The 14th ranked Iowa Hawkeyes open the Big Ten race at Illinois. The Illini have struggled to a 1-2 start but Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says the Hawks can’t afford to look past this game. Ferentz says Illinois has recruited well and when you add the newcomers in with the returning players, they will get things smoothed out. Ferentz says hopefully that won’t happen until after this weekend.
Illinois has used two quarterbacks, senior Tim Brasic and true freshman Juice Williams. Ferentz says Brasic got a lot of yards in last year’s game and he says Williams reminds some coaches of a young Brett Meyer, Iowa State’s quarterback.
Teams have loaded up against Iowa’s ground game but it has opened up the passing of senior quarterback Drew Tate. Ferentz says things have a way of coming around as you go through the process. Ferentz says they’ll keep doing what they have to do to move the ball and says they have enough diversity on offense to make people defend them more than one way.