"We're going to play Iowa. Watching them on tape, a really physical football team. I think a really well-coached offense, line wise. They've been around football a long, long time and it's one of the few offensive lines that I really enjoy watching. Even when I was at the last place, I would always try and get film just to see how synced they are; they do such a good job. The quarterback is playing really well and then defensively their front collectively is the best we've played against. They've got some guys there that are really good football players and then the [Desmond] King kid in the back, he's leading the league in interceptions, he's a ball hawk and I remember being involved in recruitment with him back then when he was from Detroit so really a good player. For our kids, we've just got to stay with the process; understand what we're trying to do every day and I think they'll do that. I think they're buying in pretty well for us. We've got an opportunity to go up there and play a really good Iowa team so that's exciting." - Bill Cubit talking about Illinois' upcoming game with Iowa during his weekly media conference on Monday
Bill Cubit lead Western Michigan to the 28-19 win to close out the 2007 season against the Hawkeyes. He is 1-1 vs. Iowa. He is a good offensive minded coach and has a lot of respect for Iowa, especially the offense line work over the years.
• D-Fence: The Fighting Illini defense over the first five games has shown vast improvement since last season. The same can be said about Iowa's defense.
» The Illini rank in the top-25 nationally in nine different stat categories, including blocked kicks (1), third down defense (4), TFLs (15), interceptions (18), passing efficiency defense (19), total defense (21), first downs allowed (23), scoring defense (23) and turnovers gained (24).
» Through five games in 2014, the Illini were allowing 468.6 ypg and 35.0 ppg. This season, they're allowing 303.4 ypg and 17.8 ppg through five games.
» The Illini have forced 31 three-and-out drives this season (6.2 per game), tied for the fifth-most in FBS. Illinois forced 44 three-and-out drives in all of 2014 (3.4 per game).
» The Illini rank fourth in the nation in third down conversion defense, allowing just 17 first downs in 78 third down attempts this season (.218).
Iowa beat Illinois 30-14. The Hawkeyes should win again, but the 16 point difference may drop to 8-10 points, who knows. But, there have been some real bad games, back in the 1980s, with Illinois.
Iowa is 6-3 against Illinois under Kirk Ferentz. The all-time record is 38-30-2 in favor of the Fighting Illini.
Iowa had a five game winning streak, until the loss at Illinois in 2008. Longest in the series ...
Iowa owns a one game winning streak now.
