Penn State Football: 3 bold predictions vs Iowa

2. The Hawkeye’s defense will fold against Penn State’s spread offense

In the age of the spread offense, the Iowa Hawkeyes are one of the few teams in  college football who still carrying the torch for a throw-back style of hard-nosed football.

While most teams find three, four and even five receiver sets commonplace in today’s pass happy game, the Hawkeyes have instead chosen to stick to a traditional pro-style offense. They utilize a a plethora of big-bodied tight ends, and even a fullback featured in their offense.

Kirk Ferentz’ scheme can be effective on the offensive side of the ball, as their stout, power running game can overpower the faster, undersized defensive fronts. Yet, the team’s commitment to the old school on defense will be the Achilles heel when facing off against a high-powered, spread offense.

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The Nittany Lions has one of the deepest wide receiver stables in all of college football. So far this season, Penn State has had 10 different players catch a pass. Some, like Juwan Johnson, DeAndre Thompkins, and Saeed Blacknall can be incredibly hard to cover by a cornerback, let alone a linebacker due to their unique combination of size and speed.

If the Hawkeyes choose to remain in their base defense against Penn State’s spread sets, or decide to deploy a linebacker to cover Saquon Barkley, who’s Le’Veon Bell-esq skill set makes him just as much of a through the air as he is on the ground, it will be an incredibly long day for Iowa’s defense. Expect Penn State’s offense to have a field day against Iowa’s throwback defense.