Thursday usually signals that there's still two days until the next Iowa football game, but Hawkeye fans are getting a rare non-Black Friday Friday game this weekend, and it's a big one. 

Everything is still on the table for No. 20 Iowa (4-1, 1-1) to stay in College Football Playoff contention, but those dreams may fall to the floor if the Hawkeyes can't find a way to defeat a struggling, but talented Washington team (3-2, 0-2) at Husky Stadium. 

Here are three reasons Iowa will beat the Huskies - and three reasons it won't. 

An average running game: Iowa fans don't need a rocket scientist to understand this point. We've talked a lot about the Hawkeyes' struggling rushing attack all week long, but it's worth bringing up again. Iowa is averaging just 63.3 rushing yards per game against Power Four competition and managed just 39 rushing yards on 21 carries against a bad Ohio State run defense. The Hawkeyes don't need to the record video game numbers against Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa on Friday, but just an average performance (110 yards) would go a long way in helping Iowa end its West Coast blues. 

Demond Williams doesn't get to the edge: Washington quarterback Demond Williams has struggled after nearly transferring out of the program in January, and it's going to be Phil Parker's job to make sure the Hawkeyes don't see the 2025 version of Williams on Friday. Luckily for Iowa, the Huskies also can't run the football (they rank 17th in the Big Ten), so if the Hawkeyes keep the speedy Williams in the pocket and make him beat them there, they'll have a good chance of winning this game. 

Quarterback (whoever it is) avoids mistakes: Hank Brown is still listed as questionable for this game, but based on Kirk Ferentz's comments during his radio show Wednesday, it feels like Jeremy Hecklinski is going to be the man under center on Friday. The Hawkeyes have complete confidence in Hecklinski's abilities, but it goes without saying that Iowa needs a clean game from whoever is under center. And that goes beyond turnovers, too. Brown missed a lot of open receivers against the Buckeyes that prevented the Hawkeyes from staying close, so Lester will have to make sure he gets his quarterback settled into the game. 

Washington gets aggressive: The Huskies entered the season ranked No. 17 in the preseason AP Poll and were a dark horse to contend for the College Football Playoff, but those dreams are probably dashed after an 0-2 Big Ten start. It will be interesting to see how motivated this Washington team is on Friday, but it feels like its going to do anything it can to win this game, such as going for it on fourth downs, incorporating trick plays, etc. Iowa is going to be well-prepared, but sometimes it just takes one aggressive play call to swing a football game. 

Defense loses sight of Demond Williams: But what if Williams just returns to the man everyone we thought we'd see in 2026? The third-year may just be the fastest quarterback in the country, with Washington on SI reporting that Williams tallied a 4.4-second time in the 40-yard dash as a freshman. That speed is what makes him very dangerous, because he'll often use it on quarterback sweeps. Fumbling has been a problem for Williams (he lost fumbles in both Big Ten losses), but if he can get what he wants on the ground, then Iowa will be in major trouble. Williams is also coming off his worst statistical passing performance against USC (15/26, 1 TD, sacked five times), so could this be the game he puts everything together and rights the ship in Seattle? 

It puts its young kicker in tough situations: Walk-on Caden Buhr has gone 7-for-9 on field goal attempts to begin his Iowa career, but one of those misses came on the road against Michigan a few weeks ago. The Hawkeyes are obviously going to trust Buhr to make crucial field goals if they need him to, but the point here is that you can't rely on him to fuel your offense with 50+ yard field goals the entire night. That's a very tough situation for a young kicker to be in, so the offense will need to finish drives to win this 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]