Early Look: No. 19 Iowa Hawkeyes (7-3, 4-3 in Big Ten)

Date/time: Saturday, Nov. 23, 11:30 a.m. CST

Location: Kinnick Stadium, Iowa City, Iowa

Surface: FieldTurf

Capacity: 69,250

Schedule/records: Illinois 6-4 overall, 4-3 Big Ten, 4-8 in 2018 (2-7 in Big Ten); Iowa 7-3 overall, 4-3 in Big Ten, 9-4 (5-4 in Big Ten) in 2018.

Series notes: Illinois holds a 38-34-2 edge in the all-time series but Iowa has won six straight meetings dating back to 2008, their longest streak in the series history. Illinois led Iowa 13-10 late in the second quarter in 2017 in its last visit to Iowa City, before Iowa took the lead just before halftime and pulled away with 21 points in the fourth quarter for a 45-16 win. Iowa shut out Illinois, 63-0, at Memorial Stadium in the teams’ last meeting on Nov. 17, 2018.

TV: BTN

Early line: Iowa by 12.5

Iowa has one of the pass rushers in the nation in A.J. Epenesa

If Chase Young didn’t exist in college football, the best pass rusher and disruptive defensive end would likely reside in Iowa City, Iowa. Junior A.J. Epenesa leads a defense that ranks in the top 20 in scoring, rushing, and total defense. Iowa is fifth in the country in scoring defense (12.4 ppg), 12th in total defense (303.1 ypg), and 16th in rushing defense (106.5 ypg). Iowa's scoring defense is second in the Big Ten to Ohio State, who leads the country with 9.8 ppg. The Hawkeyes have held seven-of-10 opponents to their season-low point total. Epenesa was recognized as Big Ten Conference Defensive Player of the Week following Iowa's 23-19 win over seventh-ranked Minnesota on Nov. 16. Epenesa recorded 2.5 of Iowa's six sacks, three solo tackles and one assisted tackle, forced one fumble and had one quarterback pressure. He leads Iowa with seven sacks and nine quarterback hurries.

“A.J. is an Illinois guy and we got to keep those Illinois guys home in the future but I’ve known him and his family for a long time,” Illinois head coach Lovie Smith said Monday. “Knew his dad and it’s a football family. A.J. is a great player who can do it all. Plays the run about as well as anybody in the country, can rush the passer inside or outside. Just a good running game.”

The Glen Carbon, Illinois native, who went to Edwardsville High School, led the Big Ten and ranked ninth in the country with 10.5 sacks in 2018. Epenesa recorded at least one sack in nine of 13 games last season and was named first-team All-Big Ten by league media, and second-team All-Big Ten by league coaches. He ranked second in the conference and 16th nationally in forced fumbles (four), and ranked fourth in the Big Ten in tackles for loss. He totaled 37 tackles, four pass breakups, eight QB pressures, and a blocked punt in 2018. He recovered his own forced fumble and returned it 19 yards for a touchdown at Illinois.

Has Iowa found a tailback in freshman Tyler Goodson

Tyler Goodson became the first Iowa true freshman to start at running back under Ferentz since 2012 in the Hawkeyes’ 23-19 win against then-No. 8 Minnesota last weekend. Goodson rushed for 94 yards against the Gophers, raising his season total to 436, second on the team. He has 82 carries and averages 5.3 yards per attempt, 11th in the Big Ten. Goodson has 20 receptions for 143 yards.

"Just felt like he gave us our best chance to do things," Ferentz said on why he started Goodson on Saturday. "He did a lot of good things out there. I just said on the radio, maybe as impressive as anything, blitz pickup off a play-action in the second half. For a freshman to make that protection, then execute it, was really impressive. It's even more impressive because he didn't execute it during the week, the end of the week last week. I think that kind of shows you the kind of young guy he is. He learned from a mistake, carried it out there to the game field."

The 63-0 beatdown of last year isn’t forgotten

Following last year’s embarrassing 63-0 loss to the Hawkeyes in Champaign, this was Lovie Smith’s first comment:

“We didn’t play well in any phase. Starting with coaching, we thought we had the team prepared. We weren’t. They outperformed us in every way.”

A pretty simple explanation for the program’s worst loss matching the largest margin of defeat in Illinois history going back to 1906.

The memories of that game still reverberate through the Illinois locker room but the Illini have a lot of new transfer pieces who weren’t on the field for that colossal mismatch. That doesn’t mean Smith won’t bring it up.

Iowa's win was the largest win in the 74-game series, 63-0. The 63-point margin of victory is Iowa's largest in the Ferentz era and tied for the 12th-biggest in program history.

“The 63 to zero thrashing out there, are we going to bring that up? Yeah, probably a few times,” Smith said Monday. “You know, I don’t think you really need to. When you play that way, you just hope to get an opportunity to play better against an opponent. We use everything we can to motivate the players on our roster.”

Lovie Smith on this game at Iowa:

“I think people take them seriously and their program is one of the best traditionally and people look at them that way. Talent-wise, they put as many guys in the NFL as anybody else and there’s a lot of things people take notice. We’re the ones trying to take us seriously. We’re double-digit underdogs every week so it’s more those types of those programs that are looking for respect than the Iowas of the world.”