The Hawkeyes are going to win a lot of football games if they run the football that well.
One of your favorite pieces to read after an Iowa football game has been our three do's and three don'ts column.
If you're new, we list three things (the do's) from a game that the Hawkeyes should continue to do for the remainder of the season and three things (the don'ts) that don't need to appear again.
It's hard to do this for a 55-0 game, but we still came out with a solid list. Here it is.
Do's
Run the football like that: Rushing for 422 yards every game is nearly impossible in the Big Ten, but if the Hawkeyes can come anywhere close to duplicating the outing they had against Northern Iowa, they're going to be in great shape. Again, it's only UNI, but there's no way the Iowa coaching staff left that game not impressed with what they saw from a trio of underclassmen backs that haven't received many carries in their careers. Three backs totaling over 100 yards each is ridiculously impressive no matter how you spin it.
It's worth pointing out that the Hawkeyes did struggle to run the football against Iowa State, so we'll see if that game was a blip on the radar or something we could see next weekend at Michigan. Only time will tell.
Spread the ball around the field: When was the last time Iowa left a non-conference slate feeling very good about its receiving corps? Definitely not in recent memory, but the Hawkeyes haven't had any trouble getting the football to their best playmakers to begin the season. Ten different Iowa players caught passes on this day, and getting everyone confidence isn't the worst thing at this point and time.
Punt the ball in the coffin corner: Boston Everitt has only played three American football games so far, but you wouldn't know it after watching his play throughout the non-conference. The second-year helped flip the field position battle against Iowa State and made sure to make an impact in limited action against Northern Iowa, recording a 58-yard punt to pin UNI at its own half-yard line. If Everitt can remain sharp at The Big House next weekend, that could be a very good thing for Iowa as it defends a struggling Michigan offense.
Don'ts
Continue with the quarterback rotation: Kirk Ferentz is still hesitant to rip the Band-Aid off and name Hank Brown the full-time starting quarterback, but there's no reason for Brown to split reps with Jeremy Hecklinski anymore. Hecklinski is always going to be there if Brown struggles or gets hurt, but the offense has been in a good rhythm with Brown at the helm, and that's something you can't disrupt with one of the most important games of the season on the horizon.
Commit seven penalties: Ferentz mentioned this in his opening statement. He's clearly frustrated with the high volume of penalties his team has committed in the early going, and though it hasn't cost his team a game yet, it's clearly something to monitor. The Hawkeyes have committed 17 penalties this season for 141 yards, including seven for 83 against UNI.
Bryce Hawthorne's injury: Saturday's game was one of those games that Iowa needed to escape healthy. It did that for the most part, but defensive lineman Bryce Hawthorne did leave the game in the first half with a leg injury. Ferentz said that Hawthorne appears to be fine, but you don't want to see those kinds of things happen in a buy game.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at [email protected]
