Examining the upcoming Citrus Bowl match between Tennessee and Iowa on New Year’s Day.
While some may view bowl games that aren’t part of the College Football Playoff as meaningless these days, the Iowa football team places a high emphasis on this year’s Citrus Bowl.
Iowa, with a 10-3 record, will participate in the Citrus Bowl on January 1, 2024, in Orlando, Florida. The Tennessee Volunteers, ranked No. 25 and currently 8-4, will be their opponent and they hope to win their ninth straight game.
This year’s pairing of these two programs will occur for the fourth time.
When these two teams last faced off, it was in the TaxSlayer Bowl in 2015, with the Vols defeating the Hawkeyes 45-28.
For the third time in the program’s history, the Hawkeyes accepted an invitation to the 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl. This is Iowa’s eighteenth bowl game in January, and its thirteenth under head coach Kirk Ferentz.
With three of the four losses being on the road in Florida, Alabama, and Missouri, the Volunteers have an 8-4 record for the season. The lone defeat came in November, 38-7, at home against Georgia.
Josh Heupel, a 26-12 record in his three years as Tennessee’s head coach, is in his third year in charge. With a 4-4 conference record, the Volunteers came in third place in the SEC East, behind Georgia and Missouri.
• The Hawkeyes accepted an invitation to the 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl for the third time in program history. It is Iowa’s 18th January bowl game, including the 13th under head coach Kirk Ferentz.
• Iowa is one of only nine FBS programs with an active bowl game appearance streak of 10+ years. which are tied with Joe Paterno for the most bowl wins as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
How does the Brian Ferentz era in Iowa City end?: This is the final game as a member of the Iowa staff for offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz. Ferentz has received a lot of criticism for Iowa’s poor offensive play over the last couple of seasons, and Iowa interim athletic director Beth Goetz made the decision midway through the season that Ferentz would not be retained after the 2023 season, but would be able to coach the rest of the way. Those inside the program have seemed to use it as a rallying cry, as the Hawkeyes finished the regular season with four straight wins, and won the Big Ten West outright, before getting shut out 26-0 against Michigan in the Big Ten Championship. Ferentz is planning to coach in the Citrus Bowl, but if an opportunity were to be presented for him to take another job in the NFL in the next week or so, then he might not coach in the bowl game. However, the plan is that Ferentz will coach against Tennessee. How does his career in Iowa City end? Do the Hawkeyes try to be a little more loose on the offensive end and air it out, play a different style than previous games this year? We saw Iowa’s offense explode in the 2019 Holiday Bowl against USC, and that was one of the high points of Ferentz’s career in Iowa City as the offensive coordinator. We haven’t seen a lot of evidence that would suggest Iowa can put up 49 points this season, but the Hawkeyes did do a couple of things differently in that win over the Trojans, and maybe Ferentz pull some new things out of his bag on his way out. Could Iowa put together its best offensive performance of the year against the Volunteers?
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