Iowa-Iowa State: Kick-Off Time, Betting Lines, Television Info, and Prediction

Game Time: 2:30 p.m. (Kickoff slightly later) 

Television: Big Ten Network

Vegas Prediction: Iowa is favored by oddsmakers by 3.5 to 4 points, likely due to home field advantage for the Hawkeyes in Iowa City.

Previous Games: Iowa Hawkeyes defeated Northern Illnois Huskies 18-17, Iowa State defeated Tulsa 38-23.

Patch Prediction:  

It's a tale of two quarterbacks.

Last year, Steele Jantz put on a close to flawless performance in Ames to power the Iowa State Cyclones to a 44-41 win in triple overtime over the Iowa Hawkeyes. His counterpart on the Hawkeye sideline, James Vandenberg, played well, but had some key miscues (as well as untimely drops from receivers) that allowed the Cyclones to outlast the Hawkeyes.

Fast forward a year. Jantz played inconsistenly after that game and ended up being replaced. Vandenberg had a solid year but couldn't shake persistent road woes.

Both are hoping to redeem themselves by building on last year with solid years this season. But while Vandenberg had a very shaky start with new Offensive Coordinator's Greg Davis' offense in the first time with it in game action, Jantz did very well, throwing three touchdowns in the Cyclone opener against Tulsa.

Both teams have some good talent, but much of it is young talent in key places like on the offensive and defensive lines. Iowa will be challenged to contain the dangerous Steele Jantz and zone read runs from the shotgun with a new defensive line, while Iowa State's young defensive line will have to slow Iowa down on the ground to pressure Vandenberg into beating them.

It is often a mistake to put too much emphasis on the first game, but Iowa looked like it needed to make quite a bit of improvement over the course of the year to be a good team, and many of Vandenberg's struggles appeared to be caused by an offense that wasn't totally in synch, yet. 

I'm pretty confident the Hawkeyes will improve markedly by the end of the year on both sides of the ball. Will they be able improve enough in one week, even with a boost from the home crowd, to beat a Cyclones team that looked further along last week?

I'm guessing not.

Prediction: Cyclones: 27, Hawkeyes: 24. 

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