Iowa football to play Missouri in 2024 Music City Bowl

IOWA CITY — Iowa football’s 2024 bowl destination is a familiar one.

The Hawkeyes will be playing in the 2024 Music City Bowl — their second trip in the last three years to Nashville — and will face Missouri, the team announced on Sunday afternoon. The game will be on Dec. 30 with a 1:30 p.m. kickoff on ESPN.

“We still consider going to a bowl game a really significant accomplishment for our football team,” Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz told reporters Sunday after the announcement. “This will be our 22nd one since our first bid back in ‘01. So just really proud of the guys and happy for them, especially to end up in a good venue like this and in a good game against an outstanding opponent.”

Iowa fared well during its previous trip to the Music City Bowl. The Joe Labas-led Hawkeyes shut out Kentucky, 21-0, in a rematch of the previous year’s Citrus Bowl. This year’s foe might be a stiffer challenge than the 2022 Wildcats were, however.

The Tigers, ranked No. 19 in the final CFP rankings and No. 23 in the AP Poll, went 9-3 overall and 5-3 in SEC play. They were in or near the top 10 of the AP Poll for much of September until suffering a 41-10 loss to Texas A&M on Oct. 5.

It will be Iowa’s first game against Missouri since the 2010 Insight Bowl, where the Hawkeyes notched a 27-24 win. Before that, Iowa and Missouri had not played since 1910. It also will be Ferentz’s first time coaching against Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz, who has taken the Tigers to four consecutive bowl games.

“He’s really done a really nice job not only building a good program, but it’s a national program,” Ferentz said of Drinkwitz. “And they’ve done very well in a tough conference. … It’s going to be a tough opponent for us to match up against.”

This year’s matchup against Missouri is particularly ironic considering Iowa was supposed to play the Tigers in the 2020 Music City Bowl before a rise in COVID-19 cases within the Missouri program prompted the game’s cancellation.

Opt-outs could be a factor in which team will be favored. Iowa star running back Kaleb Johnson already has declared for the 2025 NFL Draft, but no other Hawkeyes have publicly signaled plans to not play in the bowl game so far.

“Anything could happen here in the next couple of weeks, but I think our roster is pretty well settled right now,” Ferentz said. “Hopefully no surprises here in the next couple of weeks.”

If Ferentz “had to guess,” Northwestern transfer Brendan Sullivan will start at quarterback against Missouri. (Jackson Stratton had started Iowa’s last two games while Sullivan was recovering from an injury.)

“But we’ll see,” Ferentz said. “We’ll let them both work and see how it all goes.”

Elsewhere on offense, wide receiver Reece Vander Zee “worked a little bit on Friday” as he recovers from an injury. Offensive lineman Gennings Dunker is not that far yet, but is “on a good path.”

The Music City Bowl had the third choice among non-CFP bowls with Big Ten affiliations. The Citrus Bowl, which could not have Iowa in repeat years, picked Illinois. The ReliaQuest Bowl, formerly known as the Outback Bowl, picked 7-5 Michigan instead of the Hawkeyes.

This year’s return to Nashville follows an 8-4 regular season for Iowa. The Hawkeyes retained (or reclaimed) three of their four rivalry trophies, but the veteran-laden group also underperformed many fans’ preseason expectations.

Iowa now has been invited to a bowl game in 22 of the last 24 seasons, dating back to 2001. Ferentz’s teams have gone 10-10 in bowl games. The only active FBS head coaches with more bowl wins are Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy, Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham.

Ferentz, with 204 wins at Iowa, will have the chance in Nashville to tie the late Woody Hayes’ record for most overall wins as a Big Ten member.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com

Sign up for our curated Iowa Hawkeyes athletics newsletter at thegazette.com/hawks.