The Nebraska Cornhuskers face an all too familiar foe on Senior Day as they welcome the Iowa Hawkeyes to Memorial Stadium on Black Friday for the 15th edition of the Heroes Game, a series that has been dominated by the Hawkeyes ever since the Huskers stepped foot in the Big Ten.
The Huskers have a chance at finishing the regular season 8-4, which would be a first for this program since 2016, but they’ll have to show better effort and execution than we saw last weekend in State College.
The Nittany Lions dominated from start to finish in route to their 37-10 victory over the Huskers and if you take away Emmett Johnson’s 52 yard run on the Huskers first drive of the game, there was not a single moment where the Huskers had any sort of momentum on their side.
Defensively, the Huskers gave up 231 yards and four touchdowns on the ground, while allowing 181 yards and a touchdown on 91.7% completion percentage from Nittany Lions quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer.
The Hawkeyes will look to do what the Nittany Lions did, which is run the football until the Huskers prove they can stop it and they will do so with a variety of different running backs.
Sophomore running back Kamari Moulton leads the Hawkeyes in rushing with 690 yards and two touchdowns and will see a majority of the carries on Friday, but fellow backs Jaziun Patterson and Xavier Williams have both had carries in multiple conference games this season for the Hawkeyes.
Key #1: Find Rhythm Offensively:
Nebraska’s offense looked unstoppable with true freshman quarterback TJ Lateef under center against UCLA, but UCLA is not who Penn State and Iowa are defensively.
Led by longtime defensive coordinator Phil Parker, the Hawkeyes rank 8th in the country in total defense, allowing just 267.9 yards per game and will be the best defense that the Huskers have faced all season.
This offense has weapons and they’re not being utilized correctly and if offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen thinks that the Huskers can win this game by running the ball down the Hawkeyes throat or by catching them by surprise with a plethora of screen passes, then this game will not go good for the Huskers.
You’d love to see the Huskers implement Lateef in the running game, if you go back and watch some of Holgorsen’s old offenses, you’ll find a ton of modernized triple option, which could work wonders for this offense with Lateef, Johnson and wide receiver Jacory Barney Jr.
Key #2: Force the Hawkeyes into Third Down:
It will certainly be a challenge to stop this Hawkeyes offense on the ground, but if John Butler’s defense can force the Hawkeyes into third down passing situations, you have to feel good about this blackshirt secondary against quarterback Mark Gronowski and the Hawkeyes wide receivers.
The Huskers have proved that they can slow down high powered passing attacks, shutting down the nation’s 7th leading passer in USCs Jayden Maiava and by no means do the Hawkeyes compare to what the Trojans do when passing the football.
Defensive backs Ceyair Wright and Andrew Marshall have been playing at a high level this season and if it comes down to Gronowski having to make a key play through the air against this secondary, then give me the blackshirts.
Key #3: Special Teams:
On a day where the cold temperatures and wind will make an impact, an opportunity can be made through special teams and for the Huskers, their special teams unit has been excellent this season.
Little things like a big kickoff or punt return can provide a boost to not only this Huskers offense, but the crowd and the Huskers have shown that they’re capable of making big time plays on special teams.
On the flip side, Iowa’s Kaden Weitjen is extremely dangerous in the return game and should not be overlooked, if anything, Wetjen should be the Huskers top priority when it comes to special teams.
In his career, Wetjen has returned 52 punts for 929 yards and four touchdowns and 52 kickoffs for 1,418 yards and two touchdowns.
Prediction:
Nebraska desperately needs a win against Iowa, this season will have a very different feeling to it if you can shock the Hawkeyes and take back the Heroes Trophy.
This game is almost always close and I think it will once again come down to a game winning field goal.
That being said, I try to throw my Nebraska bias out of the window when making predictions, but it wouldn’t matter if Iowa was 11-0 and Nebraska was 0-11, you’ll never see me predict Nebraska to lose to Iowa.
Nebraska: 20 Io_a: 17