After a bad weather week against Oregon, then another bad weather week against USC in the Coliseum – go west, they said; the weather will be great, they said – Iowa returns to action in Kinnick Stadium. We have a nice forecast this week! We have that going for us, which is nice!
Temperatures will reach into the low to mid 50s at kickoff and stay there throughout the game. Skies will be clear with winds out of the south-southwest at 10-15 miles per hour. What a nice, refreshing forecast for the final football Saturday in Iowa City.
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This game will be a test of whether Iowa can get up off the mat after two gut-punch losses that extinguished their playoff chances. It might help that Michigan State is flat-out terrible and is on course to tie Purdue at 0-9 in the league. Their coach, Jonathan Smith, looks destined to be fired, though it’s a congested line of teams ahead of the Spartans also looking for coaches so maybe they swallow one more spoonful of this guy? The bad news doesn’t end there – they were recently slapped with probation for rules violations in 2022 and 2023 (Mel Tucker is BACK!) Whatever the case, it’s a bad football team – Sparty gives up nearly 32 points per game and they allow over 150 yards rushing a game. Points per game allowed jumps up to 34.4 in conference games, which is 17th in the league and just 0.2 better than Rutgers in 18th, and they give up 192 rushing yards a game.
That’s just what the doctor ordered for Iowa. They need a pick-me-up before heading to Lincoln on Black Friday. Iowa is a 16.5-point favorite tomorrow and as long as they aren’t completely flat, Iowa wins this game convincingly. I take Iowa and the points, 35-10.
Date: Saturday, November 22
Time: 2:35 pm CT
Matchup: Michigan State Spartans (3-7, 0-7) at Iowa Hawkeyes (6-4, 4-3)
Location: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa
TV: FS1
Updated Weather Forecast: Huge improvement over the last two weekends.
Updated FanDuel Line: Iowa -16.5, O/U 42.5
