The North Dakota State Bison and Iowa Hawkeyes square off Saturday afternoon at Kinnick Stadium on ESPN2. Iowa dismantled rival Iowa State 42-3 last Saturday and Miami of OH 45-21 in Week 1; per FPI, North Dakota State is at least five points better than either of those teams on a neutral field.
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“The negative part of having two great competitive games is we didn’t get a chance to see some of the depth and that obviously is something we’re going to need as we get into Valley play”, Klieman said.
The Iowa Hawkeyes hope for a quick 3-0 start after outscoring their first two opponents by a score of 87-24. On the other side of the ball, Iowa has one of the best offensive lines in the country and will likely attempt to set the tone early with its own run game.
North Dakota State (2-0) has won its last five games against FBS opponents and has an 8-3 record against schools at the top level of college football.
“I know this, we don’t win five national championships without the same blocking scheme that we had on Saturday”, he said. “I’m not a big one for, ‘Who is recruiting this guy?’ I rarely ask that of our staff when we look at prospects”, Ferentz said.
If NDSU would get 22 extra scholarships and the same amount of home games, they would have been favored in over 75 percent of the Big Ten West past year. “It’s kind of mind-boggling, quite frankly”.
Anyway you slice it, the Bison are the best team the Hawkeyes will play in the nonconference. NDSU had 13 penalties for 137 yards against the Eagles with three of those being the illegal block, a personal foul that costs a team 15 yards.
Bison head coach Chris Klieman had the answer for neither. Going in to the game this past Saturday, Cooper Kupp was the main receiver that the defense had a game plan for. “Our kids have to play exceptional football for us to have an opportunity to compete”.
He’s coming off a spectacular performance against Eastern Washington rushing for 128 yards and two touchdowns, including the game victor in overtime.
In both of Iowa’s blowout wins over Miami (Ohio) and Iowa State, Reiff has participated but hasn’t recorded any defensive stats. The Hawkeyes allowed a decent amount of yards and points to Miami (Ohio) and their option/read offense.
“They play with fullbacks, multiple tight ends, run the ball, throw it”. Wentz was the No. 2 overall selection in the NFL Draft last April. Easton Stick is completing 64.2 percent of his passes for 451 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. He’s also rushed for 105 yards on 21 attempts.
“He’s OK. Backs get banged up, ” Ferentz said.
“When he’s in there, we play a lot better”, Ferentz said. You can only take one.
“I’ll go out on a limb and predict this will be a really strong team, a really tough opponent for us”.
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, while speaking on a conference call this week, said it’s stunning that NDSU won a national championship a year ago despite not having the No. 2 pick in the NFL Draft (Carson Wentz) for most of the season.
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“If I find out North Dakota State is looking at him, that piques my interest because I’ve got great respect for their evaluation skills”, Ferentz said. Many people believe that the Bison should be considered to move up to the FBS while others are skeptical.
