With their destinations set the Iowa Hawkeyes and Iowa State Cyclones can now prepare for their bowl opponents. The Iowa Hawkeyes will play Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl on January fifth. Iowa closed out the regular season with a 10-2 record while Georgia Tech finished 11-2 and won the ACC championship.
Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz says Georgia Tech has had and exceptional year and is one of a handful of teams to win 11 games this year and he says it will be a great challenge. It will be a new challenge for the Hawkeyes defense that will try to slow down a Georgia Tech option attack that has averaged 307 yards of rushing per game.
Ferentz says he can’t remember facing a pure option team, so it will be very, very different for them. He says you have to cover all the bases as they post a lot of threats.
Iowa State will play Minnesota in the Insight Bowl in Tempe, Arizona on December 31st. It is the first bowl game since 2005 for the Cyclones who finished the regular season with a record of 6-6.
Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads says they will hold several practices before giving the players some time off. Rhoads says there are a number of benefits to playing in a bowl game, including the additional practice time. He says you get national recognition that helps in recruiting and benefit the goals of moving the program forward. Rhoads says it gives credibility to the players that what you’ve been coaching is working.
Minnesota also is 6-6.