Saturday’s matchup between No. 4 Penn State and No. 3 Iowa at Kinnick Stadium will be the premier matchup in college football this week. It could be the most anticipated game of the entire regular season.

And people are taking notice.

This meeting between conference rivals marks the first time since Nov. 24, 1962, that a top-five matchup between Big Ten teams does not feature either Michigan or Ohio State. Before the game kicks off at 3:05 p.m. Saturday (the game will air on FOX), check out what is being said about the Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions by analysts and reporters around the country.

Tom Fornelli, CBS Sports: “I have not been shy with my critiques of the Iowa offense this season. It’s a unit that by just about every measure — be it a traditional stat or an advanced metric — has been awful. When asked to drive the length of the field and score a touchdown, Iowa hasn’t been able to do it consistently. However, it’s been more successful after turnovers, which provided shorter fields. I also came away encouraged by what I saw from the Iowa offense against Maryland last week, as it was its best performance of the season.

“Penn State’s defense is better than Maryland’s, but something else in this matchup concerns me. Quarterback Sean Clifford got off to a nice start and exceeded my expectations, but he looked shaky last week against Indiana, even though the Nittany Lions won 24-0. Now I’m being asked to trust him on the road in a tough environment against a defense that forces mistakes more than any other. I have to believe Clifford turns the ball over at least once, and in a game like this one, that might be all it takes. Iowa 21, Penn State 17 | Iowa -1.5.”

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Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated: “With four current unbeatens plus one-loss Ohio State, don’t discount the increasing possibility of at least two Big Ten teams being in the argument deep into the season. The winner of the Iowa–Penn State game Saturday will be elevated into prime position—and if that winner is the Hawkeyes, the rest of the schedule looks manageable. In the East, the five-Saturday stretch from Oct. 30 through Nov. 27 could be all kinds of fun, with Michigan (5–0), Michigan State (5–0), the Nittany Lions (5–0) and the Buckeyes (4–1) all playing three games against one another.”

Ralph D. Russo, Associated Press: “Iowa’s only foray into the teeth of the Big Ten East is against Penn State, so the Hawkeyes have to be feeling good about their chances of reaching the conference title game out of an otherwise uninspiring division.”

Colin Cowherd and Joel Klatt, FOX: 

OK, it wasn’t quite 5 minutes, but here’s the clip of Cowherd and Klatt talking about Kinnick Stadium and Iowa City.

(A shoutout to @TheAirlinerBar from Colin as well!) pic.twitter.com/00iOCMCDz0

— Quinn Douglas (@Quinn_Douglas_) October 6, 2021

Pete Thamel, Yahoo Sports: “Certainly, no one would expect the consistently understated [Kirk] Ferentz to make a bold proclamation that Iowa is in the thick of the playoff race. But it’s clear that this Iowa team has the capability and trajectory to join the other gold-standard Ferentz teams — Orange Bowl teams in 2002 and 2009 and a Rose Bowl team in 2015. And by staying solid, there appears to be a potential path for a team like Iowa in a year when few programs are spectacular.”

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Kirk Herbstreit, ESPN: “Iowa is the MMA fighter. Georgia and Alabama, some of these other teams, they get in the middle of the ring, MMA, boom, they have that knockout that’s in all the highlights, right? Then you’ve got Iowa. Iowa’s the guy that goes in the second round and both sides are bleeding, and then they get you in that inevitable chokehold and you’re like, ‘Oh, my god. Trying to hold on. No, I can’t.’ Tap out. That’s Iowa. That’s the style of football. You can knock Iowa’s style offensively. Brian Ferentz as the OC, the son of Kirk, he calls the game — and Iowa’s been this for millions of years — based on how they play defense. They are trying to consume clock. They’re playing smart. They’re going to convert on third down. They’re going to keep the ball away from you. They’re 100th in the nation in total offense, and that’s exactly where they want to be. They don’t care. And you might look at them if you’re an SEC fan or Big 12, whatever, around the country and be like, ‘Iowa? Oh, man. They’re overrated.’ Until you get in the ring with them, you want no part of ’em.

“So they’ve got Penn State this week, they take care of business. If you make any mistake, Iowa capitalizes with that defense. They give their own offense a short field. That’s the recipe to win games — great defense, don’t give up a big play, win field position, get the short field, kick the field goal, score the touchdown, win the surest way, old-fashioned football that, by the way, still works. And he’s got a great team — Kirk Ferentz, great coach — and don’t knock ’em just because they don’t play a sexy brand of football. It’s effective and they proved it last Friday and the way they played against Maryland.

“And now, they get the big stage and we’ll see how they play against Penn State, who’s coming out on fire with Sean Clifford, as far as confidence. So you couldn’t have two better teams playing each other in an early matchup in October than the way Clifford and Penn State, after the year that they had last year, where it was just the season got away from ’em in a COVID year. And they knew, coming in, ‘This is a new year, fresh start, new offensive coordinator. Not this year. We’re going to be different.’ And they have been. They’re sitting there at 5-0, fourth in the nation and playing great football.”