Fun Facts: Illinois-Iowa

OK, I'm not going to try to sell you on Illinois-Iowa being a big game or anything else than a game that will be played Saturday in Iowa City.

But it has Fun Facts, and here they are:

1. Iowa, 0-2 in the Big Ten, has not started a conference season with three losses since 2007. Illinois hasn't had a winning Big Ten record since 2007.

2. Illinois leads the nation in blocked kicks per game, with .75.

3. Iowa, which rushed for 19 yards last Saturday at Michigan State, rushed for 262 at Illinois last November.

4. Illinois hasn't won at Iowa since 1999.

5. Iowa's Josey Jewell is averaging 12.0 tackles per game, third in the nation. He trails only San Jose State linebacker Frank Ginda and Buffalo linebacker Khalil Hodge.

6. Illinois is 2-0 on Saturdays, 0-2 on Fridays.

7. Running backs Saquon Barkley of Penn State and Akrum Wadley of Iowa combined for 291 rushing yards when their teams played each other on Sept. 23. The following week, they had a total of just 86 rushing yards in their games against Indiana and Michigan State, respectively.

8. Illinois had as many punts (10) as first downs in its 28-0 loss to Iowa last year.

9. Iowa linebackers Jewell, Ben Niemann and Bo Bower have a combined 99 career starts.

10. The Illini have played 19 true freshmen this year. Ten started against South Florida, eight against Nebraska.

11. Iowa has 12 touchdown passes and one interception. Illinois has two TD passes and six interceptions.

12. Illinois has had three targeting penalties this season.

13. The Hawkeyes have lost eight fumbles over five games. Last year, they lost two fumbles over 13 games. They lost 11 fumbles in 2015, when they went 12-2. Illinois is one of eight FBS teams in the nation that has yet to lose a fumble.

14. Illinois quarterback Jeff George Jr., is the son of former Illini quarterback Jeff George, who passed for 302 yards in his team's 31-7 win at Iowa in 1989. George threw for 154 touchdowns and 27,602 yards in the NFL.

15. Howard Griffith, now a Big Ten Network football analyst, was an Illini fullback on that '89 team. He got ejected from that season's game at Iowa for taking a swing at Iowa defender Moses Santos.

16. Illinois has had nine full-time head coaches since the 1979 season. Iowa has had two.

17. Brandon Gaudin will do the play-by-play for BTN's telecast of this game. He is the play-by-play voice of Madden NFL 18.

18. A river separates Iowa and Illinois. Rivers also separate New York City and New Jersey, Detroit and Windsor, and El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.

19. Andy Richter, Conan O'Brien's television sidekick among other things, briefly attended the University of Illinois.

20. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performed at Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Feb. 17, 1990. Lenny Kravitz was the opening act. For Petty's set, the stage featured velvet curtains, totem poles, and a statue of a polar bear. Petty put on a good show. It's sad he won't be coming back this way again.