Iowa-OU in the Insight

The Gazette has confirmed it's Iowa against Oklahoma in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 30 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

Kickoff is 9 p.m. Iowa time and the game will be on ESPN.

This is Iowa's second straight trip to the Insight Bowl. Last December, Iowa beat Missouri 27-24 on cornerback Micah Hyde's 72-yard interception return for a TD.

The Hawkeyes will go into Tempe with a 7-5 record after dropping their season finale, 20-7, to Nebraska in Lincoln on Nov. 25. Oklahoma finished its season last night, dropping the Bedlam matchup with Oklahoma State, 44-10. The Sooners started the season with national championship hopes, but injuries dug in and sent them to a 9-3 record.

In addition to the Okie State loss, the Sooners fell to Texas Tech and Baylor.

Of course, Oklahoma is coached by Bob Stoops, a former all-Big Ten safety at the University of Iowa from 1979-82. Stoops played under Hayden Fry, whose coaching staff included a young Kirk Ferentz as offensive line coach.

Stoops' Sooners played in the Fiesta Bowl last year against UConn and arrived in Phoenix to catch the Iowa-Missouri matchup. Stoops wore an Iowa sweatshirt to the game.

This year, not so much.

When Fry retired in 1998, there are all kinds of crazy stories built up to mythic proportions about then-AD Bob Bowlsby, a search committee and an Atlanta interview with Stoops, who was then defensive coordinator at Florida. Bowlsby hired Ferentz, who was O-line coach for the Baltimore Raves, a staff that was on its way out eventually with coach Ted Marchibroda being fired.

Anyway, we'll get to that I'm sure.