Can the Hawkeyes Bounce Back on Short Week in Washington?

While there was certainly plenty of optimism around Iowa City last weekend with all the festivities and fresh off a thrilling win in Ann Arbor, things came crashing down on the Hawkeyes in a big way Saturday. It looked like we might get a reverse woodshed moment for a stretch as Hank Brown fumbled on the first series and set up an easy scoring opportunity for an Ohio State team that needs absolutely no help finding the endzone. After making things interesting for a couple quarters, the Buckeyes hit the gas before halftime and never looked back.

Iowa’s reward for the thumping in Kinnick is a short turnaround on a trip two time zones to the west coast as they travel to Washington for an 8pm kick on Friday night. Historically speaking, that’s been a recipe for disaster.

Iowa has not won a regular-season game west of the Rockies since September 12, 1987, when Chuck Hartlieb’s first career start produced a 15-14 escape at Arizona. Since then the Hawkeyes are 0-for-6 out west in the regular season (lest we forget the 49-24 dominance in the 2019 Holiday Bowl against USC) – Hawaii in 1988, Oregon in 1994, Arizona State in 2004, Arizona in 2010, UCLA in 2024 and USC just last season. Under Kirk Ferentz alone, Iowa is 0-4 in true road games played in Pacific or Mountain time. And the closest thing to a precedent for this exact spot came two years ago: a Saturday home game followed by a Friday night on the west coast, which ended with Iowa losing at the Rose Bowl to a not good UCLA team.

Perhaps just as concerning for Iowa as the short week and a trip to the left coast is where things stand after last weekend. Iowa managed just 39 yards on the ground against OSU, the third straight time a Power Four front has smothered the run game (93 against Iowa State, 58 at Michigan, 39 on Saturday).

The more pressing damage report concerns the quarterback. Hank Brown was sacked multiple times, took a shot 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 seem to point to a strong possibility of Jeremy Hecklinski getting the start in Seattle.

So why isn’t this a eulogy? A few reasons. While the Friday night trip to Seattle isn’t ideal, Iowa is 13-5 all-time in regular-season Friday games and has won 13 of its last 15 dating back to 2015 (thanks Nebraska!). And the recent history of bouncing back from top-5 beatdowns offers the single most comforting stat of the week. Ferentz-era Iowa is 4-5 in the next game after losing to a top-5 team, but the most recent example is the one that matters: in 2024, the Hawkeyes followed a 35-7 loss at Ohio State by hammering Washington 40-16 the next week. Same bruise, same opponent, same prescription for a bounce back.

As for this year’s Washington opponent, they’re 3-2, 0-2 in the Big Ten and unranked after losing two straight by a combined seven points. The Minnesota loss came at home as double-digit favorites. The USC loss was crueler – Washington led by double digits in the second half, then watched a Demond Williams Jr. scramble turn into a 48-yard scoop-and-score the other way and never scored again over the final 28+ minutes.

The deeper story in Seattle is an offense that has stopped looking like a Jedd Fisch offense. Fisch declined to replace his offensive coordinator this offseason and calls the plays himself and the results rank in the 80s nationally in total offense and 130th in the country on third down conversions at just 29%. The ground game sits among the bottom 15 teams nationally at 109 yards per game, the offensive line has allowed the second-most sacks in the Big Ten and four Husky running backs are banged up.

Williams remains the sun around which the whole thing orbits – he’s completing 67.5% of his throws with 8 touchdowns with 3 picks and leads the team in rushing attempts. But his three big passing days came against Washington State, Utah State and an FCS opponent. Against the two real defenses he’s seen it’s been a different story. Minnesota sacked him seven times and USC held him to a season-low 198 yards.

That profile should tell you how Phil Parker will approach Friday: make Williams play from the pocket behind a line that can’t protect him and get off the field on third down against what may be the worst third-down offense Iowa will face all year. On the other side, Washington’s defense has been respectable (18.4 points a game allowed) but hasn’t seen a potent rushing attack yet (I’ll refrain from calling Minnesota’s such despite their commitment to the run). After three straight weeks of elite fronts, this is the get-right spot Iowa’s ground game has been waiting for.

The stage itself will do some heavy lifting. Husky Stadium markets itself as the greatest setting in college football, perched over Lake Washington with a few thousand fans arriving by boat, and a Friday night crowd with the sport’s full attention won’t hurt. The folks in the desert have wobbled on this one all week – the lookahead line opened at Washington -1.5, stretched to -3.5 after Iowa’s loss and has settled back around -2.5 with a total of 41.5. That’s an implied final score of about 22-19, which is to say Vegas expects a rock fight decided by a field goal. ESPN’s computers actually lean Iowa despite the spread.

A one-score game in a loud stadium, on a short week, with a backup quarterback possibly making his first career road start. It has all the makings of either the most gutting loss of the season or the kind of win that convinces the committee the Michigan game was real. The 2024 blueprint says run it back.

Here’s a look at the details for Saturday’s matchup.

Date: Friday, October 9th
Time: 8:00 pm CT
Matchup: #20 Iowa Hawkeyes (4-1, 1-1) at Washington Huskies (3-2, 0-2)
Location: Husky Stadium – Seattle, Washington
TV: FS1
Updated Weather Forecast: Mostly sunny with temps in the upper 50s
FanDuel Opening Line: Washington -1.5, O/U 41.5

Series History

Iowa leads the all-time series 4-3 and has won two straight, including the 40-16 win in 2024 at Kinnick, the largest margin either way in the series. Washington’s wins carry some scar tissue – the Huskies took both Rose Bowl meetings, 28-0 in 1982 and 46-34 in 1991.

But Friday is about the road trips and Iowa has made exactly two in series history. The 1963 visit produced a 17-7 win in which Jay Roberts drilled what was then the longest field goal in program history. The 1937 trip ended in a 14-0 loss, but earned its footnote anyway. That game was the varsity debut of a sophomore halfback named Nile Kinnick.

Thus, while Iowa hasn’t one a regular season west of the Rockies since 1987, Washington hasn’t beaten Iowa at home since 1937. One of those streaks has to end on Friday night.