Iowa, Florida Outback Bowl matchup style could come to battle of wills

IOWA CITY — If you look at it on paper, those who watch the 2017 Outback Bowl could be in for a whole lot of punters Ron Coluzzi and Johnny Townsend.

Florida ranks 115th of 128 teams in FBS in total offense. Iowa ranks 120th.

Both teams have had little to no chance to look at film on the other yet, given the two programs found out around 2 p.m. Sunday who they'd be playing in their bowl game. But given what they have taken in so far, and those statistics, what style of play should everyone expect on Jan. 2 in Tampa, Fla.?

If nothing else, Coach Kirk Ferentz expects to be the underdog.

'Well, looking at it statistically, it looks like it's going to be 6-3. It'll probably be 42-38 like Penn State. I think that was the score,' Ferentz said. 'So you just never know. I know they've got good players. I know they're very well-coached. They've got a good staff.

'So I would expect that, and if you just look at the Outback Bowl in general, it's usually a really good matchup between a good Big Ten team and a really good SEC team, and I'm pretty sure we're — what did I say, 14 bowls? I'm pretty we've been the dogs in 13, so this will be probably be 14. We're used to it.'

Hlas: No one knows the Outback better than Iowa

Whether you're looking at stats or just using the eye test, it's not hard to see that both the Gators (8-4, 6-2 SEC) and the Hawkeyes (8-4, 6-3 Big Ten) rely more on defense than anything to win football games. Neither have highflying passing attacks, and Florida has a successful pass defense.

That likely means a whole lot of LeShun Daniels and Akrum Wadley for Iowa. Tight end George Kittle said he relishes that idea because 'I know we're going to run the ball, and I love running the ball.'

What Florida looked like against Alabama isn't the best barometer, to be clear. Daniels said he couldn't finish watching the SEC title game, and that it followed what the Crimson Tide had done to most of their opponents.

Daniels could only laugh when asked if he was looking forward to a physical, grind-it-out kind of game. Of course the running backs want the ball, but it also means the game will likely become a battle of wills.

'It's going to be on whosever offense can find enough will to go out and get points for your team,' Daniels said. 'Because obviously both our defenses have been doing excellent jobs the entire year, so it's going to come down to offense, who can sustain drives and who can go down and get points. But who knows? It could end up being a shootout, you never know. We have to be prepared for their best and that's obviously doing an excellent job stopping opposing offenses.'

LINKING RESULTS?

Iowa players and coaches often talk about motivation off a loss being a little more powerful. Correcting what they feel like is a wrong makes that easy. Wanting to continue success provides that as well, though. As Coach Kirk Ferentz said Sunday night, everything is better after a win.

So what's the difference between going into a bowl game when your last result was a win vs your last result being a loss?

The statistics say not much. In the Ferentz era, the Hawkeyes are 2-4 in bowl games after a loss to end the regular season (or conference title game) and are 4-3 in bowls after a win to end the regular season.

Ultimately it comes down to how the weeks between games are spent, Ferentz and Co. said.

'I guess it just depends. I think right now we're excited. We've played well the last three weeks and had a groove going there,' quarterback C.J. Beathard said. 'I don't know if we can continue that into a bowl game (for sure), but we've had good practices.

'When we get to the game week, we'll focus more on Florida, but right now we're trying to better ourselves as a team.'

Iowa has the 24-hour rule, so when it comes to the time between the last game and bowl game, there's an infinitesimal chance the Hawkeye coaching staff uses the Nebraska game as the teaching point for their players during bowl preparation.

Rather, Ferentz wants to see the attitude his players bring to those practices as a way to judge whether or not they'll be able to carry success from Game 12 into Game 13.

'I think my sense is these guys are hungry to keep pushing, keep playing and we haven't seen a smidge of Florida on film,' Ferentz said. 'Health always factors into it, like anything, but the attitude you take — and bowls are really unique because you have a different set of challenges.

'I think the work they did in November is really evident, really prominent and certainly all of us as coaches are leaning on them to continue to lead us. That's what it takes. It's an unusual path and it's a long path.'

Read more: Iowa's path to Tampa went through Nebraska

If the last game is any kind of motivating factor, Florida will have plenty of it following a 54-16 dismantling from No. 1 Alabama.

Iowa players who watched know the Gators will want to correct that, and know they'll get a prepared Florida team because of it.

'I think both teams are going to be more than motivated,' running back LeShun Daniels said. 'They're obviously going to want to avenge that. They didn't play anywhere near the way they wanted to, so we're going to have to be ready for their best shot.'

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