College GameDay podcast makes picks for Oregon at Iowa

On Saturday, No. 9 Oregon will march into Iowa City to square off against the No. 20 Hawkeyes. Ahead of the matchup, ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Rece Davis revealed their predictions for the pivotal Big Ten showdown.

“I’m going to take Iowa,” Thamel said on the College GameDay Podcast. “The talent of Oregon, I cannot dismiss. The inexperience, I also cannot ignore. And, I really think that this is going to be a giant test for Dante Moore; a young, inexperienced, unproven receiver crew; an offensive line that’s found a nice niche, but they certainly haven’t felt anything like Kinnick [Stadium] yet.

“If you look at what Iowa did, dragging [Indiana] in the mud, I think they could do the same. Except, I think they can find a way both to take them to deep water and to drown the Ducks.”

Iowa nearly downed Indiana in September. The Hawkeyes held a 13-10 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Hoosiers ultimately rallied and escape with a 20-15 victory.

Instead of allowing the loss to cause them to spiral, the Hawkeyes have only improved since then. Most recently, Iowa dominated Minnesota in a 42-3 blowout. In the win, Iowa held Minnesota to 133 total yards of offense.

After Oregon’s lackluster performance against Wisconsin in Week 9, Thamel is buying into Iowa’s momentum. However, not everybody’s as convinced the Hawkeyes will pull off the upset Saturday.

“Interesting pick. Maybe I’m just going to need to see it,” Davis said. “I agree with you on all counts—the experience, the difficulty of the environment, the improvement of the Iowa offense and the level of play that we’ve consistently seen from the Iowa defense. All of this will keep this a low-scoring game.

“It’ll be a very similar game to the one that Iowa played against Indiana, and it will have a similar result—minus the run of 50 yards in the wrong direction to take the intentional safety at the end of the game. I will take Oregon to win a close game on the road.”

Oregon’s 21-7 win over Wisconsin was underwhelming, but it was a rainy day and quarterback Dante Moore suffered an injury that sidelined him for part of the game. After enjoying a bye last week, Oregon will be re-energized heading into the Week 11 matchup.

The two teams will clash at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday. The game will air live on CBS.