A pair of Big Ten teams will open up their conference slates this weekend as the Iowa Hawkeyes (2-1) travel east to face the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (3-0) in Friday night’s marquee college football game.
The Hawkeyes have found little resistance this season in wins over Albany and UMass. Their lone loss was to the Iowa State Cyclones, dropping a 16-13 decision to their fierce in-state rivals.
Rutgers struggled in their season-opening game against a tougher-than-expected Ohio team, hanging on for a 34-31 victory. Since that matchup, the Scarlet Knights have outscored opponents 105-27 in back-to-back blowout wins.
Will Iowa or Rutgers open their 2025 Big Ten Conference slate with a victory? We’ll cover that and provide bettors with our top three player props for this Friday matchup.
Quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis piloted Rutgers to a winning campaign last season, and the senior is looking to duplicate those efforts in 2025. He’s off to a great start, completing nearly 73 percent of his passes for 820 yards, seven touchdowns, and no interceptions.
His biggest test will be against the Hawkeyes. In two previous meetings, Iowa held him to a combined 213 passing yards. Those games were against Minnesota, however. Expect him to easily surpass that combined total on Friday night as Rutgers asks its senior leader to propel the team to a Big Ten victory.
Junior Jaziun Patterson looks to be the next NFL-ready Hawkeye running back. This season, he’s rushed 28 times for 161 yards in three games, numbers that are almost half what he produced for Iowa last season.
What’s keeping Patterson from posting even larger numbers is freshman Xavier Williams. This year, the Hawkeyes have been content with splitting carries between Patterson and Williams. Expect that time share to continue on Friday night, but Patterson will cover his player prop bet against Rutgers.
Iowa imported former South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski, hoping the two-time FCS national champion would improve the Hawkeyes’ offense. Thus far, that hasn’t happened. Through three games, Gronowski has completed just 58.7 percent of his passes for 306 yards.
When the signal-caller is passing, Jacob Gill has been his top target. The 6-foot senior from Raleigh has a team-best seven receptions for 80 yards. That’s following last year’s 35-catch, 411-yard performance in his first season wearing an Iowa uniform.
The Hawkeyes rarely pass, preventing Gill from having better stats. In Iowa’s lone good matchup, Gill recorded five receptions for 52 yards, showing he’s capable of having a strong outing. Expect him to do so again on Friday night, covering this receiving prop bet.
Iowa is traditionally a problem in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes play great defense and have an excellent special teams unit. Offense has often been Iowa’s glaring weakness, and it's especially true this year.
Rutgers doesn’t have an elite defense, but Iowa’s opponents just need to be effective run stoppers. The Scarlet Knights have limited opposing running backs to 82 yards per game on average.
The team would be allowing just 3.8 yards per rush to running backs if not for a pair of long runs from Ohio in the season-opener. That is effective enough to slow down the Hawkeyes, and bettors should take Rutgers to cover this spread in an outright win on Friday.