Unlike much of college football on Saturday, things were blissfully quiet for the Cyclones, Hawkeyes

We were off the circuit Saturday in Iowa, totally away from a crazy day in college football.

Nail-biting games were staged in the Pacific Northwest at the Los Angeles Coliseum in the Deep South.

LSU and Tennessee won overtime games. So did Penn State and Illinois. Alabama narrowly escaped a second straight loss.

In the game of the week, Oregon topped Ohio State in Eugene, 32-31.

The table was set Friday night when, after Arizona State upset Utah 27-19 in Tempe, ASU coach Kenny Dillingham appeared to gleefully disappear into a pile of Sun Devil fans who they had stormed the field during a wild interview with ESPN.

This was the first of the weekend’s mass storms. Oregon and LSU also had some.

So where was our state in all this madness and chaos? Taking care of business methodically and impressively.

In the afternoon, Iowa went on a 33-3 run amid Washington’s scoring and defeated the Huskies 40-16 at Kinnick Stadium.

On the night, Iowa State went on a 28-3 run between West Virginia scores and defeated the Mountaineers 28-16 in Morgantown.

The Hawkeyes and Cyclones were favorites, but they won without breaking a sweat in the finals, as so many teams did in white-knucklers elsewhere.

Driving home from Iowa City on Saturday, satellite radio allowed me to hop back and forth from Champaign, Illinois, to Los Angeles to hear the crazy end to the fourth quarter of the Purdue-Illinois game and overtime of that contest and Penn State- USC.

Purdue scored two touchdowns in 49 seconds late in the fourth quarter to take a 43-40 lead after trailing 27-3 early in the third quarter. The Illini kicked a last-second field goal to force overtime, and got a sack on a Purdue 2-point try in overtime to claim the victory.

Minnesota also rallied, winning in the final minute for the second week in a row. He beat UCLA on Saturday after beating USC in Minneapolis.

In Iowa City, the Hawkeyes’ victory gradually became one-sided and efficient. They didn’t turn the ball over, while Washington did twice.

In Morgantown, the Cyclones’ win gradually became one-sided and efficient. They didn’t turn the ball over, while West Virginia did twice.

The Cyclones are tied for fourth in the nation in turnover margin, tied for fifth in scoring defense despite a series of linebacker injuries that would have wiped out many defenses.

Get this: Iowa and Iowa State are 1-2 in the nation in fewest penalties and fewest penalty yards per game. Someone is doing something right.

Iowa has the nation’s No. 2 rusher in Kaleb Johnson. Iowa State has three running backs — Abu Sama, Jaylon Jackson and Carson Hansen — who have rushed for at least 97 yards in a game over the past three weeks.

Iowa State is 6-0, Iowa 4-2. Look at the remaining schedules and pick a game you’re likely to lose. I said “probably”. There is none.

This does not mean at all that both will run the table in the second half of the season. This is college football, where bubbles and others are made at any time. College students are unpredictable, their coaches can be baffled by the concept of clock management, and officials are always capable of losing sight of something.

Still, the remaining slates for the Cyclones and Hawkeyes certainly aren’t as imposing as they could have been. Not that there aren’t plenty of potential potholes, but there are no sinkholes.

Iowa State has four home games remaining, with UCF, Texas Tech, Cincinnati and Kansas State. The latter is the most formidable team in the group. Also remaining is a game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City against disappointing Kansas, and a trip to Utah to meet a team that was in the Top Ten before losses to Arizona and Arizona State.

Iowa goes to Michigan State, UCLA, and Maryland, none of which they fear. The other guests at Kinnick Stadium are Northwestern, Wisconsin and Nebraska. Anyone could win in Iowa, but would you bet on it right now?

While all the entertaining mayhem was elsewhere on Saturday, Iowa State and Iowa both had a very enjoyable day. There could be many more in the coming weeks.

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