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No. 14 Iowa (4-0) will have to play its best game of the season to take down the mighty, fifth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes (3-1) at Kinnick Stadium on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, CBS).

There's going to be a lot of key players that need to step up for the Hawkeyes to continue their undefeated season, but we've somehow narrowed the list of potential top performs down to four. 

Here are the top Iowa players to watch against Ohio State: 

QB Hank Brown 

Brown is probably going to be on this list for the rest of the season, and that's just because of the nature of his position. After struggling for the first three quarters of the Michigan game, Brown was razor sharp in the fourth, completing 13 of his 19 passing attempts for 142 yards and two scores – including the game-winning touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee as time expired.

While Brown was obviously very pleased with the outcome of the game, he and offensive coordinator Tim Lester both know the offense needs to find more consistency against Ohio State. 

"[Coach Lester told us] there's so many things that we can grow as an offense, which is why it's exciting," Brown said at media availability on Tuesday. "We don't want to put a ceiling on ourselves, and we want to continue to grow and and continue to just exceed and execute." 

Executing against the Buckeyes won't be easy, but it's likely that Brown will have to play his best game of the year to take down OSU. 

RB Kamari Moulton 

While Brown is the leader of this offense, the actual engine to success on Saturday may have to fall on the shoulders of running back Kamari Moulton. We've already mentioned the poor rushing numbers Iowa has posted against Power Four competition, so that will probably need to change if the Hawkeyes want to pull off the upset. 

Any success on the ground game will start with Moulton, who Kirk Ferentz expressed his full confidence as the No. 1 back in a loaded room a few weeks ago. Moulton is currently Iowa's leading rusher at 284 yards, and he's more than capable of having a breakout game if his offensive line can give him green grass to run through. 

One stat that could give Hawkeye fans some optimism about Iowa's chances in the run game? We'll go over this later in film review, but if there's one area Ohio State has been vulnerable in this year, it's the run defense. The Buckeyes have allowed opponents to gain 114 rushing yards per contest and yielded 199 against Illinois last weekend. 

Could that open the door for Moulton? We'll see. 

LB Cam Buffington 

Buffington can simply do it all for this Hawkeye defense. We know how good the Winfield native is in coverage, but he can be effective wherever defensive coordinator Phil Parker sees fit. We've seen Parker occasionally use the 3-3-5 defense in certain settings this year, which is another good way to show Buffington's versatility and speed. 

Buffington is on this list for two reasons. First, it's likely the Hawkeyes will have to blitz more than they usually do because of Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin's accuracy, and there's few people that are capable of getting to the quarterback on a blitz more than Buffington.

The second reason is because he may just be Iowa's best defensive playmaker at this point. Whenever the Hawkeyes have needed a big play this year, Buffington has delivered, tallying a team-high 38 tackles. Just look at his big-time fourth down stop on Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood to keep Iowa from falling into a further hole..

Long story short, Buffington will play a major part in Iowa's defensive success on Saturday. 

DB Deshaun Lee 

Ferentz admitted on Tuesday that he's been nervous for Saturday's game since July. While he did say the nerves have settled down a bit now that we're in game week, Ferentz is undoubtedly concerned about how his defense is going to handle star Buckeye wide receiver Jeremiah Smith. 

Smith is coming off a 217-yard, four-touchdown outing against Illinois, which clearly struggled to cover him. Iowa probably doesn't have the cornerbacks to cover Smith one-on-one for the whole game, but if there's one corner that Parker trusts, it's probably the experienced Lee. The 5-foot-10 Lee has collected six tackles and two interceptions this season, and you know he'll be wanting to get revenge on Smith after Smith torched him in Columbus two years ago. 

Lee will definitely have safety help over the top of he is indeed the man to guard Smith, but keep an eye out for this battle. 

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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io

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