Iowa vs. Ball State Update
There are plenty of upsets in college football, but don't bet on this one.
The 11th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes opened up as a 38 1/2-point favorite on Monday - the second largest line of the week as they prepare for Saturday's game against what some experts are calling one of the least talented teams in the nation.
Many national preseason college football publications picked the Cardinals among the 10-worst teams in the country, including Sports Illustrated. Athlon Sports pegged the Cardinals to finish 117th out of 119 Division-I teams.
This week, ESPN.com included Ball State on its weekly Bottom 10.
But the Hawkeyes literally aren't paying attention.
"That's something that's new to me and I think to the team," Abdul Hodge said. "All we see is team that has some good athletes and a good coaching staff. We're just going to ignore the rankings and approach the game like we'd approach any other game."
Despite the Cardinals' 2-9 record last season, Ball State played Boston College tight in the season-opener and lost two close games to finish the year. Ball State forced overtime against eventual bowl-bound Northern Illinois on Oct. 30, then lost 41-40 at Central Michigan to end the year.
Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz expects the Cardinals to ride that momentum - they return 15 starters, including nine on defense.
"The other thing that jumps out at me is I'm sure they had a season where they weren't happy with from a win-loss standpoint, but I think they played their best football at the end of the season," he said.
"That's going to be something to really build on. I imagine that's the approach they're taking, and the thing we have to worry about is what we're doing here and get ready to play a good game on Saturday."
Mid-American Conference and Big Ten teams play seven games this weekend, beginning with Indiana at Central Michigan on Friday night. In addition to Iowa-Ball State on Saturday, Wisconsin hosts Bowling Green, and Northern Illinois travels to Michigan. The other contests are Kent State at Michigan State, Miami (Ohio) at Ohio State, and Ohio at Northwestern.But the conference has been known to surprise the big schools.
In 2003, four MAC schools knocked off a combined six opponents from BCS conferences. Northern Illinois beat Maryland, Alabama, and Iowa State, Bowling Green beat Purdue, Marshall topped Kansas State, and Miami (Ohio) stomped Northwestern.
"With what some of the MAC teams did the last couple of years against Big Ten teams and other conferences, you have to definitely look at a MAC team as one that's going to come to play," senior Ed Hinkel said. "We have to be ready for them."
But Ball State is 0-13 all-time against the Big Ten, including a 59-7 loss against Purdue last season - not to mention the Hawkeyes have only lost once in 15 games to MAC opponents - 27-21 against Western Michigan in 2000.
Still, Iowa isn't expecting a cakewalk.
"Just because they're playing the Big Ten, it's not like they're going to come out and lay down for us," Hodge said.
Ferentz said the team needs to show signs of consistency and play a clean game on Saturday - something the Hawkeyes haven't done well in practice.
"Having penalties, turning the ball over - those kinds of things that can get you in trouble," Ferentz said. "They really can get you in trouble fast. I don't care who you're playing.
"If you don't respect the game and what the game's all about, that long list that we gave our players with MAC schools beating Big Ten and big-conference schools, we'll be on that list, too. And we've been there."