Hawkeyes need to seize tomorrow night in Miami

MIAMI - You never know. You may not pass this way again for a long time.

Maybe Iowa will go to the Rose Bowl next season. Maybe it won't make another BCS bowl for seven years, just like it was seven years since Iowa's first and only BCS appearance. It may be more. You never know.

You need to win this Orange Bowl against Georgia Tech tonight, Hawkeyes. OK, “need” is melodramatic. But this isn't some Alamo or Outback bowl, a postseason game that blurs into a stack of them. This is the Orange Bowl, on a night of its own, with every red-blooded American college football fan finding some reason to watch it for at least a little while.

Three years ago, the Oklahoma-Boise State Fiesta Bowl didn't have the nation all that jazzed. It wasn't a title game of any type.

But then the Broncos of Boise made magic and created indelible images. That program's national image was elevated from that moment forward.

On the other end, Cincinnati played in BCS bowls in the last two seasons. It got whipped in last year's Orange and this year's Sugar. The Bearcats now fade back into the shadows, quickly forgotten by football followers nationwide.

Which direction will Iowa go tonight in Land Shark Stadium? Will they get all fuzzy when it's time for their close-up, a la their Orange Bowl fiasco against USC seven years back? Or will they come strongly into focus, winning and making a great impression that will endure?

Wisconsin won three Rose Bowls under Barry Alvarez and created a national image as a hard-nosed winner. Iowa went to three Rose Bowls under Hayden Fry, but the sundae that was Fry's fine career as the Hawkeyes' coach never got topped by the cherry of a victory in Pasadena.

If Iowa beats the Yellow Jackets tonight, its fans can't bark about a lack of respect when the preseason rankings come out in August. The Hawkeyes would start next season hyped up and ranked high.

A half-century since Iowa's last Rose Bowl win, it gets a fifth chance at winning one of the elite bowls. You want to advance to a higher level, really be somebody prominent on the national scene? You have to do more than share a Big Ten title or win a big league showdown. At some point, you must win a game like this.

“It's very important for the program and for the state of Iowa to get their first BCS win,” said Iowa junior defensive end Adrian Clayborn.

Will tonight define Iowa's season? Not entirely, but it sure will alter the way it's perceived.

Win, and you're that team that did won at Happy Valley and Madison and East Lansing. You're that team that won so many games on guts and will as much as talent. You're that team that played Ohio State to overtime in Columbus.

Lose, and you're the team that fell off the high wire, that squeaked by Northern Iowa and Michigan State, held off Arkansas State and Michigan, had a monster fourth-quarter to rally past Indiana.

Win, and you are 11-2 brutes, Big Ten big men who followed the example of league-champ Ohio State in the Rose Bowl.

Lose, and you were again the scenery in the Orange Bowl, a prop for a Georgia Tech program that has so much it wants to prove itself tonight.

Iowa's BCS, prime-time, weeknight shot has arrived. Again. If it doesn't seize the night this time, this could hurt and haunt the Hawkeyes for a long time. Just like the loss to USC of seven years ago still does.

If Iowa plays like a team with all those All-Big Ten pedigrees? Then a page turns in Hawkeye football history. A very good page.

Remember that virtually all of the Hawkeyes' best football was played away from Iowa City this season. They've never been as far from home as they are tonight.