Hlas: No one knows the Outback better than Iowa

It's a little surprising, quite complimentary, and perhaps odd the Outback Bowl chose Iowa over Nebraska Sunday.

The Huskers had the better record, 9-3 to Iowa's 8-4. And, Nebraska has never been to Tampa's bowl while this will be Iowa's fifth visit in the last 14 seasons and second in the last four years.

In that same time period, only USC (Rose Bowl), BYU (Las Vegas Bowl) and Hawaii (Hawaii Bowl) will have been to the same bowl more often.

Yet, the Outback Bowl has no fear of Tampa-St. Pete burnout from Hawkeye fans. The story is the same every time. Iowans make the trip.

So all that is nice for the Hawkeyes, and it's good they're getting their best-possible postseason opponent given the possibilities. The Gators are better than the Washington State team headed to the Holiday Bowl. Probably.

But is this game anything? Of course not. It will take its place among all the other bowls played strictly for commerce that sometimes have slivers of significance from a football standpoint.

'Florida' sounds good, of course. It's a program that won national championships in 1996, 2006 and 2008. But 8-4 is 8-4.

Yes, the Gators won at LSU. That's no small feat. But in their last five games they lost 31-10 to Arkansas, 31-13 to Florida State, and 54-16 to Alabama in Saturday's SEC title game.

Florida had 30 rushes for a total of zero yards against the Crimson Tide. Against Arkansas, it had 14 carries for 12 net yards. Against Florida State, it was 29 carries for 58 yards.

Florida has the No. 115 offense in the nation. Iowa can't gloat, being ranked 120th.

Defensively, the Gators are good. They're sixth in the nation at 298.6 yards allowed per game. Iowa is 24th, but has been as good as anyone in its last three games, allowing an average of 205.3 yards with Michigan and Nebraska among the opposition.

As good as the Gators' total defensive numbers may be, they surrendered rushing yardage totals of 219 to LSU, 239 to Florida State, and 234 to Alabama in their final three games. Meanwhile, Iowa held all of its final three opponents under 100 rushing yards.

The Gators are an injury-ravaged team with so-so quarterbacking. Fans have been critical of their offensive coordinator, Doug Nussmeier. Jim McElwain has done well to have an 18-8 record there in two seasons, and better days ahead are expected.

They always are, aren't they?

The Gators obviously aren't in Michigan's category, nor are they better than Nebraska. Like Iowa, they're 8-4. Good team, not great team.

Unlike the Hawkeyes, however, Florida hasn't peaked in the final few weeks of its season and probably won't have the passion or the quarterbacking Iowa possesses.

Plus, the veterans on this year's Hawkeyes team know the Outback Bowl drill. You go to a downtown bowling alley one night, you go to Busch Gardens the next day. You go to an NHL game the night after that, and leave it out of boredom sometime in the second period.

The next day, you horse around for a little while at the bowl's Clearwater Beach Day, spending almost as much time on the bus coming and going as you did at the beach itself.

The athletic director and coach will marvel at what a great experience it is for the players in public, while the coaches will constantly remind the players in private that it's a business trip.

This season, Iowa's players have repeatedly talked about winning a bowl as a major goal since none of them have experienced that. When players are serious about that, take heed, whether their opponent has pseudo home-field advantage or not.

This isn't the Rose Bowl. Last year was special. Now it's back to being in just another bowl. Ignore the rankings and the pointspreads. This is one the Hawkeyes should win.