Illinois vs. Iowa football preview

Fighting Illini look to bounce back in hosting Iowa

Last week the Fighting Illini were guilty of handing the Wisconsin Badgers their first conference victory of the season. Now, back at the .500 mark, the Illini go home and look to get back on the winning track against the Iowa Hawkeyes. This match-up will feature 2 of the better rushing attacks in the country as each team averages just under 200 yards per game on the ground. For the Illini, the rushing attack is spread out but lead by Daniel Dufrene and Juice Williams while RB Shonne Greene sees most of the touches for the Hawkeyes. He has already amassed 1,154 rushing yards on just 177 carries. He’s averaging 6.5 yards every time he is given the football in the backfield. This is whom the Illini should focus all of their attention on, as Iowa does not contain any major threats in the air attack.

> Buy Illini hats & merchandise online through Big Ten Fans as well as 2008 Illinois Fighting Illini football tickets.

Iowa is coming off back-to-back blowout victories against Indiana and the team that just defeated the Illini, the Wisconsin Badgers. Greene really showed what he could do last week rushing for a career high 217 yards and crossing the goal line on 4 separate occasions. The Hawkeyes run a pretty efficient offense led by the efforts of Greene and a quarterback who does not turn the ball over very much in Ricky Stanzi. If the Illini wish to get revenge on the Hawkeyes after a 10-6 loss last season they must stop the run and Juice must keep moving the chains and take care of the football. However, I think the loss last week has resulted in a negative momentum shift and I see the Hawkeyes coming into Memorial Stadium and improving their record to 6-3.

Prediction: Iowa 27 - Illinois 24

By Zack Estes
BigTen-fans.com Illinois Correspondent

> Check out the rest of the Big Ten football coverage here at Big Ten Fans!

> Check the weekly Big Ten scores & Big Ten standings here at Big Ten Fans!