TaxSlayer Bowl meet and greet

The early theme for the TaxSlayer Bowl is simply this: Tennessee is exceedingly happy to be in a bowl game for the first time since 2010; and the Hawkeyes are still stuck on their 7-5 finish.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz and Tennessee coach Butch Jones met a media gathering in Jacksonville, Fla., which plays host to the TaxSlayer Bowl (Jan. 2, 2:20 p.m. on ESPN).

The first question for Ferentz was on what his definition for Iowa football would be.

'Depends what time frame you're talking about,” Ferentz said. 'We had a season this year that was disappointing in some ways. We went into our 11th ballgame and lost to a good Wisconsin team in a tremendous football game that was back and forth. We ended up losing by two points. We finished up with an overtime loss to a team that won nine games.

'When you finish a season like that, it's a little bit disappointing, certainly. We got back on the field and had two workouts last weekend. I think our players have really bounced back ... Hopefully, we'll be a team that shows up and looks like they're well coached and plays extremely hard.”

Football recruiting is a season in Florida, and so Ferentz was asked how playing in a Florida bowl might help recruiting. Iowa has two starters from Florida: Quarterback Jake Rudock (Weston) and cornerback Greg Mabin (Fort Lauderdale).

'He's our starting quarterback, Jake,” Ferentz said. 'He's been with us, this is his fourth year. Jake Rudock played at St. Thomas Aquinas. Our starting left corner, Greg Mabin, also is from south Florida.

'We try to spot recruit. We don't make a living down here, but we do try to spot recruit. We do that in a lot of places.”

Tennessee has youthful joy going for it. The Volunteers (6-6) are among the youngest teams in the nation, playing 21 true freshmen this season.

'The practices are invaluable for developing the young players,” Jones said. 'When you play an inordinate amount of freshmen - we don't have the luxury right now of redshirting - so their growth and development in the weightroom has been setback because of that. Now, we're able to go back and really spark up our strength and conditioning program.”

The audience was in Jacksonville, Fla., so, as you might imagine, the SEC was a source of fascination. Jones was asked what SEC program Iowa reminded him of. Jones didn't go there, but did offer his outside, and diplomatic, look at the Iowa program, which was one of the teams Jones studied when he started his career as a head coach eight years ago Central Michigan (no he wasn't coach there in 2012 when the Chippewas won at Kinnick Stadium).

'Where we're at in the culture of football, everyone wants to make changes,” Jones said. 'When you look at Iowa, you think of stability, you think of consistency. You win with consistency in everything that you do. They've had great consistency, great stability. Their teams are always very tough, very physical and very well coached. When I became a head coach eight years ago, Iowa was one of the teams I looked at in terms of toughness and a mentality.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8256; marc.morehouse@thegazette.com