You can't overstress the importance of Saturday's Big Ten football game between the Gophers and Iowa. The Gophers are starting a four-game stretch against top teams in the conference, and they are going to have to grab a victory or two to get a good bowl game bid.

Gophers athletic director Norwood Teague is making sure that Iowa fans don't gobble up a lot of the good tickets, and you can be sure there will be a limited number of people in the stands at TCF Bank Stadium on Saturday who are yelling "Let's go Hawkeyes, Let's go Hawkeyes."

The Gophers have done OK against Iowa at home, but terrible on the road. This Iowa team, which started the season slowly, has really come on. They are every bit as good as Ohio State, every bit as good as Wisconsin, probably not as good as Nebraska – but they have established themselves as a Big Ten power.

The Gophers are going to have to be at the top of their game to beat Iowa. They are going to have to play their best game of the season, and quarterback Mitch Leidner is going to have to throw the ball well if his team has any chance to win.

Although the weather won't be great, Gophers coach Jerry Kill hopes the crowd can be loud and Iowa quarterback Jake Rudock won't be able to call audibles or change the play at the line of scrimmage. The Gophers also have to shut down Iowa's great running game.

This is the biggest game of the year for the Gophers. They finish with Ohio State, Nebraska and Wisconsin. This will be a very rough stretch. They've had a bye week to prepare and are eager to get the sting of losing at Illinois out of their systems.

I am looking forward to this game as much as I've looked forward to a Gophers football game in a long, long time.