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IOWA CITY, Iowa – Kirk Ferentz is pretty sure the Arkansas State football team isn’t going to be in awe of a crowd of about 70,000 today in Kinnick Stadium.

The Red Wolves played in front of 85,035 equally fervent fans just three weeks ago at Nebraska. Two years ago, they played in front of 102,368 at Tennessee and 84,440 at Texas. Last season, there were 92,138 crimson-clad backers in the stands when they visited Alabama and there were 78,691 fans on hand when they opened that season at Texas A&M.

Here’s what really caught Ferentz’s attention: Arkansas State won that game, 18-14.

“They beat A&M last year and they’re not going to be intimidated coming in here, I can assure you,” Ferentz said as he prepared his 13th-ranked Iowa team for an 11 a.m. encounter with Arkansas State that will be televised nationally by ESPN2. “They play a couple stadiums like that every year.”

Ferentz said he hopes his Hawkeyes (4-0) learned from their narrow escape against Northern Iowa in the season opener because he said the team they’ll face today is aggressive, relentless and well-coached.

And it has some pretty imposing statistical achievements.

Quarterback Corey Leonard is the school’s career leader in total offense and is 13th among all active players nationally. Running back Reggie Arnold Jr., whose father was a wide receiver at Purdue in the 1970s, is among the nation’s leading scorers and is trying to become only the eighth player ever to rush for more than 1,000 yards four years in a row.

Kicker Josh Arauco is fifth among active players in career field goals. Brandon Thompkins is on his way to becoming the all-time leading kickoff return man in the Sun Belt Conference.  Alex Carrington had 10.5 sacks last season and was the Sun Belt’s preseason defensive player of the year.

And all those players are seniors, which mean they’ve been to Texas, Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn. At best, today’s crowd will be the seventh largest they’ve seen.

Ferentz and defensive coordinator Norm Parker figure Arkansas State’s offense resembles the Northwestern attack of a few years ago.

“Norm compared Leonard to (Brett) Basanez and that’s probably a pretty good comparison,’’ Ferentz said. “The back looks a little like (Tyrell) Sutton. Those guys are good football players and these guys are pretty proficient. The quarterback really is very confident in what they’re doing and he knows how to run that offense.’’

He said the Red Wolves’ defense is equally unpredictable albeit a bit less effective.

“They’re very veteran upfront and they’re not afraid to bring some guys from different places,’’ Ferentz said. “We need to really be alert.’’

ASU coach Steve Roberts said he thinks his team (1-2) is ready to bounce back from losses to Nebraska and Troy.

“I feel like we believe we can go in and compete, have an opportunity to win,” he told the Jonesboro (Ark.) Sun earlier this week. “We know it’s going to take a tremendous effort and we have to cash in on opportunities, but we’ll have opportunities.”