Thursday, May 24th, 2012
The Northwestern Wildcats will travel in Big Ten conference action when they take on the undefeated Iowa Hawkeyes in a college football game on Saturday afternoon. Kick off time at Iowa is set for 12PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the favored Iowa Hawkeyes opened as an 18-point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has come in on the underdog Northwestern Wildcats, as the Iowa Hawkeyes are currently a 15-½ point favorite. College football money line gamblers can make a play on the favored Iowa Hawkeyes at –1100 with the road underdog Northwestern Wildcats returning +750 to win straight up without the point spread a factor in the bet.
In their meeting last season Northwestern upset Iowa 22-17 last year as a 9-½ point road underdog. Northwestern moved the ball very well on the Hawkeyes with 106 on the ground and 284 through the air. The Iowa Hawkeyes survived yet another scare to their perfect season in beating Indiana 42-24 last week. Iowa survived a 6-turnover game against the Hoosiers and overcame a 24-14 fourth quarter deficit by outscoring Indiana 28-0 in the final stanza. Junior quarterback Ricky Stanzi hit on 13 of 26 with 2 touchdowns and 5 interceptions last week. Rickey Stanzi led the fourth quarter comeback with a 92-yard and 66 yard touchdown pass, which led the Hawkeyes rally. The week prior Stanzi completed a short touchdown pass in the last play of the game to lead the Hawkeyes to a 15-13 win at Michigan St. Stanzi has hit on 56% of his passes this season with 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions on the season. Running back Adam Robinson has led Iowa on the ground with 629 yards on 135 carries for 4.7 yards per carry average. Iowa is 9th in the Big Ten conference in total offense producing just 357 yards a game on offense. Iowa has been good on defense this season ranking 3rd in the Big Ten conference giving 297 yards per game with only 4.7 yards per carry against average. Northwestern is 5-4 this season and need just 1 more win in their next 3 games to become bowl eligible. The Wildcats were pounded at home to Penn St last week 34-13. After storming out to a 13-10 first half lead the Wildcats were shut out in the second half 24-0 by Penn St. Northwestern punted four times, fumbled an turned it over on downs in their scoreless second half against the Nittany Lions. Penn St ran all over Northwestern with 163 yards on 27 carries for 6.0 yards per carry average. Northwestern is 1-2 on the road this season with their lone win coming at Purdue 27-21. Senior quarterback Mike Kafka is under center for the Wildcats and he has completed 66% of his passes with 9 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. Kafka missed the second half of last week’s game with a sore hamstring but is expected to play on Saturday. Northwestern is a completely different offensive team with Kafka at quarterback and moved the team very well in that first half against Penn St last week.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: The Under is 4-1 in their past 5 meetings
The Wagerline consensus has 50.1% of the CFB bettors on Iowa -15 1/2
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