Discount Big Ten Football Championship Tickets Available For The Iowa Hawkeyes

Iowa should have the respect of Nebraska fans - in 2012, a 4-8 Hawkeye team was one drive from beating a 10-win Husker team - but this game has more freight than all of the others combined.

Iowa comes into the game with an ideal 11-0 record, including a 7-0 mark in Big Ten Conference action. Nebraska's defense is stronger against the run than the pass. Beathard makes plays with his arm and his feet, and his health appears to be improving after being bothered by nagging leg injuries during the season. "We wanted them to be undefeated coming in just like we wanted Michigan State to be undefeated".

They see a new head coach not getting it done and a team that may actually miss a bowl game, which seemed unfathomable at one time. 

Asked if Nebraska's comeback effort two days prior influenced his decision to remove the seventh-year coach, Eichorst said he "had to evaluate where Iowa was".

"Cole never gave up," senior free safety Jordan Lomax said.

"When we have a good team, typically we find a way to win close games", Ferentz said. The Hawks have won games by 3, 4 and 5 points, and five of their wins have been by 9 or less.

I've been nervous about every game since the bye week. Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook said after the Ohio State game he was having some pain in his right shoulder so we'll see if he is ready to go against Penn State on Saturday. He'll have to make plays in an amped-up Memorial Stadium against a motivated defense for Iowa to win.

Last year, Iowa failed miserably to take advantage of Nebraska's bad start. That was clear at the Iowa-Minnesota night game two weeks ago, and now an athletic department that couldn't sell tickets already doesn't have enough of them for the Big Ten Championship Game. With a flawless record, one might think Iowa belongs in the top 4 of the College Football Rankings. The Hawkeyes can do some damage if they take the ball away from the Cornhuskers. The Cornhuskers are one of the best in the country at scoring in the fourth quarter, averaging 11.9 points.

Beathard has to be the All-Big Ten quarterback - he may not be the most talented, but his supporting cast isn't anywhere near what Michigan State's Connor Cook enjoys - and Iowa's lunch-pail defense tries to keep everything in front of it. Iowa's defense waits for the opponent to press - counts on it - and it gets its share of turnovers as a result. You had two transitional programs with new coaches in Wisconsin and Nebraska, I didn't think Purdue would have much of a chance and IL fired their coach and you weren't sure about Northwestern.

The Hawkeyes had always claimed that their way of doing things could be successful, as it was in an eight-year stretch in the 2000s when they were ranked in the top eight of the final AP poll four times.