Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz wins Bobby Dodd coach of the year

Vegas has Stanford as a six-point favorite, but I’m going to take the underdog as Kirk Ferentz closes his best season at Iowa with one loss.

Hogan is about to become the first Pac-12 quarterback to start in three Rose Bowl games.

Let’s take a chronological look back at some of the key events that allowed Iowa to reach the Rose Bowl.

Stanford kicker Conrad Ukropina is familiar with the Rose Bowl, and not only because the Cardinal are playing in their third Rose Bowl in the past four years.

The number: 25. The Hawkeyes are returning to Pasadena for the first time in 25 years. The Hawkeyes have played football since 1889, while the Cardinal started playing college football in 1892.

Iowa gained 506 yards of offense, a season-high, to overcome the defense’s mishaps.

It was a dream season for Iowa; the Hawkeyes looked like a team of destiny. ESPN’s FPI ranks the Hawkeyes 28th, and Ed Feng’s Power Rank slots them 29th. Their offensive line is built just like our offense.

“Oh, you see a great Iowa defense”, McCaffrey said.

The Cardinal are doing it all for the third time in four years – starting with the trips to Disneyland, Lawry’s restaurant in Beverly Hills, the Improv comedy club in Hollywood, followed by media day at a downtown hotel and the team photo at the stadium the day before the game, and culminating with the annual clash between Pac-12 and Big Ten opposition on January 1. In their last two games, the Cardinal gritted out a nail-biter over Notre Dame and then crushed USC 41-22. That’s how you keep the score down, that’s how you keep the big plays down. He is fourth in the Big Ten in pass efficiency (139.6). Smith chips in with 45.5 receiving yards per game, but he’s the only player to go for more than 100 yards in two different games this season. “But more importantly as a coach to see our players, our coaching staff get to experience it, that’s what’s enjoyable in sports”. But only Stanford has Christian McCaffrey, the yardage hog who beats teams in the backfield, split out wide and in the return game.

Iowa just missed the playoffs, will the motivation factor still be there for them? The Cardinal doesn’t put up gaudy statistics like some of its spread-system counterparts in the Pac-12, but it is efficient while running fewer plays.

“Our challenge is to see if we can play our best game of the season”.

“I am not going to apologize for an eight-win season”, Shaw said at a preseason press conference in August after his team went 8-5 in 2014. In 23 tries, they have converted 61 percent into first downs. However, don’t think for one second that this game will be boring, because both offenses average over 30 points a game. The 65-year-old now serves as associate head coach at the University of CT, working alongside Huskies head coach and former Iowa linebacker Bob Diaco.

McCaffrey set the NCAA single-season record for all-purpose yards this season with 3,496 by excelling as a kick returner with 1,042 yards.

Interesting side note: Stanford defensive line coach Randy Hart remembers Iowa’s last appearance in this game very well. “They’ve had a special season, and it’s been very similar to our season”.

It means a lot that I could even be considered a small part of the Iowa turnaround – a part of the proud tradition we established and that Kirk has carried forward.

These teams are too talented, and there’s too much on the line – even if the national title is not. The unit’s plus-12 turnover margin ranks ninth in the country. “He can make plays on his feet”. “If you’re a member of the Big Ten, I think everybody, it’s safe in saying everybody, feels that way”.

“We’re indebted to Iowa, they stepped up in the early stages of Pacific Battleship Center’s attempts to salvage the battleship”, said ship spokesman Andrew Bossenmeyer.

The Cardinal’s coverage units have been stout on punts, less so on kickoffs.

Iowa is 2-3-1 ATS in its last 6 games.

Koehn has made 15 of 19 this season, with a long of 57 yards.