What We Still Don't Know About Iowa Football Entering Week 2

For as good and strong as the Iowa Hawkeyes looked in Week 1's 40-0 victory over Northern Illinois, it doesn't mean every single question was answered.

In fact, there are a handful of things we still don't know about this team, with a home date against the Iowa State Cyclones awaiting.

We know a lot about Iowa, who the Hawkeyes are, and what they want to do, but Week 2 provides another opportunity to make the picture clearer.

Is it Hank Brown's job?

After splitting reps and series rather evenly in Week 1, I think it's a more than fair argument to give Hank Brown the nod again against Iowa State. While it was heavily impacted by the ground game, Iowa did score on its first three drives with Hank Brown under center.

The offense looked smooth and under control with him leading the huddle. On paper, he did outperform Jeremy Hecklinski slightly, but drops and game situations factor into that. Going off the box score alone is a dangerous game.

Iowa could go this entire week without naming a starter, and honestly, it wouldn't shock me if that's what happened. But behind closed doors, my gut and my eye-test judgment from yesterday say to give Hank Brown the nod again in Week 2 until he makes you go another route.

Could Iowa shuffle kickers?

All offseason, Caden Buhr and Eli Ozick, the North Dakota State transfer, battled for the starting kicking duties. As Kirk Ferentz said last week, a large part of giving the Week 1 nod to Caden Buhr was his consistency.

Unfortunately, a missed extra point and a missed 53-yard field goal show some weakness in that consistency. With how close the Cy-Hawk is, as five of the last eight were decided by three points or less, field goal kicking proves vital.

Iowa has been on the wrong side of made field goals the last two seasons against the Iowa State Cyclones. The Hawkeyes can't go into this matchup with question marks at kicker when the pressure in a tight game is only going to turn up.

How good is Iowa State?

The Cyclones opened up against Southeast Missouri State, which went as one would expect. The Cyclones jumped out to a 28-0 lead at halftime and put things on cruise control. Still, this game tells us a bit about the Cyclones.

A handful of things stand out when looking at this game. Jaylen Raynor looked explosive, but 8-for-16 against a team like this isn't what you want to see. The Iowa defense will only make life harder in the passing game.

The bigger issue I see is that Iowa State was only able to muster up 108 rushing yards on 31 carries. That's just 3.5 yards per carry. Iowa allowed 0.2 yards per carry and could have an opportunity to put a lot of pressure on Jaylen Raynor and Iowa State's passing attack if it can stop early-down runs.

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