It is game day Hawkeye fans!
The non-conference schedule comes to a close today for the Iowa Hawkeyes as they play host to the UNI Panthers inside Kinnick Stadium. The Hawkeyes come into the day ranked #18 nationally at 2-0 after they escaped with a 16-13 win over the Iowa State Cyclones a week ago.
As for the Panthers, they come into the day at 1-1 overall after bouncing back with a 56-14 win over Drake a week ago. Northern Iowa opened their season with a 34-24 loss out at Eastern Washington.
The Panthers
are led by quarterback Jaxon Dailey, whose father played for Hayden Fry at Iowa. Dailey grew up rooting for the Hawkeyes and will no doubt have his eyes on putting forth his best effort in Kinnick.
Dailey comes into the day as one of the highest rated passers in FCS through two weeks. He’s thrown for 529 yards while completing 71% of his passes. Notably, he’s also an effective runner with three rushing TDs on the year already.
It will be interesting to see just how much the Panthers utilize Dailey’s legs in this one. He ran the ball 15 times in the season opener, scoring all three of UNI’s touchdowns on the ground in that one. Northern Iowa amassed only 63 total rushing yards in the loss and a miserable 1.8 yards per carry.
They bounced back a week later with 201 yards on the ground on 4.7 yards per carry. Four different Panthers found paydirt against Drake, none of them was Jaxon Dailey. UNI spread the ball around a ton in that one with five different players topping 30 yards rushing but none topping 50. In fact, their leading rusher on the season has just 49 yards on the season (Caleb Kamara and Christian Collins both tied at 49).
Look for the Hawkeyes to lean on the UNI offensive line and force Dailey to beat them threw the air. He seems to be capable, though the level of competition will certainly be a step up this week. In the week one loss, Dailey was largely accurate, completing 71% of his passes for 287 yards, but he failed to find anyone in the endzone and did have his lone interception of the year. Expect Phil Parker to try to contain his running ability and confuse him in the secondary to add to Iowa’s tally of just two turnovers forced so far this season.
On the other side of things, expect Iowa to establish the running game while looking to rest some key weapons. We know the Hawkeyes will be without starting TE DJ Vonnahme, but starting RB Kamari Moulton was also dinged up a week ago and we could see Kirk Ferentz opt for conservatism with anyone nursing anything lingering (that include Zach Lutmer on the defensive side of the ball, who has been dealing with a hamstring since camp).
That conservatism likely won’t extend to the playcalling, however. Tim Lester has been working to change the narrative on this offense for more than two years now and despite the ongoing QB competition (are at least theoretical competition after Hank Brown took all the snaps a week ago) and this week presents another opportunity to do so.
Wide receive Tony Diaz has more than 20 targets through two games and is already within 99 yards of the most yards by a Hawkeye WR from a season ago. The last time these two teams faced off a whopping 8 years ago, QB Nate Stanley topped 300 yards. It’s been nearly 7 years since any Iowa QB has done so and that’s another monkey the Hawkeyes could get off their back in this one.
As we countdown to kickoff, here’s everything you need to know about today’s matchup.
Date: Saturday, September 19th
Time: 3:00 pm CT
Matchup: Northern Iowa Panthers (1-1, 0-0) at #18 Iowa Hawkeyes (2-0, 0-0)
Location: Kinnick Stadium – Iowa City, IA
TV: FS1
Updated Weather Forecast: cloudy with temps in the upper 70s, 40% chance of rain
Updated FanDuel Line: Iowa -38.5, O/U 48.5
