#5 Iowa Hawkeyes at Maryland Terrapins Game Center

The Iowa Hawkeyes had a struggle on Saturday as they narrowly defeated the Colorado State Rams 24-14, but they ultimately came away with their 10th consecutive win to start the 2021 season 4-0.

As our own BoilerHawk pointed out over the weekend, this is just the 6th time in the Kirk Ferentz era the Hawkeyes have started the year 4-0. In four of those five previous seasons, the Hawkeyes have gone on to win 10 or more games and finish inside the top-15 nationally (and top-10 in three of those).

Iowa now looks to continue that trend as they travel to College Park in week five for a showdown with 4-0 Maryland. The Terrapins are fresh off a 37-16 win over the same Ken State team Iowa took down 30-6 in week three.

They also boast a 1-0 record in the Big Ten already. The Terps won at Illinois 20-17 in week two. Maryland also has wins over West Virginia and Howard on the season.

Here’s an early look at this week’s matchup.

Date: Friday, October 1st
Time: 7:00pm CT
Matchup: #5 Iowa Hawkeyes (4-0, 1-0) at Maryland Terrapins (4-0, 1-0)
Location: Maryland Stadium, College Park, MD
TV: FS1
Preliminary Weather Forecast: mostly sunny with temps in the upper 40s at kickoff, 8% chance of rain
Opening Line: Iowa -4, O/U 46

History

The Hawkeyes and Terps will face off on Friday for just the fourth time in series history. Iowa leads the all-time series 2-1 and come in riding a two-game winning streak. The last two meetings have come in Iowa City with Friday representing Iowa’s first trip to College Park since 2014. This will be just the second meeting between the two programs in Maryland.

The Terps won the last showdown in College Park - the first meeting between the two programs. That was a 38-31 shootout by Iowa standards. The two meetings in Iowa City have gone much more heavily in Iowa’s favor with an average margin of victory of 19.5 points. In the most recent showdown, Iowa came away with a 23-0 win in Iowa City. That came in 2018.

Despite being in just his third season as head coach at Maryland and no meetings between the Hawkeyes and Terrapins during that period, this is not Mike Locksley’s first matchup against Kirk Ferentz. Locksley was interim head coach at Maryland back in 2015 when the Terps traveled to Iowa City and fell 31-15 to to Iowa. Locksley is 12-43 all-time as a head coach and 10-17 as head coach of Maryland.

Maryland Stadium is one of only two Big Ten stadiums Kirk Ferentz has never won a game in. The other is Ohio Stadium.