2013 Record: 8-5

2014 Las Vegas Season Win Total: 8.5*

2014 Season Win Total Picks NCAA Football: 'Over'

It seems like Kirk Ferentz has been on the hot seat for a decade. But the Iowa head coach is entering his 16^th season at the helm in Iowa City and will once again try to live up to the very modest goals the program has set for itself. Iowa has gone just 27-24 over the past four season and 59-43 over the past eight years.

Iowa is crossing its fingers and hoping that quarterback Jake Rudock can show improvement in his second year as a starter. He is one of seven offensive starters back for the Hawkeyes and they have to be better than last year's No. 84 total offense and No. 80 scoring offense. Defensively they have five starters back from last year's stellar Top 10 unit. They will have a hard time replacing an outstanding linebacker unit, though, and I expect the Hawkeyes to relent a bit more on that side of the ball.

Iowa opens with three straight home games. After a rivalry game with Iowa State they hit the road to face Pittsburgh, followed by an easy roadie at Purdue. Iowa has bye weeks prior to key home games against Indiana and Northwestern and winnable road games at Maryland, Minnesota and Illinois.

Home games with Wisconsin and Nebraska finish out this year's slate.

I think that this is one of the easier schedules in the country. So even if Iowa is just a little better than average then can still top the eight wins they mustered last year. The defense will be worse. But the offense should be better. And because they avoid just about every good team in the Big Ten I think that this team will have a strong season and go 'over'.

(And if they can't win nine or more games this year then Ferentz should be fired.)

2014 Iowa Hawkeyes Schedule

DATE OPPONENT TIME (ET) Location Result

Sat, Aug 30th, 2014 Northern Iowa TBA Kinnick Stadium

Sat, Sep 6th, 2014 Ball State TBA Kinnick Stadium

Sat, Sep 13th, 2014 Iowa State TBA Kinnick Stadium

Sat, Sep 20th, 2014 at Pittsburgh TBA Heinz Field

Sat, Sep 27th, 2014 at Purdue 12:00 PM Ross-Ade Stadium

Sat, Oct 11th, 2014 Indiana 12:00 PM Kinnick Stadium

Sat, Oct 18th, 2014 at Maryland 12:00 PM Capital One Field at Byrd Stadium

Sat, Nov 1st, 2014 Northwestern TBA Kinnick Stadium

Sat, Nov 8th, 2014 at Minnesota TBA TCF Bank Stadium

Sat, Nov 15th, 2014 at Illinois TBA Memorial Stadium

Sat, Nov 22nd, 2014 Wisconsin TBA Kinnick Stadium

Sat, Nov 29th, 2014 Nebraska TBA Kinnick Stadium

All Times EST

*Season Win Total Odds from Raphael Esparza. Esparza was a Las Vegas sportsbook manager for 13 years at some of the largest books on The Strip. He is a proven oddsmaker and this is his projected total.

Robert Ferringo was the top football handicapper in the country last year, earning nearly $8,000 in total football profit in 2013-14 and posting one of the best seasons in America. He hit 62.1 percent for the entire NFL season (95-58) and was amazing down the stretch, closing with 11 of 14 winning NFL weeks and 12 of 15 overall winning football weeks. Robert has posted 3 of 4 winning football seasons, 6 of 7 winning NFL seasons, 30 of 44 winning football months, and 6 of 7 winning NFL preseasons. Also, Robert's proprietary KING College Football Betting System posted another winning season (now 2-for-2) and is 83-58 over the last two years (58.9 percent).

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