By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – My crystal ball that predicts Hawkeye football finally came into focus late Sunday afternoon.

Maybe it was just waiting for the Indiana Fever game to conclude.

Whatever the case, this is how my crystal ball sees Iowa’s 2024 regular season unfolding.

Unfortunately, it didn’t show anything about the 12-team postseason playoff, so we’re left to wonder if Iowa makes it based on the predictions.

Just to be able to wonder, though, is a hint that you’ll probably like what you see.

Iowa 31, Illinois State: 10: First-year offensive coordinator Tim Lester is carried off the field at Kinnick Stadium after the offense accounts for all of Iowa’s points and produces nearly 400 yards.

Iowa 20, Iowa State 17: Drew Stevens is carried off the field at Kinnick Stadium after making a 52-yard field-goal as time expires to defeat the Cyclones for the eighth time in the last nine games.

Iowa 28, Troy 9: Combine Troy with Todd, Tim, Tony and Trent and this game would probably be more competitive.

Iowa 21, Minnesota: 20: Payback comes as the Gophers make what would have been a game-winning field goal in the final seconds in Minneapolis. However, the sideline official believes that P.J. Fleck had called for a timeout right before the kick, when really, Fleck was just trying to motivate his kicker by telling him to block out the noise. The kicker then misses the second attempt, giving Iowa the win, and revenge for what happened last season when Cooper DeJean’s punt return for a touchdown against the Gophers was erased by an invalid fair catch.

Ohio State 24, Iowa 12: Hoping to cheer up his players after suffering the first loss of the season, Kirk Ferentz points out that Iowa has only won twice in Columbus since 1960. So, they shouldn’t feel so bad.

Iowa 27, Washington 23: I picked Iowa to lose the last time it faced Washington, which was in the 1995 Sun Bowl. But instead, the Hawkeyes scored on their opening possession in the Sun Bowl and would go on to cruise to a 38-18 victory.

Hayden Fry then called out the Iowa media after the game for having so little faith in his Hawkeyes.

I learned my lesson as Iowa prevails at home.

Iowa 16, Michigan State 13: Playing on the road, Iowa marches 82 yards on 22 plays, and drains 9:04 off the clock, for the game-winning touchdown, which comes when running back Kaleb Johnson drags a defender into the end zone with 27 seconds remaining.

Sound familiar?

Iowa 23, Northwestern 14: One of Iowa’s touchdowns will be scored by a former Northwestern player.

Iowa 8, Wisconsin 6: Nobody can blame this score at Kinnick Stadium on Brian Ferentz or Deacon Hill.

Iowa 35, UCLA 24: To celebrate the win, Kirk Ferentz allows his players to visit the beach and the exact spot where Daniel LaRusso learned the crane technique in the Karate Kid 40 years ago.

Maryland 25, Iowa 24: Brian Ferentz is carried from the Maryland press box after the game.

Iowa 22, Nebraska 21: Cornhusker fans warn Hawkeye fans after suffering yet another loss to their border rival to the east to enjoy it while you can because we’re about to land a seven-star quarterback, and because we’re finally equipped to win in this age of the Internet.

Record: 10-2