<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=date vAlign=bottom width=190>Sunday, November 22, 2009</TD><TD class=date style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold" vAlign=bottom align=middle></TD><TD class=navigation style="PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; TEXT-ALIGN: right" width=190></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3>Iowa left to play BCS waiting game
Fiesta and Orange Bowl likely destinations should Hawkeyes score at-large bid
By CLETE CAMPBELL TH staff writer
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IOWA CITY — Destination, TBA.
All signs are pointing South but that’s all the Iowa football team knows right now. The Hawkeyes won’t know until Dec. 5 if their sloppy 12-0 rebound victory over Minnesota Saturday was enough to propel them into a BCS bowl. At 10-2, Iowa is competing for an at-large spot in one of the 10 BCS slots available.
“We’ve done all we can do to put ourselves in position to get one,” quarterback James Vandenberg said.
Iowa’s destiny is now in the hands of the complex BCS system. New BCS rankings will be released Sunday night.
“We can’t control anything except what happened,” wide receiver Marvin McNutt said. “We think we can play with anybody in the country. We’d like to be a BCS team.”
Should Iowa land a BCS bid, a popular possible destination and matchup circulating through the college football rumor mills is the Hawkeyes taking on unbeaten Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz.
Orange Bowl representatives were at Kinnick Stadium Saturday scouting Iowa. Orange Bowl committee member Larry Gautier said his bowl is very interested in landing Iowa, which brought a caravan of 48,000 fans with it for its last Orange Bowl appearance.
Iowa’s 2003 turnout “is very important, very important,” Gautier said. “There’s a positive track record.”
How many different bowl scenarios are there for the Hawkeyes? Too many for athletic director Gary Barta to even try to calculate.
“Thirty-seven,” Barta joked. “I made that number up, but the concept is true. We’ll be on the phone this week talking to all the bowls.”
Of course, Iowa hasn’t been invited yet. Big Ten champion Ohio State has locked up the league’s automatic berth and a spot in the Rose Bowl. Iowa is competing with 10-2 Penn State for the Big Ten’s possible, but not guaranteed, second BCS spot. The Hawks finished tied with the Nittany Lions for second place in the Big Ten, but bounced PSU, 21-10, Sept. 26 in Happy Valley.
Critics will say Iowa’s body of work, which includes four nailbiting wins by three points or less, has been as pretty as the Metrodome. But a 17-10 loss to Northwestern (in which the Hawks lost starting quarterback Ricky Stanzi) and a 24-21 overtime setback to Ohio State are the only blemishes on the Hawks’ record.
“We’re 10 points from being perfect,” wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos said. “We deserve a BCS bowl. We want the best challenge that’s out there.”
“Look at our body of work on the road (a 4-1 record),” linebacker A.J, Edds said.
Should Iowa be shut out of the BCS, Orlando’s Capital One Bowl or Tampa’s Outback Bowl are its most likely destinations.
But the only game Iowa can play now is the waiting game. Coach Kirk Ferentz believes his team’s best football may be in front of it.
“I’m pretty confident we’ll be a better team in January,” he said.