Steven Dworsky
- Sep 8, 2023
- 2 min read

Preview Iowa vs Iowa State

Big Ten Iowa Hawkeyes, at Big 12 Iowa State Cyclones face off for the Cy-Hawk Trophy.

BROADCAST INFORMATION:

• Kickoff at 3:30 EST, Saturday, September 9th on FOX

• Jason Benetti and Brock Huard will be on the call

• 1650 AM or 102.3 FM

WHAT'S AT STAKE?

This will be the 70th Cy-Hawk Trophy meeting between the two fierce rivals. The Hawkeyes currently have the most wins in the contest sitting at double the Cyclones victories at 46-23. Last year the Cyclones walked into Iowa City and won the competition by a margin of 10-7.

KEY PLAYERS - Iowa

QB Cade McNamara- Iowa

CB Cooper DeJean- Iowa

Key Players - Iowa State

QB Rocco Becht- Iowa State

RB Abu Sama III- Iowa State

KEY MATCHUPS:

Rocco Becht is the Cyclone's second-string QB. In light of Iowa State's starter currently being under investigation for underage gambling. So it's going to be a very interesting competition between Becht and Iowa's star CB DeJean. Last season DeJean recorded 5 interceptions and returned 3 of them for touchdowns! As for the Hawkeyes, their starting QB McNamara has a ton of experience under his belt, after playing at Michigan from 2019-2022. The Iowa offense last season was stifling and needed some type of juice, with only scoring an average of 17.69 points per game.

PREDICTION:

As we know, rivalry games are always exciting and have so much more to offer. This game seems to be extremely tricky though. With McNamara still nursing a quad injury sustained two weeks ago, and with 3 starters from Iowa State out of the game, it seems like a bit of a tossup. Becht had a decent game against Northern Iowa racking up 113 yards for 2 touchdowns, while McNamara passed for 191 and two touchdowns. I feel like it's going to be a defensive struggle, and it's going to have to go to the ground game. Kaleb Johnson of Iowa rushed for 63 yards on 19 carries with one TD. On the opposite end, the Cyclones have split touches between Cartevious Norton who rushed 11 times for 49 yards and Abu Sama III rushed for 40 yards on 6 carries. The Iowa defense is always tough and suffocating, but at the end of the day, I see a big party coming to Ames, Iowa. I see the Cyclones keeping the Cy-Hawk Trophy with a final score of 17-14.