No. 19 Iowa is heading into a different kind of road test Saturday night, one that looks a lot more familiar than most away trips and still comes with its own edge.
Northwestern’s new Ryan Field features the Wildcat Wall, a European-football style setup with a 65-percent slope, according to Northwestern’s website, and 2,000 students standing above the end zone. That setup is drawing comparisons to the north end zone at Kinnick Stadium, where Iowa fans have long helped create problems for visiting offenses with noise and false starts.
The Hawkeyes know exactly what that kind of environment can do. Iowa fans still remember the three straight false starts against Penn State in 2021, along with plenty of other back-to-back false starts and delay-of-game penalties that have rattled Big Ten opponents over the years. This time, though, it’s Iowa’s offense that gets the challenge.
“I'm excited to play there, but they do have that student section wall or something, apparently,” offensive lineman Trevor Lauck said. “So it could get loud. But we’re going to have to go on a silent cadence.”
Head coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday that the new stadium is an unfamiliar setting for him, even if the concept is one Iowa can relate to.
“It looks like a beautiful facility. It has to be great for everybody there.
I just know what moving into this facility did for us and then even the Pacha North End Zone project was really uplifting,” Ferentz said Tuesday. “We're prepared for everything.
In this conference you have to be. We'll always work on the silent cadence any time we're on the road, but yeah, anxious to find out.
More anxious to see how we play, because that's going to be the challenge.”
Iowa quarterback Hank Brown and the offensive line have already leaned on a silent cadence in road games, so that piece won’t be new. Brown is also coming off a strong showing against Wisconsin, a performance that earned him the first Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honor for an Iowa quarterback since 2018.
Even with that recognition, Brown said there’s still work to do before Iowa heads to the Chicago area to face a Northwestern defense that is looking to respond after a loss at Oregon.
“They play super hard,” Brown said. “They’re very fundamentally sound. It’ll obviously be a good matchup, and I’m super, super excited to play in this new stadium.”
Iowa’s offensive line will have a change at center, with Michael Myslinski set to start and Cael Winter out this week, Ferentz said. The Hawkeyes have dealt with pre-snap penalties at times this season, and that’s the kind of detail that can become a bigger problem in a loud road setting.
For Iowa, the job is simple enough: stay clean, stay in sync, and don’t let the Wildcat Wall turn into a problem.
“We'll switch up obviously as the game's going on. But we’re prepared to go on a silent cadence,” Lauck said. “That kind of - I wouldn't say is a challenge, but something definitely - we’d rather be playing at home, for sure.”
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