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[Music] it's the battle of the birds this weekend in Iowa City the Hawkeyes and the red birds of Illinois State doing battle inside kinnick stadium I'll give you not only a key to Victory but also a key element of the game to watch for to make us feel confident about Iowa's chances next week against instate rival Iowa State but first I want to remind everybody if you're not doing so already go over to Facebook and to Instagram I've been plugging this here of late we're trying to grow this following and people have done a nice job of responding but we need more help be sure to go over to Facebook search from the Hawkeye of the storm or click the link in the description and Instagram fromthe Hawkeye on Instagram I've got both Links at the top of the video description here on YouTube even if you're not real active on social media give us a follow cool things in store for those that follow us on social media but we have to hit that one 1000 Mark first be sure to follow us Instagram and Facebook so football is officially back for Iowa Hawkeye fans this Saturday a morning contest against a Missouri Valley Conference foe what do we know about Illinois state of course I recorded a segment on a recent show with Coach Don Patterson Don Patterson is the all-time winningest coach in Western Illinois history he knows a little bit about the Red Birds also knows a lot about Brock spach actually recruited him back when Spa was a player he ended up going to Purdue was a really good linebacker and Coach Patterson's got a lot of respect for the former linebacker and D coordinator if you missed my segment with Coach Patterson check it out I'll throw it up here in the corner of the screen but here are some things that I wanted to relay to everybody and a couple of things to watch for in Saturday's game that I think will be key not only to margin of Victory hopefully we're talking just about margin of victory iory not about trying to pull out a win but also indicators as we head into a very busy and very important shawk contest against the Cyclones first of all I listened to Brock Spa's media availability this week he talked about quarterback and certainly that's a position to follow if you're both teams because Kade mcnamar Brennan Sullivan did battle during fall camp but Illinois State's got a battle of its own Zach annexstad graduated from the program last year after putting up pretty good numbers in fact he threw for about 70% on the season very efficient now they don't throw the ball downfield a ton if you look at their yards per catch yards per completion plus their yards per attempt numbers they're not great they're very much about efficiency in the passing game really efficiency in everything they do which is right Onkey with what you'd expect from a guy like Brock Spa even though he's a defensive oriented coach he understands the importance of making the makeables actually very much fits the principles of say an Iowa coach but but they graduated annexstad and now they've got a battle between a couple of young people including one who played a little bit of high school football in Iowa Jake rubley the Kansas State transfer comes in there and has a shot to play it sounds like they're going to play multiple quarterbacks we'll see if they both play in game one but Illinois State returns a lot from a team that lost five games last year but four games by a total of eight points I've been talking to our followers here on the channel about this team for months and about the slim margin of loss throughout the season last year again they finished six and five missed out on the playoffs but as I said good returning experience especially at offensive line and at receiver they've got three receivers who produced a lot last year including two of their top three and they've got a first team all Missouri Valley Conference running back in Mason King that guy is going to test Iowa's front seven and we'll get a good idea of the depth of front we've been talking about building that defensive line depth and it sounds like Iowa's comfortable with seven but we'll get an idea of that because Mason King will test them this weekend and we'll get to see how Iowa balances the Willie linebacker cash scenario with Sebastian Castro and Kyler Fischer that should be interesting to see against a solid rushing attack again led by a solid offensive line they also return the Missouri Valley Conference freshman of the year in linebacker Tai namp and First Team all MVC linebacker Amir Abdullah so they are really good at linebacker just like Iowa is this is the best conference in the FCS hands down this conference has won like 10 of the last 12 national championships or something crazy like that and Brock Spa talked during his media availability about the development of that front seven I think he feels pretty good about the linebacking group but then about that defensive line there are some question marks and Iowa should be a lot better up front offensively including with their rushing attack it's interesting I forgot George Barnett coached for Illinois state for a while he was actually offensive line coach and served as offensive coordinator briefly back during 2013 Spa talked during his media availability about the window dressing that's added with a Tim Lester offense he is familiar with Tim Lester's system having faced him when Lester was at Western michig he talked about eye discipline and how important that's going to be we're going to continue to hear that theme throughout the season as Iowa runs more of that pre-nap motion and if you want to call it window dressing but Spa deferred back to Iowa's inside Zone outside Zone identity that they have had for years and he does not expect Iowa to go away from that and based on everything we've seen and heard since Lester joined the program they are going to keep the principles of Iowa's rushing attack and hopefully just perform a lot better the last time these two teams played actually the only time these two teams played was back in 15 2015 Iowa won that game 3114 it's interesting Illinois state was coming off a really good season they finished in the FCS national championship game where they narrowly lost to North Dakota State Iowa played them the next season I did not remember that that game came on the heels of their trip to the national championship game so that surprised me in researching Illinois State and if you look at Illinois State's record I know you we look at this when we say ah Missouri Valley Conference I've heard people just downplay the whole idea of Iowa you know they shouldn't struggle with a Missouri Valley Conference team and I guess there's some truth to that but like North Dakota State and South Dakota State have dominated the FCS for a long time and this conference I mean Illinois State's picked sixth in the conference but yet they're in the top 20 in the preseason polls you look at Brock Spa's head coaching record he's been at Illinois State since 2009 he's had exactly two losing Seasons two losing seasons one of them was the 2021 season and then the 2021 season both of those you know I think affected by Co everybody's rosters were affected not that you totally throw those out but Illinois state had a 13 and2 record in 2014 where they were National Runners up to North Dakota State and then they finished at 10 and3 in 2015 they were 10 and five and 19 and then Co hit and I think that kind of put them sideways a bit they finished six and five in each of their last two seasons so they are kind of a trendy pick in that conference I did see one FCS media outlet that picked them fourth in the conference that is really high when you talk about the powers at the top North Dakota a team that plays Iowa State also from that conference they are also a trendy preseason pick as I mentioned they're not going to throw the ball over the top a ton they do run the ball really effectively they averaged approximately six yards per carry and 2023 that is insane now their turnover margin is just okay they don't force a ton of turnovers but they also don't turn the ball over a ton they're solid not Elite in that category Illinois State's very balanced like they were actually better in total offense last year even though Brock Spec's a defensive minded coach they were better in total offense last year than they were in Total Defense and Spa sounds like maybe still some question marks about that defensive line so you know we keep hearing about Iowa's offensive line it'll be a good early season indicator if Iowa can dominate up front and average four to five yards per carry on the ground game one against this defense I will be happy and I do think that will be the key to not only winning but winning comfortably if Iowa can establish and maintain a healthy Rush average throughout this game and certainly you want to protect Kade mimir and they should not have an issue doing that if they have an issue doing that in game one that is potentially a sign of things to come I've talked about waiting on this offense especially the pass offense through the first month of the Season that has nothing to do with the offensive line the offensive line should be able to come out this first month of the season and dominate to some extent I mean I don't see why not and so if we're seeing early hits to Cade mcnamer whoever's playing quarterback or negative rushing plays that is a bad sign so my overall key to the game Iowa's offensive line play specifically the push they get in the Run game I will give you my pick my selection my game score prediction for this one later this week so be sure to stay tuned here to the channel and then after the game it's live postgame coverage with Coach Don Patterson a two-part special live Saturday with Kyle Spence and Coach Don Patterson and then myself and Coach Patterson Sunday night a full weekend Hawkeye football and postgame coverage coming up right here from the Hawkeye of 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