The Iowa Hawkeyes and Jim Harbaugh’s Michigan Wolverines face critical tests on Saturday afternoon. Will either team be a factor in the Big Ten this year?
Entering Week 6 in the 2019 NCAA season, the Big Ten has six teams ranked in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. Two teams find themselves in the top 10 and five Big Ten schools boast a perfect record heading into the October slate, including the unranked Minnesota Golden Gophers (4-0). With so much ball left to be played, the marquee game this week in the Big Ten will be in Ann Arbor.
The No. 19 Michigan Wolverines (3-1) will host the undefeated No. 14 Iowa Hawkeyes (4-0) for an 11:00 a.m. CT kickoff at the Big House in Ann Arbor. Michigan is a slight home favorite over the visiting Hawkeyes, but this will be the most significant game of the Big Ten season thus far.
Iowa can emerge as a serious contender in the Big Ten West, while Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh must win to avoid beginning a downward spiral in year five leading his alma mater. Will Iowa get the signature win it needs to enter the conversation of conference relevancy? Does Harbaugh have anything left in the tank in Ann Arbor?
With a win on the road versus Michigan, expect Iowa to climb closer to the top 10 in Week 7’s AP Poll. Though their best win of the year was on the road versus the so-so in-state rival Iowa Cyclones, Iowa has a chance to get on the map with a home win on Oct. 12 versus the undefeated No. 12 Penn State Nittany Lions.
Getting to potentially 6-0 with three significant victories will be huge for the Hawkeyes going forward. They’ll need all the momentum they can get heading into essentially the Big Ten West Division Championship game versus the No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers in Camp Randall on Nov. 9. Saturday in Ann Arbor will be a tough spot for Iowa, but all the pressure will be on Michigan.
This is a game that Harbaugh has to win. His Wolverines have already lost a conference game out of the division by getting clobbered in Camp Randall by Wisconsin two weeks ago. Wisconsin looks to be the best team in the Big Ten West, but Iowa and maybe even Minnesota will have something to say about that. Those three division rivals are all unbeaten entering October.
As for Michigan, the Wolverines still haven’t played any of their major division rivals in the Big Ten East yet. They will have to go on the road to Penn State on Oct. 19. That feels like a loss. While they get the Michigan State Spartans and the Ohio State Buckeyes at home in November, Michigan will have to face a top-10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish squad the week after Penn State.
Winning two of those games would be respectable, winning three would be remarkable, but taking all four does not seem possible, especially given what we’ve seen out of the Michigan offense this point. The Wolverines could not have looked worse versus Wisconsin and nearly fell at home to the Army Black Knights earlier in the season. We all expected better out of the Michigan offense.
Simply put, if Michigan wants a shot at winning 10 games this year, the Wolverines must beat Iowa at home on Saturday. Otherwise, more and more people will turn on Harbaugh and things could get ugly in the Michigan athletic department. Harbaugh burned brightly upon his arrival in Ann Arbor, but if he can’t win his division once in five years, it might be time to move on.
As for Kirk Ferentz’s Hawkeyes squad, they will have their opportunity to get back to Indianapolis for the first time since 2015. The schedule is tougher than it was four years ago, as the coaching has gotten better in the Big Ten West. However, Iowa will only be seen as a pretender in the Big Ten West and Wisconsin’s inevitable whipping boy if they can’t get it done in Ann Arbor.
Don’t expect a ton of points in this ball game, but whichever quarterback plays better between Iowa’s Nate Stanley and Michigan’s Shea Patterson will likely lead his team to victory. We haven’t seen Patterson shine thus far this season. If Stanley plays with the poise he displayed in the battle for the CyHawk Trophy in Ames, maybe it’ll be time for us to start taking Iowa seriously?
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