After a week to heal, the Hawkeyes are back in action with their second road trip of the Big Ten conference slate. Iowa travels north to face off with the Wisconsin Badgers inside Camp Randall in the battle
for the Heartland Trophy.
The Badgers enter the day on a three game losing streak and are 2-8 over their last ten games spanning the last two year. Those two wins came in Wisconsin’s lone matchups with non-P4 programs in that span. The Badgers are 3-10 over their last 13 matchups with P4 teams with only a 52-6 drubbing of Purdue a year ago coming at home in that span.
Notably, the competition has been pretty stiff for Wisconsin. Six of those ten losses have come to ranked opponents, including losses this season to #19 Alabama and a week ago to #20 Michigan. The Badgers looked solid out of the gate in that one, jumping out to an early 7-0 lead. But things went downhill from there in the first start of Hunter Simmons’ Badger career.
Wisconsin ultimately lost 24-10 to the Wolverines, marking the fourth time in five games this season the Badgers failed to top 17 points. They come into the day averaging just 18.6 points per game and have not topped 14 points in the three matchups against P4 opponents.
Simmons is Wisconsin’s third QB of the season after Billy Edwards Jr. started the year under center. The former Maryland signal caller opened Wisconsin’s season against Miami (OH) and went down with a knee injury, missing the blowout win over Middle Tennessee State. He made an attempt at a return against the Terps, but left and has yet to play again for the Badgers.
In his absence, Wisconsin turned to sophomore Danny O’Neil, who looked solid in the wins over Miami and MTSU, but struggled in losses to Alabama and Maryland. He eventually was benched in favor of Simmons, a transfer from SIU.
For his part, Simmons hasn’t been terrible, completing nearly 66% of his passes. But the numbers are not eye-popping and with just one TD vs Bama to go with an interception a week ago, he hasn’t provided enough of a spark to push the Wisconsin offense to competency in their last two games.
Now he squares off against another high end defense in the Hawkeyes, who will be looking to build on the strong showing against Indiana. The Hawkeyes looked like a vintage Phil Parker group in the loss to the Hoosiers. The question entering today is whether the Iowa offense can show up to match the improvements in the defense.
Before managing just 13 points of their own two weeks ago, the Hawkeyes had seemingly found some rhythm wih QB Mark Gronowski’s legs fueling a dynamic rushing attack and his arm rounding into form enough to keep defenses honest.
Today, Gronowski is considered a game-time decision with backups Hank Brown and Jeremy Hecklinski listed alongside each other as potential starters should the SDSU quarterback be unable to go. Brown, of course, came up just short in the effort to shut the door on IU two weeks ago.
Now, who ever is under center for Iowa will be facing off with a defense focused on forcing them to win via the air. The Badgers boast a top-5 rush defense nationally and will surely be stacking the box to slow down Kamari Moulton and the Iowa running game.
The folks in the desert aren’t confident in either offense figuring things out this week. Or perhaps a more “glass is half full” view is those same folks are very confident in both of these defenses being incredibly stout. This game opened with an over/under at 37.5 total points and has dropped as the week progressed. As of Saturday morning, the O/U remains at 36.5. If it holds, that will mark the lowest point total for any college football game this season and the only one below 40 points.
As we countdown to kickoff, here’s everything you need to know about tonight’s matchup in the battle for the bull.
Date: Saturday, October 11th
Time: 6:05 pm CT
Matchup: Iowa Hawkeyes (3-2, 1-1) at Wisconsin Badgers (2-3, 0-2)
Location: Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wisconsin
TV: FS1
Updated Weather Forecast: Abundant sunshine during the day, then increasing clouds over the course of the evening with a high in the 50s.
Updated FanDuel Line: Iowa – 3.5, O/U 36.5
