Iowa Hawkeyes vs Tennessee Volunteers Prediction, Odds and Picks

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Happy New Year! What better way to celebrate the new calendar year than watching college football? We are looking at the Cheez-IT Citrus Bowl in a matchup between the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Tennessee Volunteers. Iowa finished the season going 10-3 and the Volunteers finished with a record of 8-4. This game should be an intriguing matchup of different head coaching styles. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz is the classic Big 10 coach, slowing the game down and pounding the football up the middle with the running game. Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel likes to speed the game up and play no huddle. Heupel’s complex and quick offensive scheme could be difficult for quarterback Nico Iamaleava to succeed in his first start of the 2023 season. Joe Milton III has opted out of Monday’s matchup to prepare for the upcoming NFL draft. This leaves the question if Heupel will need to adapt his offense at all to adjust to the new quarterback.

So what do we know for this game? We know that the best unit that will take the field for this game will be Iowa’s defense. Iowa ranked first in college football in defense rating. Iowa finished the season holding opponents to an outstanding 13.23 points per game. That number is even more impressive when you consider how poorly Iowa’s offense has played this season. Iowa punter Tory Taylor got his work this season, punting the ball 86 times in 12 games this season for Iowa. Despite these documented offensive struggles, I still like the Iowa Hawkeyes in this game. The matchup I like most is Iamaleava against the Iowa defense. A quarterback making his first start against a defense like Iowa is a recipe for disaster. A category that Tennessee was able to use to find success is not turning the football over. They ranked 39th in the FBS with only 15 giveaways. This number has a good chance of increasing on Monday. Another statistic that is scaring me away from Tennessee’s line is Tennessee ranks 131st in penalties while Iowa is one of the least penalized teams, ranking 5th. It may prove to be even more difficult to keep the laundry off the field with a new play caller under center. The old saying is defense wins championships. I’m deciding to back this saying for Monday’s game with Iowa plus the points.

Iowa +6 available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.

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College football handicapper for Pickswise. I am a recent graduate from the University of Minnesota school of journalism, where I covered Golden Gophers sports and athletics.