The offseason is always slow and the last few days leading up to a season-opening kickoff have come to a snails’ crawl for Iowa Hawkeyes fans.
Iowa fans are eagerly awaiting the opener against the Illinois State Redbirds for a myriad of reasons. There is the new offense that will be unveiled under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester paired with a defense that is returning gobs of experience and has high expectations.
Iowa is the favorite to win this one as expected in a matchup of an FBS school hosting an FCS program. But how much can Iowa win by is the question.
At the time of writing this piece, Iowa is currently holding as a 23.5-point favorite over Illinois State.
I know, to cover 23.5 points Iowa has to put up at least 24 points which is far from a guarantee against any team with how their offensive history has been the last few seasons.
CBS Sports leans towards that thought process as well. Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports offered his Big Ten picks and has Illinois State covering the 23.5-point spread.
It is hard to disagree with the logic. Should allow allow just a single touchdown, they have to hang up 31 points just to cover the spread.
In a game that sees Kirk Ferentz sidelined and Seth Wallace, an already defensive-minded coach, assuming head coaching duties, all signs point to Iowa playing conservatively to simply handle their business and exit this week with a 1-0 record however it may happen.
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