Iowa didn't need much time to show what a rebuilt Northern Illinois roster was walking into — the Hawkeyes led by 20 before the first quarter ended and never let up.
Northern Illinois arrived at Kinnick Stadium in the middle of an offseason overhaul. Thomas Hammock, the coach who built the program into a MAC contender, left in February to become the Seattle Seahawks' running backs coach, which bumped defensive coordinator Rob Harley into the interim job just months before kickoff. NIU is also playing its first season in the Mountain West after years in the MAC, and the roster reflects the transition — the Huskies returned just 4 starters from a 3-9 team, and all 4 play offense. That left an entirely rebuilt defense to face a Big Ten favorite on the road, and it showed from the opening series.
+Furman transfer Evan James adds a return-game weapon
−Season openers can expose rust for favorites too
−Unproven backfield depth behind Moulton untested against real competition
Iowa quarterback Hank Brown didn't have to force much. Running back Kamari Moulton set a career high with 132 rushing yards, and he got there in the first 11 minutes of the game. Brown found Tony Diaz for a touchdown through the air, and Furman transfer Evan James added a 77-yard punt return score that pushed the margin to 40. By halftime Iowa had already piled up 372 yards of total offense on its own.
NIU's new-look defense had no answer, but the bigger story was how little the Huskies' offense — the unit with the actual returning experience — managed to do about it. Running back Telly Johnson was the name to watch coming in, and the market had already priced this as one of the most lopsided games on the September schedule.
The final numbers made the eye test look conservative. Iowa finished with 507 total yards to Northern Illinois's 120, picked up 27 first downs to NIU's 7, and held the Huskies to just 7 rushing yards on the day. Two Iowa takeaways compounded the mess for a Northern Illinois offense that never found a rhythm behind an interim staff still settling in.
It's one data point in a long season for both programs, but it's an emphatic one for Iowa heading into Big Ten play, and a rough introduction to life in the Mountain West for a Northern Illinois team that will need its offensive returners to be a lot better than this if it wants to avoid a long fall.
