Getty Ihmir Smith-Marsette of the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The Iowa Hawkeyes are set to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Iowa will aim to improve upon their 3-4 record, while Illinois will look to do the same after a bumpy 2-5 start to the season.
The game is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. If you don’t have cable or can’t get to a TV, you can still watch a live stream of the game (or DVR it) on your computer, phone or streaming device by signing up for one of the following cable-free, live-TV streaming services:
The Big Ten Network and the Big Ten Network “Extra Football Game channels” (the latter will televise extra games when there are overlapping ones on BTN at the same time) are included in FuboTV’s main package, which includes 85 total channels and is largely tailored towards sports fans. You can sign up for a free 7-day trial right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the FuboTV website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the FuboTV app.
If you can’t watch live, FuboTV comes with 30 hours of Cloud DVR (with the ability to upgrade to 500 hours), as well as a handy “72-Hour Lookback” feature, which will allow you to watch the game on-demand up to three days after it airs even if you forgot to record it.
In addition to their extensive Netflix-like streaming library, Hulu now also offers a bundle of 50-plus live TV channels, including the Big Ten Network. You can sign up for “Hulu with Live TV” right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the Hulu app.
If you can’t watch live, “Hulu with Live TV” also comes with 50 hours of Cloud DVR storage (with the ability to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of DVR space and the ability to fast forward through commercials).
BTN2Go
Additionally, you can watch a live stream of the game on your computer via the Big Ten website, or on your phone, tablet or streaming device via the BTN2Go app. You’ll need to log in to a cable provider to watch this way, but if you don’t have that, you can still sign up for one of the above options and then use your FuboTV or Hulu credentials to sign in and watch on the BTN digital platforms.
Preview
Despite having scored 30 points or more in five games, Iowa has struggled to break .500 throughout the season. Sophomore tight end T.J. Hockenson spoke with Hawk Central about the team’s offensive struggles, and how they plan to rectify them against Illinois. “I can’t just sit here and be negative because there’s a lot of good things that are on film,” he said. “And there’s a lot of improvement from week to week.”
“That’s our entire goal during the course of the year, during the course of the game, is to be better than we were the week before,” Hockenson added. “It’s not what any opponent does. It’s what we do to ourselves. That’s what we talk about each week, not just the last three or the next two. We haven’t been looking at the opponent the entire year.”
Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and quarterback Nate Stanley have expanded on Hockenson’s statement. “We just haven’t gotten it to the point where we’d like to,” Ferentz admitted. “We’ve got two games left, so this would be a great time to get it started.”
Stanley, meanwhile, claims that the team simply needs to execute more. “Maybe some team will see what Northwestern did and try to emulate that,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter what the defense does. It just matters about our execution and how we handle those. (We have to) run the ball the other way or change the play at the line of scrimmage. Try to take advantage of it.”