Fun Facts: Northwestern-Iowa

What's more fun than Halloween? Facts about Saturday's Northwestern-Iowa football game, of course.

But you knew that.

1. Counting this one, five of the last seven games matching the Wildcats and Hawkeyes will have been played in Iowa City.

2. Iowa's Marshall Koehn is second in percentages of kickoffs being touchbacks, with 77.14 percent. Only Nick Rose of Texas (77.78) is better. 'Nick Rose of Texas” reminds me of this song.

3. Northwestern's Jack Mitchell has made seven field goals this season, but the longest is only 29 yards.

4. Iowa is 115th nationally in punting average. Northwestern is 121st.

5. Iowa only played two games in October. It will play five in November.

6. Northwestern's Justin Jackson ranks sixth in the nation in rushing for freshmen with 90.0 yards per game. All of the top six are first-year frosh.

7. Eight different Hawkeyes have interceptions over seven games.

8. Northwestern starting linebacker Chi Chi Ariguzo has the most fun name to say in the Big Ten. His legal name is Ikechi Leonard Ariguzo.

9. If Mark Weisman rushes for 55 yards today, he'll pass both Shonn Greene and Ronnie Harmon on Iowa's career list. Harmon had 34 career NFL touchdowns, Greene 23.

10. Northwestern has six passing touchdowns this season. TCU, a team with the same purple-and-white colors as the Wildcats, had seven last Saturday alone.

11. Northwestern bills itself as Chicago's Big Ten Team. Only one player on its roster, freshman linebacker Anthony Pierce, is from Chicago.

12. Only four of the Big Ten's 14 teams have been ranked at any time this season. Northwestern hasn't been ranked since midseason last year. Iowa hasn't been ranked since late in the 2010 season.

13. Northwestern's leader in interceptions is freshman Godwin Igwebuike. He is from Pickerington, Ohio. So the team leader in picks is from Pickerington. Crazy, huh?

14. In 1972, Northwestern's student body voted to change the school's sports nickname from the Wildcats to the Purple Haze. The school's administration didn't approve the change.

My reaction to that is fitting for today:

BOO!