I was shocked on Monday morning when the Las Vegas betting line came out and put Penn State as a slight favorite over Iowa.

And during the week, since the line began at 2 1/2 points, it has gone up to four points. I would beg to differ with the oddsmakers. If you look at recent history in this series, Iowa has been the dominant team.

There was the blowout of the Lions in Iowa City last year, eight out of nine Iowa wins in the last decade and four out of five wins at Beaver Stadium, and yet the Hawks go in as underdogs against a Penn State team that still doesn't have a quarterback and a Paterno team that went way over 400 yards against Indiana on the road and still could score only 16 points.

That tells me that Penn State has half a football team. Good defense, no offense. So I think that if the Hawks play up to par, they should win it by a couple of touchdowns.

With that in mind, let's note the rest of October for Kirk Ferentz's team. This game is the first for Vandenberg & Company in the Legends Division of the Big Ten. After Saturday, it's Northwestern for a 6 o'clock kick in Kinnick, Indiana the next week in the Hawks' homecoming, and a trip to Minnesota to take on the woebegone Gophers.

To close out the month, the Big Ten will have recognized the talents of Vandenberg, McNutt, Davis, Coker, Manley and Company as a real threat for the Big Ten title. But a reminder, that's just the way I see it.

NOTE: A tip of the fedora to Cedar Rapids Kennedy's golf team for going back to the state tournament and to Cody Bell for his 73 at Pheasant Ridge to become the qualifying medalist, and also to Tyler McCann of Linn-Mar, who was one shot back, and to Xavier's J.P. King, who got a state berth as an individual qualifier.

Let's hope the Cougars' team keeps it together for a run at the state championship.