Two upcoming Iowa opponents, two directions

Iowa's football team hosts Pittsburgh on Sept. 17 and Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 24.

One is a program that has won several national-championship. The other has never been to a bowl game in its Division I-A history.

The former is Pitt. It led Buffalo by just 7-3 early in the third quarter Saturday at Heinz Field, but a 47-yard return of an interception set up a touchdown, and the Panthers were off to a 35-16 victory in Todd Graham's debut as Pitt's coach.

Another Graham, running back Ray Graham, rushed for 201 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries. He rushed for 277 yards against Florida International last season.

Here's what Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote in comparing Pitt with Big East/border rival West Virginia:

I tracked the time between snaps on 30 plays for each team, and West Virginia lined up in an average of 27.6 seconds, Pitt in 21.4. And Todd Graham's goal is to shave that to 18 seconds, which is pretty much where Sunseri and the offense were by the second half.

That's why I'll stress here: Don't discount the Panthers.

Louisiana-Monroe, meanwhile, fell at Florida State, 34-0.

ULM never moved the ball past the Seminoles' 28-yard line. ULM quarterback Kolton Browning was stopped short on a keeper on 4th-and-1 from the FSU 28.

"We've come really far as a team, but we didn't showcase that today," Browning said in this Monroe Star News story. "When we crossed the 50-yard line, we either had a big penalty or a turnover that hurt us."

As this ESPN.com recap of the game noted, the Warhawks have been outscored 165-10 since the start of last season in losses to Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Florida State.