Iowa Football: 2018 game-by-game predictions
1. Northern Illinois (Sept. 1)
A familiar non-conference opponent, Iowa takes on the Northern Illinois Huskies for fifth time in the Kirk Ferentz-era. The last time these two faced, Northern Illinois stunned Iowa on the opening weekend of the 2013 college football season, beating them 30-27 on a game-winning field goal with four seconds remaining by Matthew Sims. While it seems disastrous, Northern Illinois was just coming off of a 12-1 season and an appearance in the Orange Bowl and still had record-setting quarterback Jordan Lynch.
This time around Northern Illinois is talented, but not nearly as talented as the 2013 team that came into Kinnick Stadium. The Huskies do boast the reigning MAC Defensive Player of the Year in hybrid defensive end/linebacker Sutton Smith, who registered 14 sacks a year ago as a sophomore. With Tristan Wirfs being suspended, whoever fills in for him will have a tall order in stopping Smith on the edge pass rush.
While Iowa will be a little short-handed for this season opener, I still have no doubts that Iowa will have no problems taking care of business. It won’t be pretty, but then again, Iowa isn’t the program to do things in a pretty way. Iowa moves on to rivalry week with a 1-0 record.