisky will be sitting at 6-1. I think to win the B1G West, we have to win this game because I think Wisky beats Minny in their last game the day after this one. We won't lose the B1G divisional title in Kinnick. 21-20.
Final prediction: 11-1/7-1. Co-divisional champs with Wisky, but we win the head-to-head tiebreaker.
