Pencils down everyone. The offseason exam is over.
It’s time to get serious. Fall camp starts this week for the Iowa Hawkeyes and for the majority of college football.
With that, it’s also time for the last set of predictions. Before the preseason USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll gets released next week, media outlets have one last chance to submit their own preseason predictions.
On3’s Jesse Simonton got in on the fun, sharing his 2023 Big Ten preseason Power Rankings. Simonton’s initial Power Rankings look like this:
- Michigan
- Ohio State
- Penn State
- Wisconsin
- Iowa
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- Illinois
- Nebraska
- Michigan State
- Purdue
- Rutgers
- Indiana
- Northwestern
The Big Ten media already made their voices heard in the annual cleveland.com release. Per the Big Ten’s media, the Hawkeyes will finish second in the West in 2023. Iowa did pick up 16 first-place votes in the West according to the media and finished just one point behind Wisconsin in the voting.
Simonton joins the league’s media in placing the Hawkeyes second among West squads in his first Power Rankings. Here’s what he had to say about Iowa at No. 5:
Until proven otherwise, the Hawkeyes can be distilled down to the basic binary of awesome on defense, awful on offense. After historic woes in 2022, can embattled OC Brian Ferentz average at least 25 points per game? He has to if he wants to keep his job for 2024. Kirk Ferentz finally embraced the transfer portal, adding Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara, as well as several playmakers including former Ohio State wideout Kaleb Brown.
The Hawkeyes project to be elite defensively again this fall, so if the offense even has a pulse, they can certainly win the Big Ten West and even scare one of the conference’s three CFP contenders. – Simonton, On3.
Like last offseason, the lion’s share of the conversation surrounding Iowa has been centered on how much the Hawkeyes’ offense does or does not improve. For better or worse, it will be nice to start getting an answer to that question.
Mark this down as another media outlet tabbing Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota as its top three teams in the West, too.
The Hawkeyes face those rivals in back-to-back weeks in mid-October. Iowa travels to Wisconsin on Oct. 14 before hosting Minnesota the following weekend on Oct. 21 for its ANF Black & Gold Spirit Game.
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