‘Big Ten football at its finest’: Hawkeyes relishing trip to Penn State

The Hawkeyes open up their Big Ten schedule with arguably the toughest game on their schedule: A trip to State College to face the seventh-ranked Nittany Lions on prime-time television.

For defensive back Sebastian Castro, this is what it’s all about.

“It’s Big Ten football at its finest,” Castro said. “I’m just going to soak it all in because not everyone has this opportunity — especially to play in the Big Ten. Moments like these, and it’s a night game. It’s going to be a good one. I’m going just try and be as present as I can be.”

Iowa comes in as heavy underdogs taking on one of the best offenses in the country. They’re also taking on one of the toughest environments in college football — the white out game. 110,000 fans roaring against the Hawkeyes. Running back Leshon Williams doesn’t think it matters.

“We ain’t no underdogs,” Williams said. “They’ve got to play us too. They put their pants on the same way we do. We’ve got athletes, they’ve got athletes. We’re both Division I programs. We are a good football team. They’re a good football team. Just another game, truthfully.”

“We are very fired up,” Logan Lee said. “We got a great group of guys right now that are preparing really hard. Everybody’s super excited. But it’s not a whole lot different than the weeks previous, just because we know the most important opponent is the one we’re playing this week.”

“It’s another opportunity for us to go show how hard we’ve been working,” Jay Higgins said. “We’ve been working, there is no real offseason, and we work hard in fall camp. So it’s just another opportunity to show how much you’ve been sacrificing.”

Head coach Kirk Ferentz has played in the whiteout game before in 2009. He’s an even 5-5 against Penn State over his career in Happy Valley and 10-8 overall. And he’s not giving this the ‘it’s just another game’ treatment.

“It’s about as good as it gets in college football to play at State College,” Ferentz said. “It’s a great football environment and then you throw in a whiteout on top of it. We’ve been through a couple of those now. If you love college football, it’s just one of the great venues and great experiences — and great opportunity.”

Kickoff in State College is at 6:30 p.m. CST on CBS, which can be seen in the Quad Cities area on Local 4 WHBF.

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