Tag: Iowa Hawkeyes Schedule

Iowa Hawkeyes’ 2022 Big Ten schedule ranked ninth-most difficult among league’s teams

The Iowa Hawkeyes have been ranked with the ninth-hardest schedule out of the Big Ten’s 14 teams. The Hawkeyes have a very manageable slate.

The Iowa Hawkeyes drew a manageable slate going into the 2022 season. As always, the Big Ten can be a treacherous road to navigate week in and week out, but sometimes a few breaks are nice to catch.

It is always daunting to take on the Big Ten with its hard-nosed mentality, the bad weather, intense fan atmospheres on the road, and “no weeks off” mantra. It gets a little harder for the Hawkeyes as they have a new target on their backs as defending Big Ten West champs.

All of that said, their schedule allows them the opportunity to handle some of the big games at home in Kinnick. CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli has ranked the Hawkeyes with just the ninth-hardest schedule out of 14 in the Big Ten conference.

Iowa’s nonconference schedule isn’t a bear, but it’s not to be ignored, either. South Dakota State is one of the better FCS programs, and there’s the annual rivalry game with Iowa State. However, Nevada shouldn’t be too difficult. The Big Ten schedule starts with Rutgers, which is the conference’s way of saying, “we’re sorry we’re making you play both Michigan and Ohio State this season,” because that’s what it’s done. The good news for Iowa is that it gets Wisconsin at Kinnick Stadium late in the year, but road games against Purdue and Minnesota will be tricky. – Fornelli, CBS Sports.

The Hawkeyes open up with a nice slate. There is no reason to believe they can’t start 4-0 against South Dakota State, Iowa State (wonder boy Matt Campbell couldn’t even beat Iowa with NFL talent and lost all of that), Nevada, and Rutgers.

Like Fornelli said, the draws of Michigan and Ohio State are arguably the two toughest teams in the conference to play. It just happens Iowa gets both this season in their cross-division games in a matter of three weeks. While Michigan has to come to Kinnick, Iowa has a road trip to Ohio State which is about as tough as a road game gets. Illinois sandwiched between these two is a little tougher than one may think, but Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz doesn’t overlook teams.

The rest of the road includes road tests against Minnesota and Purdue, which both look to be anything but automatic. Luckily, home games against Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Nebraska await the Hawkeyes.

While each week carries a new mountain to climb, the Hawkeyes have landed a reasonable schedule of hosting some key matchups. As always, tough road trips loom in the Big Ten. It is just a matter of being able to steal one they may not be expected to. If any team can win anywhere, why not Iowa?

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College Football News pegs Iowa Hawkeyes as Nebraska Cornhuskers’ key game in 2022

Nebraska has not been able to solve Iowa since 2014. In a make-or-break year for Scott Frost, the season closer in Iowa City is a key game.

November 26 will be a date marked down for Cornhuskers fans as one of the biggest matchups of the year. Since 2014, Nebraska has not been able to solve their Iowa problem. Two coaching regimes have been unable to get in the win column against the Hawkeyes.

It is a very symbolic loss for a program that has struggled in recent years to get over the middle tier hump in the Big Ten.

Recently, in Pete Fiutak’s breakdown of the Nebraska Cornhuskers’ 2022 season for College Football News, he listed the regular season closer in Iowa City as the key game.

You want to see the cliché of Lucy pulling the football in action? That’s what Iowa has done to Nebraska over the last four years in the Scott Frost era, and it’s been even worse than that.

There have been late heroics, a few meltdowns, blowouts, and overall, lots of pain over a seven-game losing streak. If nothing else, winning in Iowa City for the first time since 2014 would be very, very cathartic.

The schedule is light enough that Nebraska really and truly should have bowl eligibility locked up before the finishing kick of the season – at least, it had better. Now it has to finally get past this Iowa problem. – Fiutak, College Football News.

Fiutak has a good amount of optimism for a team that hasn’t made it over .500 since 2016 in what will surely be a prove-it year for Nebraska head football coach Scott Frost and the entire program. Last year, Nebraska came so close to breaking the streak, amassing a 21-6 lead, but eventually allowed 22 unanswered points to yet again fall to the Hawkeyes.

Nebraska’s 3-9 record last year wasn’t pretty, but if a few plays went differently they could’ve finished with a respectable record. Their biggest margin of defeat came against Ohio State.

The Cornhuskers took both Michigan and Michigan State to the brink of upset, both contests against the two Great Lake State teams within three points. Fans hope that Texas transfer quarterback Casey Thompson can elevate Frost’s squad in a way that new Kansas State Wildcat Adrian Martinez wasn’t able to.

It could wind up as a very important game for the Iowa Hawkeyes, too. Depending on how the three weeks prior play out, there’s the realistic possibility it could be for a return berth into the Big Ten championship game. Iowa travels to Purdue on Nov. 5, hosts Wisconsin on Nov. 12 and travels to Minnesota on Nov. 19 before its closing date in Iowa City against the Huskers.

Hawkeye fans will be hoping that seven-game winning streak against the Huskers is a harbinger of more good things to come against Nebraska.

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Iowa Hawkeyes 2022 schedule breakdown: Rutgers

Rutgers is starting to turn things around a bit under Greg Schiano. Will they pose a threat to Iowa in the Hawkeyes’ first away game?

