The Iowa Hawkeyes are on the road to take on Penn State. The Hawks have won their last four games in Happy Valley and to make it five in a row coach Kirk Ferentz believes it will take an outstanding defensive effort. He doubts the Hawks could win a shootout.
Quarterback Jake Christensen was sacked nine times a week ago and Ferentz says improvement on offense begins with the passing game. He says to run the ball, you usually have to be able to throw the ball. Iowa has lost seven straight Big Ten games dating back to last season but Ferentz says the players still have a positive attitude.
Ferentz says the team has had a great attitude and he doesn’t anticipate that changing. He says it will take a lot of work to win, but that’s what they’re shooting to do.
Iowa State visits Texas Tech. Led by junior quarterback Graham Harrell the Red Raiders average better than 600 yards and 55 points per game. ISU coach Gene Chizik says Harrell was a great high school quarterback and has carried that over, and is in a system that really magnifies his skills.
Teams that run the ball are known for wearing defenses down but Chizik says Tech can do that by throwing it.
Chizik says when Tech completes passes the Cyclone secondary needs to do a good job of tackling.