Joel Klatt predicts Iowa to upset USC

No. 17 USC travels to No. 21 Iowa in a matchup between two teams still vying for a spot in the College Football Playoff. The pair of ranked programs are two of three one-loss teams in Big Ten play.

FOX Sports analyst Joel Klatt ran through his picks for Week 12’s marquee’s matchups and revealed that he’s choosing Iowa to pull off the upset on the road. Klatt doesn’t expect Lincoln Riley’s offense to have the same success they enjoyed during last week’s 38-17 win over Northwestern.

“It’s going to be an insanely frustrating day for USC offense, because they want to be explosive, they want to be high octane and do a bunch of things and do them well. Five-play, six-play drives and get down the field and gain a lot of yards and score a lot of points, and that’s not going to be afforded them against Iowa,” Klatt said on his show.

USC’s offense is currently ranked first in the Big Ten in yards per game with 503.2 — good for second in the country behind the SEC’s Tennessee Volunteers. Their 39.6 points per game is second in the conference only to Indiana. At the same time, the Hawkeyes are allowing teams 250.2 yards per game on average.

“I think they’re going to make life difficult on USC,” Klatt said. “Make them go 10-12, plays in order to score the football. And the weaknesses for USC are specific. It’s about stopping the run, and Iowa’s running the football really well.

“I know that they didn’t against Oregon, but that’s an Oregon defense. That’s one of the better defenses in all of college football, in particular, stopping the run. That’s not the case with USC, it’s just not. So if Iowa wants to run the ball, they will be able to. If they do that, they control the tempo of the game.”

Rushing defense hasn’t been a strength for the Trojans this season, letting teams average 141.7 yards per game on the ground in 2025. The Hawkeyes are one of the better rushing teams in the conference this season with 175.9 yards per game rushing, so Iowa should be able to run the ball against USC.

“It’s just one of those games late in the season I don’t love for the Trojans,” Klatt continued. “… So I like Iowa 19-16 in another Iowa-style game. They win it outright.”

Kickoff between the Trojans and Hawkeyes is set for Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The game will air live on the Big Ten Network.