Iowa Football Preview 2025: The Hawkeyes Are Set For A 10-Win Season
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a great pitcher named Bret Saberhagen. He's a fringe Hall of Fame candidate who won two Cy Youngs, a World Series, and had a great career. He's also forever known for a long stretch of rocking in odd-numbered years and being blah in even-numbered ones.Iowa football has become the Bret Saberhagen of the Big Ten, winning ten games in 2019, 2021, and 2023, and failing to get past eight victories in 2020 (to be fair, there were only eight games), 2022, and 2024.
X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN Iowa Offense BreakdownIowa Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season
Iowa has won ten or more games in a season 11 times. Eight of them have been under Kirk Ferentz. Appearances in good bowl games have become the norm. The team committed the fewest penalties per game in all of college football, only Air Force was flagged for fewer yards, there weren't problems with turnovers, and ...Iowa lost to UCLA and Michigan State.
If last year's team beat the Bruins and Spartans - who both finished with losing seasons - it would've been a ten-win campaign.The Hawkeyes were good, but five of the eight wins were against teams that ended up under .500, another was against Illinois State from the FCS, and another came against a meh Nebraska squad.And that's been part of the formula for Iowa. It usually beats all of the teams it's supposed to. In the 10-4 2023 season, Northwestern was the only FBS team Iowa beat that finished with more than seven victories.In 2021 and 2019, Iowa won ten games in both seasons, beat good Minnesota teams, and the other 18 games came against the meh.
This year, Oregon will finish with more than seven wins. So will Penn State, and so will a few other good teams on the Iowa slate. So no, Iowa might not get to ten wins without a little bit of help, but it's 2025. It's an odd year in so many ways.For a program overdue to make the College Football Playoff, and puts itself in a position to win every year, it might just Saberhagen its way into something special. Iowa Offense BreakdownIowa Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season
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