Iowa, which has the nation’s worst record in bowl games this decade, will try to end a five-year postseason losing streak when it meets Boston College on Wednesday in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium.
Coach Kirk Ferentz, the Maine coach from 1990-92, has lost the late-season mojo of his early years and Iowa has struck out in bowl season since 2010. The Hawkeyes lost in the Rose Bowl two years ago, and the seniors could close their careers without a signature bowl victory.
“Just trying to get the program back on page with winning a bowl would be awesome,” lineman Nathan Bazata said.
The Hawkeyes (7-5) haven’t just lost bowl games, they’ve never been a threat during the winless streak.
They trailed at one point 21-0 to Oklahoma (2011 Insight Bowl), 14-0 to LSU (2014 Outback Bowl), 28-0 to Tennessee (2015 TaxSlayer Bowl) and 38-0 to Stanford (2016 Rose Bowl). Last year the Hawkeyes were thumped 30-3 by Florida.
Iowa is the only team in the nation to lose a bowl game in each of the last four seasons.
“I’d like to send all our seniors out with a win,” Ferentz said.
Win or lose, who will watch in New York? The recent string of bowl defeats and a lackluster season – highlighted by a 55-24 win over Ohio State on Nov. 24 that knocked the Buckeyes out of the College Football Playoff – likely will lead to a thin crowd of Iowa fans at Yankee Stadium.
That could lead to a New York stadium overrun by cheering Boston fans.
“Our fan base, from what I understand from the Yankees, has really come through, selling our boxes and selling our tickets,” BC Coach Steve Addazio said.
“The playoff games and the top bowl games will be sold out. So when you get to the next rung of games and they have that kind of energy to them, I think it makes it all that much better. So my anticipation in New York will be we’ll have a great following from Boston College who will be there and be excited, and it will energize our team.”
With temperatures expected in the 20s, any supposed home-field edge may not matter. And that’s good news for the Hawkeyes, who are 21/2-point favorites.
This isn’t the Rose Bowl and the Eagles (7-5) are certainly not 2016 Stanford. If you love seven-win programs mired in mediocrity, then pull on a Boston College cap.
Under Addazio, the Eagles have had four seven-win seasons in his five years at BC. He lost the 2014 Pinstripe Bowl to Penn State but could get the program to eight wins for the first time since 2009. He’s also the first coach to lead the Eagles to four bowl games in five years.
Ferentz, meanwhile, is one victory away from matching former coach Hayden Fry atop Iowa’s career wins list with 142.
“I’d be really happy to tie him because that means we’re going to win this game,” Ferentz said.
Fry hired Ferentz as his offensive line coach in 1981. Ferentz was named head coach in 1999 following Fry’s retirement and has won at least 10 games five times and finished in the AP top 10 five times.
TUESDAY’S GAMES
HEART OF DALLAS BOWL: Zach Moss ran for 150 yards with a career-long 58-yard run for a touchdown, Tyler Huntley scored twice on 2-yard keepers and Utah (7-6) got its fifth consecutive bowl victory, a 30-14 win over West Virginia (7-6) at Dallas.
On a drizzly and chilly day in Cotton Bowl Stadium, the Utes led for good after Moss took a third-and-1 handoff, quickly burst into the open field and went all the way to the end zone to cap their opening drive.
Utah improved to 11-1 in bowl games under Kyle Whittingham, the former defensive coordinator whose debut as head coach was a Fiesta Bowl win at the end of the 2004 season. He co-coached that game with Urban Meyer, who had taken the Florida job three weeks earlier but returned to be part of Utah’s postseason win over Pittsburgh after Whittingham had been promoted to head coach. With the win, Whittingham tied Nick Saban of Alabama for most bowl wins by an active coach.
West Virginia finished the season with its third straight loss. The Mountaineers had only 153 total yards without junior quarterback Will Grier, who broke a finger Nov. 18, and 1,000-yard rusher Justin Crawford, a senior who bypassed the bowl game in advance of the NFL draft.
QUICK LANE BOWL: Daniel Jones threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as Duke (7-6) beat Northern Illinois (8-5) 36-14 at Detroit.
Jones finished with 338 yards, and Shaun Wilson and Brittain Brown added touchdowns for Duke.
Marcus Childers threw for 234 yards and a score for Northern Illinois.
The Blue Devils took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, sandwiching rushing touchdowns around a failed Northern Illinois fake punt on fourth-and-18 from its 11.
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