OUTBACK BOWL PREDICTION THREAD

  • Thread starter Ian Pike Hammer
  • Start date

Who wins and by how much?

  • Iowa, by 7 or more

    Votes: 8 13.3%

  • Iowa, by 7 or less

    Votes: 18 30.0%

  • Miss. St, by 7 or more

    Votes: 29 48.3%

  • Miss. St, by 7 or less

    Votes: 5 8.3%
  • Total voters
    60
  • Poll closed .
I

Ian Pike Hammer

Guest
Iowa vs Mississippi St. Not quite a home game for the Bulldogs, but close enough.
 
Based on my very brief, initial impression, I'll say Iowa 16, MSU 7.

This has the makings of a slobberknocker, but the fact that Iowa has a semblance of balance on O compared to them makes me a little optimistic.
 
The good news is I don't see any way this is worse than the HawkSlayer Bowl. I think Iowa should be able to cross the 50 a few times against Mississippi State, so it will be better than the LSU game as well. Hard to believe it's been 10 years bince Iowa slaughtered South Carolina. Haven't looked so good against the SEC bince that game.

I was strongly considering loading up the family truckster and driving down to Florida to watch Iowa play. If we had drawn A&M, there was no way in hell I would go, but I think Iowa has a 50/50 shot in this one provided they get the o-line shored up a little bit.
 
Hawks have struggled to sustain a reliable rushing attack and, without Fant as the primary decoy, Hock will be shut down. We all know Stanley was going to fold under this kind of pressure, anyway, and with limited weapons, the Hawk offense is going to stink up Tampa.

Saving grace is that they're pretty one-dimensional on offense and a rushing team usually plays into Hawk D's hands. That said, Iowa has a tendency to allow bad weaknesses become strengths, so, I can see their QB having a decent day through the air.

Straight-up, clean game, Iowa gets smoked. If D can get a few turnovers and give the O a VERY short field, and if the D can score, Hawks could steal one. Both conditions rely on way too much "IF", so I have Hawks losing 27 - 13.
 
Caddy said:
Umm we had trouble scoring against some trash defenses this year. They have a very tough defense. #1 in the nation scoring, and #3 in the nation overall. Don't see us scoring more than 10 points.
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Iowa has a tough task on their hands. But we averaged around 30 points a game. I think we'll score more than ten.
 
smitharooney said:
This game reminds me of the Florida loss a few years ago
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Didn't know the game was already played.:)

It's a tough draw, and MSU isn't Illinois or Indiana, but I think we will represent better than that.

Those SEC teams are definitely tough, and fast. And Nate Weiting/Drew Cook are not Noah Fant.
 
Northside Hawk said:
Iowa has a tough task on their hands. But we averaged around 30 points a game. I think we'll score more than ten.
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I think we can throw the "average" out here.

Look at the offense against decent defenses.

13 against ISU
17 against Wisconsin
24 total against PSU, but that included 2 safeties, a pick 6 and a TD on a fake FG
10 against Northwestern

I don't think a prediction of 10 is outside the realm of possibility. Hard to see this offense putting up more than 17, though. The saving grace is I could see Brian getting the offense tightened up and putting up a huge game here. It's also not outside the realm of possibility that with 15 practices the offensive line looks better and Iowa gets its run game going, which will make the offense look materially better. Iowa hasn't had a team make a big leap before a bowl game in a long time and I think it is due to happen. This team has the potential to be pretty good next year so hopefully they'll make some major strides.
 
EstronHawkKing said:
They lost to Florida 13-6, LSU 19-3, Alabama 24-0 and Kentucky 28-7
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Not sure about Kentucky, but Florida, LSU and Bama have a fair number of guys on their defensive units who will be cashing checks playing on Sundays. We have one guy on our defense who would likely be a starter on those teams and he ain't even good enough to start at Iowa. Hooker is also pretty good, but there are better guys than him all over the SEC West.
 
Miss State by a couple of points. Of course we will have a chance to win late in the game but the offense will do something stupid to lose.
 
Guys, what the hell are you talking about? Their QB has over 1,000 rushing yards. Iowa does not play well against running quarterbacks, and Fitzgerald is one of the best RPO quarterbacks in the country.

No Fant, Stanley chokes in any game not against a bottom-feeder B1G squad, Kirk is 1-5 this decade in bowl games, and the worst conceivable QB match up against our D.

MSU 41 - Iowa 17
 
Fryowa said:
Kirk is 1-5 this decade in bowl games
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Jesus, has it gotten that bad? I guess I've really repressed some of them. The day of the HawkSlayer Bowl, I had to run some errands first thing in the morning and I DVRed it. My mom called and said to not even bother watching it. I think I watched about 5 snaps when I got home. Ugh. The Rose Bowl - I was going to stop drinking as my New Year's Resolution. After a little while, I decided I needed to go to the liquor store and I came out just moments after a guy crashed into a storefront near my house after a high speed chase. The Hawks damn near killed me that day. If that defense would have folded just 90 seconds sooner, I could have been a dead man.

ev010102-copy_1451725902709_681502_ver1.0_640_360.jpg
 
Another poster mentioned this but Iowa is going to probably need to create a few turnovers and cash in big time. Looking at Iowa's last 3 games there isn't a lot to be happy about.

Northwestern: Scored 10 points and they were without a few guys in the secondary and aren't that good when their all healthy

Illinois: 3rd worst defense in the nation and Iowa had 400 yards offense. Teams averaged 508 yards per game against them this season, Rutgers had 386.

Nebraska: 31 points scored, only Bethune-Cookman, MSU, Troy, and Minnesota scored less against them this season.

Simply put, Iowa has a bad offense and are without the most talented player from 2018. As per usual, the only way Iowa wins this game is if the D carries them.
 
Um just playing devil's advocate here, but we keep referencing Fant as our best offensive weapon yet criticize how much time he spent on the sideline and how little he was utilized. I'm not saying I disagree, but is absence going to be that detrimental to us, based on how his skill set was minimized throughout the course of the year?
 
kicker22 said:
Um just playing devil's advocate here, but we keep referencing Fant as our best offensive weapon yet criticize how much time he spent on the sideline and how little he was utilized. I'm not saying I disagree, but is absence going to be that detrimental to us, based on how his skill set was minimized throughout the course of the year?
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Yes. Every coach in America knew he was good except ours and they made sure to cover him the best they could. Now we are a one trick pony. Can Bryan get Stanley to through it to receivers is the question.

Lol, just kidding. We will run the zone read short side of the field 25 times.
 
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