The Hawkeyes will face a team they've met only once in their history, Oklahoma beat Iowa 21-6 in 1979. Sooners coach, and former Hawkeye, Bob Stoops was the starting safety for the Iowa team that lost to Oklahoma back then. Bob buried his father in a Hawkeye jersey. There's history there and as Marc Morehouse points out, this is the "storyline for the 2011 Insight Bowl."
It has been a disappointing season in Norman. The Sooners began the season at #1 and had a Heisman hopeful in quarterback Landry Jones. Injuries have had a huge impact. Projected NFL third round draft pick Ryan Broyles tore his ACL and the Sooners have lost two of three games since. The loss of Broyles has had such an impact that Jones hasn't thrown a touchdown since he left the lineup. Jones' stat line in Oklahoma's last three games looks like this: 85/144 953 yards 0 TDs 5 INTs.
For some analysis from the Oklahoma media, Travis Haney, in NewsOK wonders "how motivated can you expect the Sooners to be for the Dec. 30 Insight.com Bowl against Iowa?" The good news for Oklahoma, per Haney, is that "Iowa isn't very good." He goes on to warn that the bad news is that "Texas Tech wasn't very good either."
Kirk Ferentz and Gary Barta held a press conference last night to discuss the bowl invitation. Ferentz talked about Stoops and his ties with Iowa. They also talked about last season and the Insight.com Bowl in general. There wasn't much news, to no surprise, but there were these tidbits:
- Mika'il McCall is still suspended
- Ferentz described Marcus Grant's departure as surprising
- Ferentz didn't know if his agent had been contacted by Penn State and plans to stay as long as Iowa will have him
Hoops. Saturday, the Hawkeyes pounded Brown (yes, that was the title). Iowa rolled to a 75-54 win but shot 40% from the floor. Coach McCaffery said he was happy with the team's energy level. Brown was a terrible team and I won't waste too many words discussing it.
Up next for Iowa is a Tuesday road trip to Northern Iowa. The Hawks won this match-up at home last year 51-39. Tuesday night's game will be the first of three in-state games in a row for Iowa. The Hawkeyes take on Iowa State December 9th and Drake December 17th.
Other links of interest:
- Ten of Twelve Big Ten teams earned Bowl invites
- Mike Stoops has his pick of jobs, maybe Iowa?
- In-state wide receiver prospect picks Michigan
- Bill Belichick talked Iowa football
- ESPN crew for the Insight: Sean McDonough, Matt Millen and Heather Cox
- George Wine had Oklahoma State #6 on his Harris ballot, Houston 5th
- Want to see how the coaches voted in the Coaches Poll? You can
- Kirk's youngest son Steve Ferentz wins at the Keith Young Invitational