Minnesota vs. Iowa
Free Pick: Minnesota +11 -110 betting odds
Visit Touthouse.com for more college football picks from Ted Sevransky

Iowa has fought the good fight this year. The Hawkeyes were expected to be a mid-level Big 10 team. Instead, Kirk Ferentz guided his squad to a 9-0 record to start the season, putting the Hawkeyes in the middle of the national championship discussion. A home loss to Northwestern two weeks ago ended that discussion. An OT loss at Ohio State last week ended their Rose Bowl hopes. Now, all the Hawkeyes are is a tired (no bye week), banged up (starting QB Ricky Stanzi is out), shell of the squad they were a month ago.

Let’s not forget how grueling this stretch has been for the Hawkeyes, playing their twelfth consecutive Saturday. They rallied from behind to beat Wisconsin. They rallied from behind twice in the fourth quarter, winning on the last play of the game at Michigan State. They rallied from behind against Indiana, needing a near miracle to win the game at all, after trailing by three scores in the second half. Iowa tried to rally from behind in the Northwestern loss, another ‘down-to-the-wire’ finish. And, last week, they rallied from behind once again, falling short in OT at the Horseshoe in Columbus. Yes, that’s five straight ‘barnburner’ type ballgames.

The Hawkeyes have not been good favorites this year, despite all of the winning. They were 21 point chalk against Arkansas State, but won by a single field goal. They couldn’t cover as a TD+ favorite against Michigan, despite five Wolverines turnovers. Their cover as double digit chalk against Indiana was arguably the single most fraudulent pointspread cover of the entire college football season, and they followed that up with a home loss as two TD favorites against Northwestern. This Iowa team is not poised for a big blowout win and cover on senior day.

Minnesota lost 55-0 at home to the Hawkeyes last year, by far their worst loss of the season, a loss that they are still talking about one year later. Tight end Nick Tow-Arnett: “To get beat like that … it still hurts. We’re a lot stronger now than at the end of last year. Defensive tackle Eric Small: “They probably don’t respect us very much….”. Linebacker Nate Triplett: “It wasn’t so much shock as being really disappointed in the way we had played. It was a big rival and we weren’t in the game….I love it (to beat Iowa on Saturday). It would make my career.” Minnesota is certainly not the better team on paper, but games aren’t played on paper. (#323) 2* Take Minnesota.