The Iowa Hawkeyes welcome in the Nevada Wolf Pack in one final nonconference contest before Big Ten play begins with a trip to Piscataway, N.J., against Rutgers.
Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz offered his thoughts on the Wolf Pack ahead of tonight’s showdown.
“Nevada is a change-up from the last two weeks. Start with the fact that it’s a night game, a little bit different. But full disclosure, it’s not like we know a lot about Nevada. We don’t have a lot in our memory bank. It’s a very different preparation in the fact that the last two opponents we’ve played have programs where they’ve had coaching staffs that have been in place and pretty easy to figure out their identity. We didn’t spend a lot of time in the out of season looking at film on Nevada just for that reason. It’s a new staff. Coach Wilson has come in there and they’ve got a new staff, a lot of new players on top of it.
“Their program has had success historically. I’m old enough to remember Chris Holt coaching there and Kaepernick playing, and last year they beat Cal in their opener and had two very close losses to two good programs there, Air Force and San Diego State, so that part kind of puts that in perspective. You tie in the fact that what happened in college football last week is a good illustration that no matter who you are, you have to get ready to play, no matter who you play.
“Shifting back to Nevada, we’re trying to figure out who they are, what they are right now. Offensively, they have good skill players, good receiver group, a couple good backs. And they picked up a couple new guys in the off season. The guys up front are doing a good job, and arguably the tallest quarterback we’ve played since I’ve been here, and he’s doing a good job. Defensively, they’re putting their scheme together. They’re an active group, athletic group, and play with good effort,” Ferentz said.
As the Hawkeyes look to polish off their nonconference slate with a big home victory, let’s take one final look at the two teams’ respective statistics.