3.5 Early Thoughts Ahead Of Iowa Football's Home Date With Purdue

After pounding Northwestern in Evanston on Saturday, Iowa football (7-2, 4-2) is now heading back home to the comfort of Kinnick Stadium. 

The final three games of the Hawkeyes' 2026 regular season even out perfectly: home, away, and then back home for the regular season finale.

First on the docket in that stretch is a matchup against Purdue (3-6, 2-4). Though the Boilermakers finally have their elusive conference win after going two full seasons without one, the last few weeks have been a great struggle for this program. 

Iowa will be heavily favored to take down Purdue at home, but they play the games for a reason. We'll have plenty of preview content to come later this week, but in the meantime, here are three and a half early thoughts ahead of Saturday's primetime clash: 

If there's a chance for Iowa to post another high number on the scoreboard, it's this game right here. Purdue thought it had finally turned the corner defensively a few weeks ago, but the Boilermakers have been an absolute mess on that side of the football in 2026. Purdue ranks 16th in the Big Ten in both scoring (30.8 points allowed per game in conference play) and total defense (433 yards per game in league action), so it's safe to say that the Hawkeyes have a chance to score some points in this game. 

Not only is the Boilermakers' defense just bad, there are also major personnel questions being addressed right now. Defensive coordinator Kevin Kane was frequently criticized by Purdue fans for the consistent struggles, but head coach Barry Odom fired Kane on Sunday after the Boilers yielded 27 second half points in a dismal home loss to Maryland on Saturday.

Purdue's new defensive play-caller for the Iowa game? A mystery man. Odom told reporters on Monday that the new defensive play-caller will remain a secret until after the Boilers take on the Hawkeyes. That's certainly an unusual development, but it's highly doubtful one season of bad defense can be altered in one game. 

We'll see what kind of game plan Tim Lester has on Saturday. 

Kirk Ferentz will never intentionally run up the score on an opponent, but could this game be a rare exception to his usual sportsmanship? Many coaches absolutely hate the idea of "style points" because they think it's just a narrative spewed by the media (they do have a point to some degree), but remember what Urban Meyer did to Wisconsin in the 2014 Big Ten Championship Game? Though his Ohio State Buckeyes easily ran away from the Badgers early in that game, the Buckeyes continued to take shots down the field when the game was well out of hand, leading to a 59-0 win. 

Some folks in the media claimed Meyer ran up the score in order to achieve the so-called style points to secure a spot in the College Football Playoff (Meyer later admitted this in an interview). Who knows if it was necessary or not, but Ohio State did end up earning a spot in the bracket and ultimately winning the national title. 

Every CFP committee thinks differently, but would it hurt for Iowa to potentially score 40-50 points at home? We'll see how the Hawkeyes play it if the situation calls for it. 

This has been mentioned in our podcast (In Heaven There Is No Podcast on YouTube) before, but it needs to be said again on game week. Night games are awesome for fans and a great environment for everyone working the game, too, but this game being the NBC "Big Ten Saturday Night" game of the week just shows how broken the current TV landscape in college football is.

The Hawkeyes are more than deserving of a night game considering they are alive in the CFP race, but does a game against 3-6 Purdue really need to take place under the lights? I don't think so, but that's just how everything is structured with Fox's "Big Noon Kickoff" picking up the league's top matchups. 

Hawkeye fans attending Saturday's game are probably well-prepared for this by this point, but it's worth mentioning that it's going to be a very chilly night at Kinnick Stadium. It's likely not going to reach record-low temperatures in Iowa City (2013 and 2024 are the coldest home games in Iowa history) but the likely 30-degree temperatures will undoubtedly make this the Hawkeyes' coldest home game of the season.