Iowa vs. Rutgers prediction: Best bet, odds, pick for Friday night’s Big Ten showdown

Greg Schiano’s Rutgers Scarlet Knights will look to run their record to 4-0 with a win over Iowa on Friday night in Piscataway.

The Knights have faced a soft schedule through the first three weeks of the season, but they’ve taken care of business and done so by putting up some crooked numbers.

Rutgers is averaging 46.3 points per game, which is the 13th-best mark in college football.

It’s a fine start to the season, but we’ll learn a lot more about the Scarlet Knights against the Hawkeyes on Friday night.

Iowa vs. Rutgers odds, prediction

There was some buzz around Iowa before the season, thanks to the arrival of quarterback Mark Gronowski.

The transfer from South Dakota State arrived with plenty of hype, causing the good folks around Iowa City to adopt the mantra “Iowa has a quarterback.”

It turns out that the fanbase may have been getting a little ahead of itself, as Gronowski hasn’t lit it up for the Hawkeyes in three games.

Gronowski is 37-for-63 for 306 yards with three touchdowns and one pick through his first three games in FBS.

Things looked especially dire against Iowa State, which was the only stiff opponent Iowa has faced this season.

The defense, as usual, looks splendid.

Bill Connelly’s SP+ metric makes the Hawkeyes the 12th-best unit in the country, well ahead of the offense, which grades out as No. 78 in the country.

Rutgers, meanwhile, is neither great nor bad on either side of the ball.

The Scarlet Knights rank 32nd by SP+ on offense and the defense checks in at 54th.

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Iowa’s defense should be the best unit on the field Friday night, but the Hawkeyes’ offense projects to be the worst.

That sets us up for a classic Big Ten mud fight, which puts value on the Under 45.5.

The Play: Under 45.5 (-115, FanDuel)

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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.