It's Penn State-Iowa week: Game time, spread, channel, streaming info, storylines, more

Penn State goes on the road for the second time this season when it travels to Iowa to take on the Hawkeyes Saturday at Kinnick Stadium. The Nittany Lions are now 3-3 after losing to Northwestern 22-21 two days ago at Beaver Stadium. The Hawkeyes, meanwhile, shut out Wisconsin 37-0 to improve to 4-2. Terry Smith is the interim head coach after James Franklin was fired on Sunday.

“Penn State Football is an integral part of our University and is an important part of the lives of our millions of fans, community members and alumni around the world,” Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft said. “We have the best college football fans in America, a rich tradition of excellence, significant investments in our program, compete in the best conference in college sports and have a state-of-the-art renovated stadium on the horizon. I am confident in our future and in our ability to attract elite candidates to lead our program.”

Our early preview gets you ready to start game week below.

Time and TV info

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. ET. Peacock will stream the game exclusively. That means there will be no over-the-air television option. As of the time of this post’s publication, the broadcast crew is not yet out.

What is the Penn State-Iowa point spread?

Iowa is favored by three points at BetMGM. The betting total over/under is 38.5 points.

Game week schedule for the Lions

Penn State interim head coach Terry Smith will kick off game week with a news conference at 12:15 p.m. ET on Monday. Kraft will speak before him about firing Franklin and promoting Smith at Noon ET. Both will speak from the media room at Beaver Stadium, and you’ll be able to watch it on the Blue-White Illustrated YouTube channel by 12:45 if you click here.

Tuesday will bring with it some player interviews with reporters via Zoom. Wednesday will feature some, as well, before a practice viewing availability for the media, followed by Smith and some players speaking in the evening. Thursday features an assistant coach media call and Franklin’s weekly radio show. Then, the talking is done until after the game.

As for Iowa, Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz speaks with reporters on Tuesday in Iowa City.

What’s up with the Hawkeyes?

Iowa plays good defense and can run the ball a bit. That is bad news, given Penn State’s weaknesses right now. Of course, there is a part of me that, like you, is having a hard time diving into the detailed X’s and O’s of this game at this juncture. The Lions will be starting redshirt freshman Ethan Grunkemeyer for the first time after Drew Allar suffered a season-ending injury against the Wildcats. The attack is directionless as it is. And the defense looks lost and disjointed as it has all season. As for Iowa, they still have no passing attack but are stingy as always on defense.

So, with all of that said, we’ll simply share some stat info with you about the Iowa offense and defense:

Scoring offense: No. 53 (30.7 points per game)

Rushing/passing offense: Nos. 43 and 130 (out of 134), respectively

Scoring defense: No. 8 (13 points per game)

Rushing/passing defense: Nos. 5 and 22, respectively

Weather report

Per Weather.com, a beautiful October day looks to be in the cards. The forecast reads as follows: “Mainly sunny. High 67F. Winds light and variable.”

Early Penn State-Iowa storylines

–How will Penn State play without James Franklin and with Terry Smith and the rest of the staff in charge? We’ve seen UCLA beat the Lions with new life from an interim head coach.

–Will any other staff members depart?

–What will Ethan Grunkemeyer look like in his first game as the Penn State starting quarterback? And how will the offense change with him leading the charge?

–What’s your top storyline to start the week? Tell us inside The Lions Den forum!