Can we get a great game for a change?

And now, another game in the dull football rivalry between Iowa and Iowa State.

How's that for hype?

It's up to both teams to produce a classic game, one in which you don't have to go into the archives a few years later just to remember something about it. In this series, there aren't many of those games.

This has been Iowa State's fault the last three years. The scores tell the tales. Iowa 17-5 in 2008, Iowa 35-3 in 2009, Iowa 35-7 in 2010. That 17-5 game was 3-3 after three quarters.

The word “scintillating” never came to mind in describing that portion of the contest.

But the last sizzling game between the two was in Iowa City in 2002 when ISU overcame a 24-7 halftime deficit to beat Iowa, 36-31. Seneca Wallace was fantastic that night. He's still in the NFL.

Some might say the Cyclones' 15-13 win in 2007 was a great game. Uh, no.

Yes, it did have what the vast majority of these meetings have lacked, which was a score late in the game to decide the game. Bret Culbertson kicked a 28-yard field goal with one second left after Iowa made a 41-yarder with 3:38 left.

So that contest certainly had drama. But just like last week's UNI-ISU game with its frantic finish, it wasn't four quarters of quality football. Not a game with just one touchdown. Not a game in which the winning team never reached the end zone.

How about 2006, some might ask? Iowa won, 27-17, but it was 17-17 after three quarters and Iowa State led 14-10 at halftime. A good game for a while, but the Hawkeyes dominated the fourth quarter. Drew Tate threw three touchdown passes for Iowa.

“I've been on some good teams in my life,” Tate said after the Hawkeyes improved to 3-0, “but as far as this team, there's more team chemistry than I've ever been on. It's not even close.”

Iowa went 6-7 that season, losing its last four games.

Which brings us to another point. Success in this game has been no barometer for how the season will go.

2002: Iowa loses to Iowa State, goes on to an 8-0 record in the Big Ten. ISU, which won its next three games to rise to No. 9 in the AP rankings, lost six of its last seven to finish 7-7.

2004: The Cyclones lost to Iowa, 17-10, but went 7-5 including an Independence Bowl win.

2007: After it opened its first season under Gene Chizik with losses to Kent State and Northern Iowa, ISU beat Iowa. The Cyclones lost at Toledo the following week and finished 3-9.

2010: Iowa pounded Iowa State. That meant nothing in November when the Hawkeyes lost three straight games.

Anyway, the Las Vegas bookmakers have projected Saturday's Iowa-ISU game as fairly close. The Hawkeyes were favored by a touchdown in midweek.

Iowa State will have to play a lot better than it did last Saturday against UNI, but go back and look what happened in ‘07 if you question if an upset is possible.

Football coaches often say teams make their most improvement between the first week and the second. Which tells us that Week 1 games are often lousy.

But Iowa-Iowa State games are never played in Week 1, so they have no excuse. Make some magic today, you two teams, or I'll see to it that your Cy-Hawk Trophy is taken away. Again.