5 Things: Iowa football vs. Ohio State

The shine on the Floyd of Rosedale trophy should carry Iowa through at least a couple days. Well, at least until the Hawkeyes start looking at film to prepare for what's coming to Kinnick Stadium on Saturday. No. 3 Ohio State comes to town after a comeback win against Penn State at home.

The Buckeyes have been on a heart-stamping tour since their loss to Oklahoma in Week 2. They're the Death Star, and this week Kinnick is their Alderaan.

So let's look at 5 Things: Iowa vs. Ohio State.

1. The Imperial March

Gazette colleague Marc Morehouse gets the credit for the 'Death Star' analogy here, but we're going to take the ball and run with it.

Ohio State has been very successful for a very long time, in the sort of way that the Empire was in the original Star Wars trilogy. Especially since Urban Meyer showed up, the Buckeyes have come to your town, taken over your home and snuffed out any hope you could defy them. Sound familiar?

Meyer is Darth Vader in this scenario, magically repaired from whatever medical ailments befell him at Florida (the lava pit from Revenge of the Sith, clearly). He has J.T. Barrett as his Boba Fett, quietly sent out to bring him back the bounty he's after — for practical purposes, yards, touchdowns and victories.

They're facing off against a Hawkeyes team that isn't exactly in great shape. Kind of like the Rebellion in A New Hope, no? Kirk Ferentz — our Obi-Wan Kenobi — might be a bit gray and weary, but he's mentoring Nate Stanley (Luke Skywalker, duh) to become the leader Ferentz sees he can be. Stanley has the Outlaw Josey Jewell on the other side of the football to stalk Barrett/Boba Fett. Know who else was an outlaw? Han Solo. Josey Jewell is absolutely Han Solo here. And remember, Han shot first. Jewell doesn't wait, he hits first. Levi Paulsen gets to be our Chewbacca here, if only because he personifies Chewie physically despite not likely having a huge role in the outcome Saturday. Someone get Paulsen a Bowcaster to hold on the sideline, at least, please.

The Hawkeyes are going to have the power of the Force (the Wave, duh), but the Buckeyes having gone to the Dark Side (avalanches of money, etc.) makes for a pretty powerful opponent.

If the Death Star/Ohio State is going to meet the same demise it did in Star Wars, it's probably going to take the same highly-improbable shooting (throwing, for our purposes) and attacking maneuvers (consistently successful offense). Iowa isn't *supposed* to win Saturday. But hey, the Rebellion wasn't supposed to be able to blow up the Death Star, either.

October 31, 2017

pic.twitter.com/oscmdOTuqE

— JoshJacksonCowboyhat (@KingsCowboyHat)

2. Blackout buzz

Iowa revealed its alternate uniform for Saturday's blackout game, and among the few alternate/throwback uniforms the Hawkeyes have donned under head coach Kirk Ferentz, this is a significant departure.

Whether you love, like, hate or are ambivalent toward the unis (I think they're very well done, and the 'I' looking like bricks in the numbers is a nice subtlety), it shows one thing for sure: Ferentz listened to someone who told him this era of college football players loves wearing uniforms that have this kind of look, and it can be used as a recruiting tool.

Check out the sweet new uniforms October 30, 2017

Check out the sweet new uniforms @HawkeyeFootball will wear for Saturday's blackout game against Ohio State. pic.twitter.com/bRA6e308zn

— The Iowa Hawkeyes (@TheIowaHawkeyes)

Now, let's acknowledge here that uniforms have no active difference in on-field competition. It's all just laundry. That said, let's remember the other five times under Ferentz the Hawkeyes took the field in something other than the Steelers look (not counting the American flag Tigerhawk or No. 9 for Tyler Sash).

2015: Iowa's last blackout alternate uniform came against Minnesota. The Hawkeyes' blackout look was a minimalist approach, and one that was kind of shrugged at by plenty of people. Given it was a night game, though, the all-black looked pretty menacing. Iowa won, 40-35, in a game that was probably closer than it should've been.

