Purdue Football: Opponent Number One, Iowa Hawkeyes

We are just about a month away from seeing Purdue Football back in action!

Quite honestly, after the complete mishandling of the situation in August, then it not seeming like a Spring Season would even happen, the Big Ten put some new restrictions out there, a new schedule and we are ready to play football in a month.

While it is a month later than the SEC, it is still something and for that I am happy.

Over the course of the next few days, I plan on looking into Purdue’s upcoming opponents for each week. Key players they return, stats and whatever other factors that we have leading into these games.

First up, we have the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Game:

• Iowa @ Purdue - October 24th, 2020

Recent Games vs Iowa:

• 2019: Iowa 26 Purdue 20
• 2018: Purdue 38 Iowa 36
• 2017: Purdue 24 Iowa 15

Returning Offensive Starters:

• Wide Receiver: Tyrone Tracy, Ihmir, Smith-Marsette
• Offensive Line: Alaric Jackson, Tyler Linderbaum, Kyler Schott - Added Coy Cronk Grad Transfer (IU)
• RB: Tyler Goodson

Returning Defensive Starters:

• DL - Chauncey Golston
• Cash - Nick Niemann
• LB - Dijmon Colbert
• DB - Matt Hankins, Jack Koerner

2019 Record:

• 10-3

Purdue Returning Offensive Starters:

• Quarterback: Jack Plummer (starter after Sindelar injury)
• Running Back: King Doerue
• Wide Receiver: David Bell, Amad Anderson Jr.
• Offensive Line: Grant Hermanns, Sam Garvin, Mark Stickford, Eric Miller

Purdue Returning Defensive Starters:

• OLB/Safety: Jalen Graham
• DT: Anthony Watts, Lawrence Johnson, Lorenzo Neal Jr (Returning from 2018, so not technically a returning starter but whatever)
• DE: George Karlaftis
• LB: Derrick Barnes, Jaylan Alexander
• DB: Cory Trice, Dedrick Mackey, Cam Allen

2019 Record:

• 4-8

Purdue vs Iowa Prediction 2020:

• Purdue gets to open up the season against a team that we have had recent success against. Nathan Stanley is finally gone and they will be breaking in a new quarterback with a shortened summer as well as an abbreviated fall, which helps us out tremendously. But, they do return a solid offensive line as well as adding Coy Cronk, who will be a future NFL football player.
• Tyler Goodson returns after a solid freshman season, where he posted over 600 yards rushing is returning for his sophomore campaign. Expect him to have large role in the opening game as they are trying to break in a new quarterback, Spencer Petras has 11 career attempts and 0 touchdowns.
• Overall, I think Purdue has a great chance to make some noise on the opening home game of the season. While Iowa returns some solid skill guys, they are actually in a spot of unknown at quarterback which does not happen often for them. While Purdue has returning experience at the position and a plethora of skill guys. Iowa will also be young on defense, with 6 new starters, expect them to make some errors.
• Like in years past, I do believe it will be a dog fight. But, I have Purdue winning the opening game 34 to 24. Our returning skill guys and special teams players should give us an edge while we are learning a new defense.

DID YOU KNOW?:

• Purdue once had a 20 game win streak against Iowa, winning every game from 1961 to 1980
• Purdue’s largest margin of victory was in 1980, winning the game 58 to 13
• Purdue leads the all time series, with 48 wins to Iowa’s 39 wins. We have 3 ties in history.