One of the most difficult things to do in sports is to take a tough loss and move on. One loss, if festered upon, can lead to two. We see it all the time. Fortunately for the Iowa Hawkeyes, the likelihood of that happening in week three of the 2025 season is almost zero.
After a gut-wrenching, apathy-inspiring performance on the road against Iowa State, the Hawkeyes return home to face off with one of the worst college football teams in America as they play host to the UMass Minutemen.
If there was
ever a “get right” game to be played, this is it. The Minutemen are 0-2 so far this season with losses to Temple and Bryant. That puts their running loss streak up to six after they lost their final four games of the 2024 season. That was a season that saw UMass finish 2-10 overall and 0-10 against FBS opponents. In fact, the Minutemen last won a game against a non-FCS opponent back in October of 2023 when they defeated Army 21-14.
Making matters worse, we got word on Monday that UMass will be shorthanded in their matchup with the Hawkeyes. All told, there are expected to be 8-9 contributors on both sides of the ball who are absent. Most notably, starting QB Brandon Rose will be gone, as will a pair of contributors at WR.
The Hawkeyes, despite their obvious offensive deficiencies after two weeks of the season, opened a 34.5-point favorites over the Minutemen with an over/under set at 44.5 total points, according to FanDuel SportsBook. With the news of the injury issues at UMass, the line has moved up to 35.5 with the over/under climbing to 45.5 total points. That gives us an implied final score on Saturday of Iowa 40/41, UMass 5.
Regardless of the final score, Hawkeye fans are unlikely to feel reassurance about the season’s prospects heading into Big Ten play after Saturday night. While it would be nice to see Kirk Ferentz and Tim Lester uncork the offense and work on timing between QB Mark Gronowski and his receivers, we all know it’s more likely to be another game where the staff looks to keep things close to the chest and overpower the opponent in the run game.
Sigh.
Here’s a quick look at the details for Saturday night in Kinnick.
Date: Saturday, September 13th
Time: 6:40 pm CT
Matchup: Massachusetts Minutemen (0-2, 0-0) at Iowa Hawkeyes (1-1, 0-0)
Location: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, IA
TV: BTN
Early Weather Forecast: mostly sunny with temps in the upper-80s, 5% chance of rain
FanDuel Opening Line: Iowa -34.5, O/U 44.5
