Halftime Thoughts: Iowa 17, Illinois State 0

The yardage:

Iowa 268, Illinois State 36. Does that tell enough story for you?

The Hawkeyes have 167 yards passing, 101 rushing. The Redbirds have zero yards rushing.

Does that tell enough story for you?

C.J. Beathard was the people's choice

to be Iowa's quarterback last season.

Sometimes, the people are right.

After Iowa finished its second drive

, and second touchdown drive, Hawkeyes radio analyst Ed Podolak remarked 'An 82-yard drive (81, actually) and a 99-yard drive! Is this more fun, Gary?'

Play-by-play man Gary Dolphin replied 'No comment.'

'Yes' was the more fitting response.

Iowa had five quarterback sacks in the half.

That's a bunch.

The Hawkeyes' offensive line isn't going against Iowa defensive end Drew Ott today. But the Redbirds' O-line, which has no seniors, isn't faring so well against a player who may quickly get more famous for his play than his egg-devouring inclination. Ott had two of the sacks, and did the heavy lifting on the one linebacker Ben Niemann finished off.

A commendation to Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz

for going for the first down on 4th-and-2 at the Illinois State 14 on the Hawkeyes' opening drive.

Iowa's players and fans clearly loved the decision before the Hawkeyes converted the first down and went on to punch it in for a 7-0 lead. Aggression is football and football is aggression.

Which is why Iowa fans in Kinnick Stadium cheered even when Iowa failed to pick up a first down on a fake field goal. Marshall Koehn ran for eight yards on 4th-and-10. And the crowd cheered afterward because it was aggression.

'Hey I just blacked out,' former Iowa star defensive lineman Mitch King tweeted. 'Did Iowa run a fake Field goal? #LoveThePlayCalling.'

Koehn, by the way, will probably retire with a career 8.0 yards per carry. Top that, Ezekiel Elliott.

Longtime Iowa football and men's basketball trainer John Streif

told me 'We're going to have a great year' before the game. He was talking about the Hawkeyes football team.

John is one of the smartest (and nicest) people who have ever worked in Hawkeye athletics, so …

I still don't get the 'Be Bold, Wear Gold'

concept.

Iowa fans were told to wear gold shirts to today's game, and did. What's bold about following orders?

Be Bold, Do What You're Told?

Aren't universities supposed to encourage independent thought?

Illinois State got $500,000 to play this game

. That's $7,936 for each of its 63 scholarship players. The money is going elsewhere, of course.

It's not too wise to use superlatives,'

because someone will quickly either correct you or argue with you.

For instance, this week I heard a radio commercial calling Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls the best team in NBA history. Not the best single-season record, but the best team. It seems debatable.

But so I won't call Saturday's traffic into Kinnick Stadium the lightest I've ever seen, but it was the lightest I've ever seen in a long time. I came straight into town from I-80, through Coralville on First Avenue/Hayden Fry Way, and on up to the stadium a little more than two hours before the game. Until I reached Carver-Hawkeye Arena, you wouldn't have had much idea a game was being held today.

Today is Raquel Welch's 75th birthday.

We've never met.