By Carter Melrose
The first games in Kinnick are exciting — they mean reunions among alumni and college buddies. Iowa has been criticized about its strength of schedule, so the nonconference games are vital wins. If the Hawkeyes lose, they are seen as a dissolving, would-be powerhouse. If they win, they were supposed to in the first place.
This opening game does bring some intrigue. Football of the past decade has slowly been moving in the direction of pass-happy offenses, and when Iowa squares off against Wyoming on Saturday, this style of play will likely be showcased. Wyoming has a prime-time NFL quarterback prospect on its depth chart, and it will need to use him to steal a win. Here are some statistics to ponder heading into Week 1:
Josh Allen interceptions in 2016:
This says one large thing about the Cowboys’ quarterback: He makes mistakes, and sometimes he makes them in bunches. For instance, in 2016, Wyoming faced its first big challenge of the year, Nebraska. The spotlight was on the inexperienced quarterback to unsheath his pro-style arm and strike fear into the rest of Wyoming’s cupcake schedule.
Josh Allen came out of the locker room and heaved 5 interceptions. Allen also had three more games with at least 2 interceptions in the rest of 2016. This guy plays for the long ball a lot; planning accordingly should minimize the damage he can create.
Rushing yards per game in wins in 2016:
Now, that is a large statistic. When this number gets compared with the average passing yards per game in a win for Wyoming, though, it really starts to paint a picture. In those same wins, Wyoming averaged 240.1 passing yards a game.
This means that even with Allen at the helm of it all, the winning formula was still a dominant running game, a running game with so much command that an NFL prospect such as Allen had to take the back seat to its firepower. This was because of senior running back Brian Hill. He ran for almost 2,000 yards and helped the Cowboys go on a sizable winning streak.
However, Hill graduated and left a hefty opening in the backfield. Though if Allen is as good as projections show, he should have no trouble changing Wyoming’s culture to a pass-first utopia.
Receiving yards from lead returning wide receiver:
C.J. Johnson is the top returning wide receiver, and he only tallied 304 yards in 2016. The Cowboys are shallow at the position. In fact Johnson, a sophomore, is the only receiver on the roster who has scored a touchdown and produced more than 150 yards of offense for the Cowboys.
Even if Allen is a quarterback for the record books, he might not have enough established pass-catchers to dominate the college landscape.
To further the point, Allen’s weapons drop off even further into ambiguity with the returning running backs. Nico Evans, Wyoming’s lead returning back, has had only 25 carries during his first two seasons. The lack of experienced weapons will definitely have weight on the outcome of the game; watch for it.