Iowa
2-0AP #18Big Ten · Kirk Ferentz, year 28 (215-128) · Kinnick Stadium · 69,250 · 69,250 avg in 2026
LastW 16–13 vs Iowa State · Sat Sep 12 · Hank Brown 191 pass yds, 22 rush yds, 1 TD
Nextvs Northern Iowa · Sat Sep 19 · 4 pm ET · Kinnick Stadium · series 17-0, won the last 17 · Game preview
Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2
All 76 stats
FBS rankings · 2026 season · all stats vs 136 FBS programs
| Player | # | G | Cmp/Att | Pct | Yds | Y/A | TD | INT | Rate | ZPR | QBR | Adj ANY/A | Sack% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0.20 EPA/play | 9 | 2 | 33 / 50 | 66 | 320 | 6.4 | 1 | 0 | 126.4 | 56 | 34.2 | 6.8 | 0 | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||||||
| +0.32 EPA/play | 10 | 1 | 7 / 16 | 43.8 | 76 | 4.8 | 1 | 1 | 91.8 | — | — | — | — | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||||||
| Player | # | G | Car | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | Stuff% | 10+% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| +0.37 EPA/play | 28 | 2 | 26 | 240 #10 FBS | 9.2 | 2 #43 FBS | 50 | — | — | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||||
| Player | # | G | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | Long | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Possession Receiver · +0.19 EPA/play | 14 | 2 | 15 | 179 #39 FBS | 11.9 | 1 | 56 | |
Yards by week → Possession Receiver· Boom-or-bustReliable target who converts on critical downs. Not flashy; consistently productive. his yards come in chunks — feast or famine The most common profile in its group this season — 37 of 58 classified this way. Played in 2 of 3 games this season · junior View Tony Diaz's full player page | ||||||||
| +0.15 EPA/play | 81 | 2 | 6 | 67 | 11.2 | 0 | 16 | |
Yards by week → | ||||||||
| 2 | 2 | 5 | 64 | 12.8 | 0 | 16 | ||
Yards by week → | ||||||||
| Player | # | G | Tot | Solo | TFL | Sack | Hur |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 |
| Player | # | G | Tot | Solo | Ast | TFL | Sack | PD | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sideline-to-Sideline | 33 | 2 | 21 | 13 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Sideline-to-SidelineRanges from hash to hash and makes his own tackles. 8 of 84 LBs we've classified this way this season. Season receipt Solo tackle rate0.6 86th percentile · FBS linebackers, min. 15 tackles Tackle volume21 79th percentile · FBS linebackers, min. 15 tackles Trait fingerprint Plays like View Cam Buffington's full player page | |||||||||
| 36 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 23 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | |
| Player | # | G | Tot | PD | INT | TFL | Sack |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 2 | 7 | 4 #2 FBS | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 #22 FBS | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| 11 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.5 | 0 | |
| 5 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Player | # | G | FG M/A | FG% | XP M/A | Pts | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92 | 2 | 5/6 | 83.3 | 5/6 | 20 | 45 |
| Player | # | G | No | Yds | Avg | Long | In20 | TB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 49 | 2 | 9 | 395 | 43.9 | 51 | 6 | 1 |
Net average is unavailable — CFBD's punting feed carries gross yards only, with no return-yardage or touchback deduction.
| Player | # | G | No | Yds | Avg | TD | Long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -0.40 EPA/play | 8 | 2 | 3 | 108 | 36 | 1 | 77 |
| 2 | 2 | 4 | 39 | 9.8 | 0 | 15 |
2026 stat leaders · Iowa
through 2 games
2026 stat leaders · IowaCam Buffington leads Iowa with 21 tackles through 2 games.
How They Play · 2025Iowa fields a limited run-heavy, methodical, ball-control offense behind an elite, bend-don't-break defense.
Percentile vs all FBS, based on this season's per-game production. Bar = where this team ranks — right is better.
Iowa reads strongest in explosive plays allowed (top 4%) and epa allowed (top 11%); the crux lives in explosive plays, where Iowa sits at the 2nd percentile.
offense · strengths lead
defense · higher bar = harder to play against
hidden math · special situations
Home-field advantage · Iowa · 2018–present · FBS opponents
Iowa is worth +2.9 points more at home than on the road.
Bottom third of FBS, 28th percentile of 133 programs
76% at home, 63% away against FBS opponents since 2018 (39–12 home, 24–14 away). Interval ±3.8.
Our model gives every stadium the same flat 2.3-point home edge — per-team modelling was tested and did not survive scrutiny (why) — and the books use about 3. Against the closing line, Iowa has beaten the number by −4.0 more at home than away over 72 games — inside the ±6.3 that many games can resolve. Results here cannot tell the flat number apart from the building, and that is the honest reading of nearly every FBS stadium.
Kinnick Stadium seats 69,250 and has averaged 100% full (69,250, 30 games reported). Visitors get here easily: a median 274 miles trip since 2018, the 25th-shortest of 135 FBS venues. There is no travel penalty on visitors here either way. 15% of the 2026 roster (15 of 103 located players) grew up inside 100 miles of the stadium.
Edge = half the gap between average home margin and average road margin, FBS opponents only, non-neutral games since 2018; the interval is 95%. Market line: closing spread, seasons with lines on file. Trip length is straight-line miles from the visiting team's campus to the venue, measured across all 55 home games since 2018.
More in this tab
Scheme claims
Fourth-quarter reliability, corrected
Iowa's 4th-quarter offense, before and after garbage time
Raw Q4 EPA/play ranks 11th percentile in FBS. Strip out snaps taken with a blowout margin and it climbs to the 34th — the correction is the finding, not a footnote.
Tendency drift
Season by season
How Iowa’s current staff calls plays, year over year
Pass defense by zone
Pass-depth identity
What this team throws, and gives up, by depth.
On short throws (≤19 air yards), Iowa’s passing game completes a completion rate below the FBS mean (67.8% vs 68.3% league-wide, shrunk toward the mean for its 61-play sample) — mid-pack, 17 of 41 qualifying offenses.
We won’t show a deep-ball (20+ air yards) leaderboard here, on either side of the ball: even a full season of charted plays gives most teams well under 30 deep attempts — too thin to tell a real tendency from noise, so we won’t guess. Same refusal for yards-after-catch allowed and where a team’s attempts land by zone: both measured and both came back statistically indistinguishable from season-to-season noise.
Ratings
Comparable teams
Most similar programs · Iowa
Most similar programs · IowaReads like
Matched on how the programs are built — tier, prestige band, kind of fanbase, conference, voice and roster size — not on this season's stats. A calibration, not a prediction.
Conditions
62°F average kickoff temp; 5% of games had measurable precipitation; 9 mph average wind.
Based on 84 home games with weather data.