Finally, a road game. After starting off the 2022 season with the first three games at home, the Hawkeyes start their Big Ten slate in Piscataway, N.J., against Rutgers.

After a disastrous era under former head coach Chris Ash, last year the Scarlet Knights really started to make some progress under now-Rutgers head football coach Greg Schiano. The Ash era included an 8-33 overall record, a 3-27 mark in Big Ten play and three of his four seasons were winless conference campaigns. Now, Rutgers is starting to become somewhat respectable again with Schiano back at the helm.

While 5-7 overall and 3-8 in Big Ten games aren’t the most glamorous records in the world, they are miles better than previous years for a Scarlet Knights program that has really struggled to adjust to the Big Ten. They still weren’t that good, but certainly don’t appear close to as bad as the squad that lost 78-0 at home against Michigan in 2016.

While 2021 was one of the more respectable years in program history, Rutgers lost some key players on offense. Wide receiver Bo Melton and running back Isiah Pacheco both were selected in the 2022 NFL draft and will be big losses for the Scarlet Knights.

Schiano is starting to build something in North Jersey, bringing in two four-star recruits in the 2022 recruiting class, but it is yet to be seen whether or not they can take another step forward this coming season. Here are the opposing players to watch during Iowa’s first away game of the season against Rutgers.

Iowa Hawkeyes’ Keagan Johnson hosting youth camp with NFL stars Cade Johnson, Noah Fant

Iowa’s Keagan Johnson announced that he and his brother, Seattle Seahawk Cade Johnson, will be hosting a camp with former Hawkeye Noah Fant.

Iowa starting wide receiver Keagan Johnson has just announced that his summer camp will feature an NFL star and former Hawkeye great. Johnson and his brother, Cade Johnson of the Seattle Seahawks, will be hosting “The Johnson Brothers Football Camp” in June.

The brothers’ camp will be focused on providing insight for quarterbacks and receivers. The camp is June 18th at 6 p.m. CT at Bellevue West Football Field. Joining the Johnson brothers is former Iowa Hawkeye tight end Noah Fant.

Fant was recently traded to the Seahawks this offseason after beginning his career with the Denver Broncos. His time in Iowa City is fondly remembered for the performances he put on that boosted him to being a first-round pick in the 2019 NFL draft. Fant ended his Iowa career with 78 receptions, 19 touchdown grabs and 1,083 receiving yards.

Cade Johnson is currently a member of the Seattle Seahawks. In a fun twist, he spent his collegiate career as a member of the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. That happens to be Iowa’s opening matchup at Kinnick Stadium on September 22.

Meanwhile, Keagan Johnson is expected to be one of the primary weapons on an Iowa offense that is looking for his playmaking ability to take the next leap. Johnson finished the 2021 season with 18 grabs, a pair of touchdown receptions and 352 receiving yards.

In Iowa’s 24-14 week four win over Colorado State, Johnson became the first true freshman wide receiver to start for the Hawkeyes since Ihmir Smith-Marsette did so in 2017. Johnson made sure to reward the coaches for that decision. The Bellevue, Neb., native opened the scoring against the Rams with a 43-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Spencer Petras. He also reeled in a 49-yard reception versus Colorado State.

Along the way, Johnson had other moments of brilliance. In the Hawkeyes’ 27-22 November win over Minnesota, Johnson appeared to be stopped for a loss by Gopher defenders Thomas Rush and Coney Durr after a reception from quarterback Alex Padilla. Instead, Johnson stayed upright, bouncing off the pair of would-be Minnesota tacklers and raced 27 yards into the end zone for a pivotal fourth-quarter score.

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Iowa Hawkeyes 2022 schedule breakdown: South Dakota State

With spring in the rearview, Hawkeyes Wire takes a look at the opponents on Iowa’s 2022 schedule. Up first? South Dakota State in week one.

It was a strange season for the Iowa Hawkeyes in 2021. There was a six-week stretch where all of Iowa City believed that they would be playing on the national stage in the College Football Playoff.

They just beat No. 4 Penn State and had one of their highest-ever USA TODAY Sports AFCA Coaches Poll rankings at No. 2. Then, everything came crashing down with crushing defeats at the hands of unranked Purdue and Wisconsin.

It was a far cry from the team that took down three ranked opponents, and while they would go on another hot streak to make it to the Big Ten championship game, let’s just say that didn’t go well.

Overall, when you take out the sting of getting destroyed 42-3 by a determined Michigan squad on national television with the conference championship on the line, it was a successful season for the Hawkeyes. They finished 10-4 (one of the losses in the Vrbo Citrus Bowl against Kentucky, 20-17) and once again established themselves as one of the Big Ten’s elite. They did lose some key players including center Tyler Linderbaum who was a first-round selection in the 2022 NFL draft.

On paper, the first-week matchup at home seems like the perfect tune-up game for a home encounter with rival Iowa State the following week. They’re playing an FCS opponent. That should be easy, right? Not so fast.

The South Dakota State Jackrabbits should not be ignored at all. They are a strong team that is returning a lot of key players, and should not be taken lightly. Here are five players to watch out for in week one against South Dakota State.