The Iowa Hawkeyes bid for their fourth straight win as they visit Illinois in the Big Ten Saturday. The Illini are winless in the Big Ten and coming off a 45-0 loss to Minnesota. Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz expects to meet an Illinois team that is rallying behind embattled coach Ron Turner. Ferentz says he’s known Turner for some time and has a great deal of respect for him, and he says Turner’s players probably feel the same way. Former Iowa quarterback Jon Beutjer will not start for Illinois. He is one of three quarterbacks that have played this year and Ferentz says they have prepared for all of them. He says last week they weren’t sure what quarterback they might see and they prepared for both and they’re doing the same this week. Iowa’s offense struggled in last week’s victory over Penn State and Ferentz says the Hawks need to make fewer mistakes. He says if everyone does their jobs, that’s where it all starts. Ferentz says there are a lot of things to clean up from last week, or they’re pressing their luck.Iowa State hosts Kansas in a battle of teams with identical 1-3 Big-12 records. The Cyclones are coming off a victory over Baylor and coach Dan McCarney says they will need an even better effort tomorrow. He says they have 16 starters back and are a veteran physical football team. The Cyclones finish the season by playing three of their last four games at home. McCarney says it seems like they’ve been on the road a long time and it’s good to get home. McCarney hopes a recent trend continues. The home team has won six of the last seven games in this series.
