Iowa Football: Hawkeyes’ Week 1 opponent ranked No. 2 in FCS top 25

The Iowa Hawkeyes are welcoming in the South Dakota State Jackrabbits during Week 1 of the 2022 college football season on September 3 and will have anything but a pushover victory.

The Jackrabbits will be entering Kinnick Stadium as the No. 2 in the country in the FCS top 25. They are coming off of an extremely successful 2021 campaign which saw them end the season 11-4 and a trip to the FCS playoff semifinals.

The Jackrabbits still have one of the FCS’ best backfields, led by RB Isaiah Davis, and two tremendous wideouts in the Janke twins. Now, they’re healthier at QB. This team has a great chance to get back to the FCS championship game. – Hunt, CBS Sports

One extremely interesting, and slightly stomach churning, piece of information regarding Iowa and South Dakota State lies in Colorado of all places. Last year the Hawkeyes and Jackrabbits shared one common opponent, the Colorado State Rams.

The Jackrabbits went on the road and really sort of dismantled Colorado State on their home turf by a score of 42-23. The Jackrabbits passed for 224 yards and ran for 242 yards for 466 total yards of offense on their way to a dominant victory.

Iowa hosted Colorado State last season and went into halftime with a deficit of 14-7 before prevailing 24-14. The Hawkeyes had 278 total combined yards on offense.

Now, the Hawkeyes defense is in a different stratosphere than Colorado State and should thwart much of the success that South Dakota State saw against the Rams. That said, this won’t be any sort of walk in the park to open up the season.

Iowa knows that South Dakota State wants to come in and make a resounding statement against not only an FBS team, but a Power 5 team from the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes need to be ready to fire on all cylinders come September 3 and not let this thing stay close for very long to avoid giving the Jackrabbits even more pep in their step.