Field position. Clock management. Defense. Smart plays on offense. Limited turnovers. Punting. These are all things that the Iowa Hawkeyes do well and rely on to slowly constrict teams into victory by submission.
Going for it on fourth down. High-scoring shootouts. Aggressive play calls. Data and analytics. All of these could be relatively synonymous for how Chip Kelly operates the UCLA Bruins.
The stark contrast of these two teams is so vast that it brings an excitement level to it when we eventually see Iowa and UCLA take the field against each other in the next few years now that the Big Ten is expanding and adding UCLA and USC.
Athlon Sports’ Ben Weinrib put this future Big Ten matchup in his top 10 for new matchups fans will get once the move is complete in the 2024 college football season.
Talk about a contrast in styles, Iowa and UCLA should also make for a fascinating matchup. And if the conference’s divisions remain split east-west, these two could face each other quite often. – Weinrib, Athlon Sports.
The difference in these coaching styles and how these teams operate really sums up quite well in one statistic. UCLA nearly doubled up Iowa on their fourth down attempts in 2021. UCLA attempted 31 fourth down conversions while Iowa went for it just 16 times.
To go with that, Iowa punted the ball 82 times last season while UCLA only booted it away 34 times. These two teams playing is going to be similar to watching a run-and-gun, up-tempo basketball team play against a half-court system. Whoever can control the tempo in these future matchups will gain an advantage with their defenses being well-rested and playing their game.
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