Iowa gets another crack at showing last weekend wasn’t the whole story, but the setup could hardly be trickier. A bruising loss to Ohio State sent the Hawkeyes into a short week, and now they’re headed two time zones west for a Friday night game at Washington. That combination has been bad news for Iowa before, and it arrives again with a quarterback situation that’s suddenly in doubt.
The damage from Saturday was obvious. Hank Brown was sacked multiple times, took a hit to his right shoulder and is reportedly dealing with an AC joint sprain that has him questionable for Friday.
Signs out of the facility this week point to a strong possibility of Jeremy Hecklinski getting the start in Seattle. Iowa also managed only 39 yards on the ground against Ohio State, the third straight game in which a Power Four front has shut down the run, following outputs of 93 against Iowa State, 58 at Michigan and 39 on Saturday.
Still, this isn’t a hopeless spot for Kirk Ferentz’s group. Iowa is 13-5 all-time in regular-season Friday games and has won 13 of its last 15 since 2015.
There’s also recent evidence that the Hawkeyes can respond after getting hit by a top-five team. Ferentz-era Iowa is 4-5 in the next game after a loss to a top-5 opponent, and the most recent example is hard to ignore: after a 35-7 loss at Ohio State in 2024, Iowa came back the next week and beat Washington 40-16.
Washington arrives at 3-2, 0-2 in the Big Ten and unranked after back-to-back losses by a combined seven points. The Minnesota loss came at home as a double-digit favorite. The USC loss was more painful: Washington built a double-digit second-half lead, then saw a Demond Williams Jr. scramble turn into a 48-yard scoop-and-score the other way and didn’t score again over the final 28-plus minutes.
The Huskies’ offense has not looked like a Jedd Fisch offense. Fisch kept the offensive coordinator job for himself this offseason and calls the plays, and the results have landed in the 80s nationally in total offense and 130th on third down at 29%. Washington is averaging 109 rushing yards per game, which puts it among the bottom 15 teams nationally, the offensive line has allowed the second-most sacks in the Big Ten, and four running backs are banged up.
Williams is still the engine. He’s completing 67.5% of his passes with eight touchdowns and three interceptions, and he leads the team in rushing attempts.
But his biggest passing numbers have come against Washington State, Utah State and an FCS opponent. Against the two real defenses he’s faced, the picture has been much less flattering.
Minnesota sacked him seven times, and USC held him to a season-low 198 yards.
That’s the kind of profile Phil Parker will try to attack: force Williams to operate from the pocket behind a shaky line and get Washington off schedule on third down. On the other side, Washington’s defense has been solid, allowing 18.4 points per game, but it hasn’t yet dealt with a truly dangerous rushing attack. After three straight weeks against elite fronts, this is the kind of spot Iowa’s run game has been waiting for.
The setting will add its own pressure. Husky Stadium sits over Lake Washington and sells itself as one of the great venues in college football, and a Friday night crowd should only sharpen the edge.
The betting market has moved around all week: Washington opened at -1.5, climbed to -3.5 after Iowa’s loss and has settled near -2.5 with a total of 41.5. That projects to a 22-19 type game, and ESPN’s computers lean Iowa despite the spread.
Iowa leads the series 4-3 and has won two straight, including last year’s 40-16 win in Iowa City, the biggest margin either way in the matchup. Washington’s wins in the series came in the Rose Bowl, 28-0 in 1982 and 46-34 in 1991. The two schools have met in Seattle only twice: Iowa won 17-7 in 1963 behind a Jay Roberts field goal that was then the longest in program history, and Washington won 14-0 in 1937 in the varsity debut of a sophomore halfback named Nile Kinnick.
So the math is pretty simple. Iowa hasn’t won a regular-season game west of the Rockies since Sept. 12, 1987, and Washington hasn’t beaten Iowa at home since 1937. One of those streaks is going to end Friday night.
In Other News...
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For a team adjusting to a new coach and a reshaped roster, bowl projections can feel like a small thing until they start reflecting the bigger expectations around the season. ESPN analyst Kyle Bonagura has Iowa State headed to the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl against Washington, which would be a decent outcome for a transitional year, but the Cyclones still have to keep winning to make that conversation matter at all. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Faces A Defensive Test It Cant Afford To Flunk
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The challenge comes with a little less margin for error because Iowa State is also working around the absence of starting safety Drew Surges, who is out with an injury but expected back soon. Even so, the Cyclones know the job in front of them is bigger than any one lineup note, and how well they handle Bachmeiers legs may say plenty about whether the defense can hold up when it needs to most. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Heads Into Iowa State Showdown With Major Injury Concerns
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BYU will be without running back LJ Martin and linebacker Isaiah Glasker, absences that could reshape both the pace and the intensity of the matchup. For Iowa State, that means the usual road-game challenge now comes with a little less certainty on both sides of the ball, and a lot more emphasis on which team can adjust fastest once the first quarter starts to settle in. [Read more 🡒]