I'll have a lot more to say about this weekend's Iowa-Iowa State game Thursday morning in Pickin' On the Big Ten, but you, faithful college football fan, need to be aware of a rare occurrence involving that game, as both the Hawkeyes and Cyclones find themselves in possession of the unfortunately not-so-rare Two-Headed Quarterbeast. Iowa's goes by the names of Ricky Stanzi and Jake Christensen, while Iowa State's is known as Austen Arnaud and Phillip Bates.Now, normally, when a coach has to unleash the Two-Headed Quarterbeast, it's a sign that neither quarterback can be trusted to handle an entire game himself. That may or may not be the case here. For the Hawkeyes, though Kirk Ferentz insisted Christensen was his guy after the Maine game, this will be the second week Stanzi gets the start. Both quarterbacks have played well against complete nobodies this season, though Stanzi has shown more poise, while Christensen is still a threat to wound any ducks in the vicinity of Kinnick Stadium. Stanzi hasn't faced a real pass rush or a decent secondary yet, however, so don't be surprised if Christensen sees more than just spot duty this weekend.
And for the Clones? That's another story. In Ames, it's definitely not the case that one quarterback seems to be better than the other. They're both pretty darn solid. Arnaud is a greater deep threat, but Bates is slippery, fast, and confident. Just like the Hawkeyes, however, the Cyclones really haven't played anybody yet, so the early returns on their quarterbacks may not be accurate either.
Look, I know nobody outside the state of Iowa gives a rat's bonkus about this game unless they're from there, but how often do you get to see a two-quarterback system that seems to work well for both teams? Answer: not very.
