Many people might define the heartland of America as a tough and rugged place filled with hard working laborers. That may be why the Iowa Hawkeyes and Wisconsin Badgers battle it out almost every season for the Heartland Trophy. The two throwback style kind of teams will fight it out in Madison on Saturday and it may be the most hyped matchup in the rivalry series since the Badgers came to Iowa City in 2010.

Both the Hawkeyes and the Badgers will enter Saturday’s game with the 11th and 12th ranked rush defenses with the Hawkeyes still having not allowed a rushing touchdown yet this season. Wisconsin’s defense has thrived, just like the Hawks, allowing only a field goal in the last three games but none against Big 5 conference opponents.

Both offenses have been solid through four weeks with neither one really standing out, except for the Quarterbacks. Both Joel Stave and CJ Beathard have been phenomenal in the nonconference season with a combined three interceptions between them and 13 touchdowns. There is no doubt that Stave has been more surprising in his Senior year after a very mediocre season a year ago. Joel Stave only had 1350 passing yards last season with nine touchdowns and ten interceptions. This statistic isn’t as surprising as you may think considering Wisconsin had the best running back in the nation in Melvin Gordon. With the surprise of the quarterbacks in this matchup both defenses will be sure to keep an eye on the passing game, but the real question will be how the defenses will stop the run. The most hyped player in the preseason for the Badgers was their replacement for Melvin Gordon, Corey Clement. Luckily for the Hawkeyes, Clement is out 6 weeks with an injury and will be replaced by Taiwan Deal and Dare Ogunbowale who have combined for 571 rushing yards on 110 carries and 7 touchdowns. Meanwhile for the Hawkeyes the real question come with whether or not LeShun Daniels Jr. will play a big enough role to really make a difference against the stingy Wisconsin defense, and if Jordan Canzeri will continue to be a touchdown machine.

This should be a wild and exciting game and probably one of the best since Kirk Ferentz took over in 1999.

My Prediction: Iowa-24 Wisconsin-16

Other big games this week and my predictions.

Oklahoma-55 West Virginia-21

Georgia-27 Alabama-21

Florida-36 Ole Miss-35

Clemson-48 Notre Dame-35