This week’s top match-up pits ranked opponents No. 16 Arizona State (2-0) and No. 18 Iowa (3-0).
One of the two will suffer its first defeat.
The Sun Devils must try and get the win on the road, possibly in front of 70,000-plus screaming fans at Kinnick Stadium.
Despite that possibility, Arizona State head coach Dirk Koetter looks to it as an advantage.
“We’re going to a difficult competitor and it’s going to be different, but that’s one of the great things about college football,” he said Monday in a press conference. “I think our guys are going to be pumped up, they know Iowa is a team that wins. I think we’ll play better, we know we’re playing against an excellent team.”
The two match up well in the statistical categories, as the Sun Devils average 404.5 yards of total offense to the Hawkeyes’ 348.7 yards per game. However, it comes from different angles, as Iowa gets its majority on the ground and Arizona State goes to the air with quarterback Andrew Walter.
Walter has thrown six touchdown passes in his first two games and the junior has averaged 250.5 passing yards per game with a 57.4 percent completion percentage. Walter threw only one interception in his first two games and knows that turnovers are not an option against Iowa.
“No question, we can’t have turnovers, period,” he said Monday in a press conference. “The sloppiness against a team like that won’t work. To score first would be a good way to start it off.”
Iowa is averaging 231.7 yards on the ground and has outscored its three opponents 117-31, allowing none of the three to score in the second or third quarters.
Tailback Fred Russell will remain key to the Hawkeyes’ offense, as he has averaged 113.3 yards per game. If Iowa is to remain undefeated, Russell, who averages 5.7 yards per carry, will have need to keep up his current pace.