Hawkeye Football: Updated Game Line, Weather Update for Iowa State-Iowa

Welcome back!

Heading into Saturday’s Cy-Hawk showdown, the forecast looked like there was a chance of rain at some point on Saturday. Game time looked dry, but the rain chance looked good early in the day so tailgating had the potential to be wet.

Now? Saturday’s forecast looks great throughout the day. Temperatures throughout the day will be gorgeous, in the mid to upper 70s, with a high of 80 during the day. During game time, it will continue to be excellent and the rain forecast has kicked into Sunday. Game temps will be in the mid-70s and clear with a light wind out of the north-northwest around 8 miles per hour. Beautiful. Perfect.

Now to the game. I firmly believe Iowa is better than Iowa State this year. Iowa State has a new coach, a new roster, new everything, and it’s that newness, the unknown, that gives me slight pause with this game. I just don’t know what Iowa State is or will be this year. All of the podcasts I’ve listened to this week (the ANF Podcast had a great Iowa State breakdown; I highly recommend that heading into tomorrow night) have said a few things – they’re hyper-aggressive on defense and look to have good speed, even if they’re a little under-sized. Their quarterback can run and that’s a good wrinkle for them. But others in the Iowa State sphere of influence have said Raynor is also good for a couple of arm punts and teams better than SEMO will pick those passes off. If he’s doing that back over the middle of the field Iowa State is doomed.

I think the unknown with the Cyclones will give Iowa some fits early, but eventually the Hawks come out of this with a win and covers the 13.5-point spread, 31-14. It could be slightly closer, a 24-10 or a 27-14 type game, but I think Iowa gets ok quarterback play, they have their best set of skill players in a decade, and eventually the dam breaks and Iowa covers. But keep your guard up for an El Assico redux. Always keep your guard up. As Iowa fans, you should!

Date: Saturday, September 12
Time: 6:30 pm CT
Matchup: Iowa State Cyclones (1-0, 0-0) at Iowa Hawkeyes (1-0, 0-0)
Location: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa
TV: NBC
Updated Weather Forecast: High in the upper 70s, light wind out of the north-northeast at 8 miles per hour
Updated FanDuel Line: Iowa -13.5, O/U 40.5