Iowa vs. Illinois Fun Facts: Justin Bieber edition

Iowa and Illinois. One has the Chicago Bears. The other has the Villisca Ax Murder House. Both have corn.

But what about the Illinois-Iowa football game? Fun Facts will answer that question.

1. Iowa has won the last seven games of this series, by an average of 24 points. It’s the Hawkeyes’ all-time longest winning streak against the Illini.

2. Illinois hasn’t won at Kinnick Stadium since 1999.

3. Iowa has averaged 67,217 fans over six home games. Illinois has averaged 36,641 fans for six home games.

4. Both teams’ starting punters are from Melbourne, Australia. Iowa’s Tory Taylor is a 24-year-old sophomore. Illinois’ Blake Hayes is a 23-year-old fifth-year senior. Taylor is tied for third in the nation in punts with 63. Hayes is tied for 10th with 58.

5. Illinois’ top two quarterbacks are transfers from other Big Ten schools. Brandon Peters came from Michigan, Artur Stikowski from Rutgers.

6. The Illini haven’t been in the AP Top 25 since 2011.

7. Illinois entered the season with two wins against ranked teams since 2008. This season, it won at No. 7 Penn State and No. 20 Minnesota.

8. Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz was assured a $500,000 bonus this season when the Hawkeyes got their eighth win of the season.

9. In its nine-overtime win at Penn State, Chase Brown set a record for most rushing yards by an opponent with 223.

10. This is Iowa’s first 1 p.m. home game since it hosted Western Michigan in 1999.

11. Iowa has been outgained by 28 yards per Big Ten game, but is 5-2 and has outscored its league foes by an average of 5.8 points per game.

12. Illinois is averaging 117 passing yards per Big Ten game, 41.7 fewer than anyone else.

13. Iowa’s Dane Belton and Riley Moss and Illinois’ Kerby Joseph are in a six-way tie for the Big Ten’s lead in interceptions with four. Joseph leads the league in recovered fumbles with three.

14. Bret Bielema’s Big Ten coaching record is 40-23. His SEC record was 11-29.

15. Iowa linebacker Jack Campbell has 100 tackles. The last Hawkeye with 100 tackles in a season was Josey Jewell, who had at least 124 each season from 2015 to 2017.

16. The Hawkeyes won against three teams (Indiana, Iowa State, Penn State) that were ranked at the time they played, and the Illini defeated two teams (Penn State, Minnesota) that were ranked when they met, but neither have beaten a team that currently is in the Top 25.

17. In Big Ten games, Iowa has 22.3 fewer penalty yards per game than its opponents and Illinois has 18.0.

18. Bielema’s Twitter account has 239,600 followers. That’s over 113 million fewer than Justin Bieber’s.

19. The highest point in Iowa is Hawkeye Point in Osceola, 1,670 feet above sea level. The tip of the antenna towers of Chicago’s Willis Tower are 1,730 feet above the ground.

20. Illinois has the only museum in the nation dedicated to surgery. Iowa has the only museum in the world. Iowa has the only museum in the nation dedicated to hobos.