2012: Two throwback games, two alternate uniforms, which was the only time under Ferentz it's happened twice in the same year. Iowa had a 1921-22 throwback uni for the Cy-Hawk game, which won't be remembered fondly, mostly because that game might be the ugliest in the history of the rivalry. Iowa State's Jake Knott intercepted James Vandenberg to seal the 9-6 Cyclones win at Kinnick. Later that year, Iowa donned a gray helmet in a throwback to honor Veterans Day against Purdue. The Boilermakers won, 27-24, on a field goal as time expired. That 2012 season wasn't much fun.

2010: The second time Iowa rolled out a throwback uniform, it was to honor the 1958 team, which went 8-1-1, and was declared the national champion by the Football Writers Association of America (the AP and UPI awarded the national title to LSU that year) and beat Cal in the Rose Bowl. The 2010 Hawkeyes sported the look against Ball State, and delivered a 45-0 walloping at Kinnick.

2004: The first throwback uniform under Ferentz, this one honored the 1939 Hawkeyes, which were led by some guy the stadium is named for. The gold, Notre Dame-looking helmets highlighted a very simple, historically-accurate look. In fact, whole game had it. The refs and Kent State wore throwback uniforms, too. The Hawkeyes' season-opener was a 39-7 victory.

That puts Iowa at 3-2 in alternate/throwback uniform games.

3. Pick on someone your own size

Since Urban Meyer took over at Ohio State, there's not been a whole lot of upsets against the Buckeyes. Yeah, Oklahoma won earlier this year, but can No. 5 beating No. 2 be considered an upset? Not really.

The Buckeyes are 68-7 under Meyer. Of those seven losses, two were against unranked opponents — one of which was to Penn State last year, a season that saw the Nittany Lions finish the season No. 5 and in the Rose Bowl. The other loss was in 2014, to Virginia Tech, and Ohio State rebounded from that Week 2 loss to win the Big Ten and then the national championship.

The other four losses? In 2013, the Buckeyes lost to No. 10 Michigan State (eventual Big Ten and Rose Bowl champs, finishing No. 3 in the nation) and No. 12 Clemson in the Orange Bowl. In 2015, it was No. 9 Michigan State, which would eventually beat Iowa in the Big Ten title game before a College Football Playoff shellacking at the hands of Alabama.

Meyer's iteration of Ohio State just hasn't been upset. They feast on almost everyone.

4. Strike a pose

For the second time this season, a Heisman Trophy candidate will take the field at Kinnick Stadium. Barrett has taken his share of criticism this season, but the last few weeks have laid out pretty clearly that he's one of the best players in the country. When he strolls onto the field, there's no doubt he's the guy Iowa has to stop first.

They got that a few weeks ago in Heisman front-runner Saquon Barkley, too. The Penn State running back carried 28 times for 211 yards and a touchdown, had 12 catches for 94 yards and three returns for 53 yards — setting a school record of 358 all-purpose yards.

Barrett, to this point of the season, has a 69.4 percent completion rate, 2,155 yards, 25 touchdowns and one interception. He also has 465 yards rushing at 5.3 yards per carry and five touchdowns.

It's not often you get to play against two different bona fide Heisman candidates in the same season. After Saturday, Iowa and its fans will be informed Heisman voters.

5. Against the spread

We've covered here the records and such when Iowa is a two-touchdown underdog. Iowa covered against Penn State in the same scenario. That also was a few injuries ago.

The Hawkeyes are 17-point underdogs as of Monday afternoon, and the game has a 51.5-point over/under. Both numbers are high, one for good reason and the other because, well, because Ohio State has hung 50-plus on four opponents this year and 49 on another.

Interestingly, though, Ohio State is just 4-4 against the spread this year. Now, the lowest spread they've had was minus-7 to Penn State last week, but still, if the line is set, they've been average at beating it. In Big Ten games, the Buckeyes have been favored by an average of 21.7 points, peaked by the 40.5-point spread over Rutgers.

Of the six times this season OSU has been two-touchdown-or-more (all 20-plus points) point favorites, the Buckeyes are 4-2 against the spread. Iowa has a defense capable of keeping Ohio State within that spread, the question is just if they can sustain that for an entire game like against Penn State.

l Comments: (319) 368-8884; jeremiah.davis@thegazette.com