Insight Bowl: Your game guide, and vote for the winner

PHOENIX - You can be closed-minded and surly and simply ignore what there is to mine from a 7-5 season. Or you can pop open the hood and figure it out.

No, it wasn't what any of them expected, but here they are. This is the end of a long run. The 2010 season bottomed out like the Griswold's “Family Truckster,” ka-chunk. That doesn't mean it's not worth examination.

That's been the thematic question throughout the week as the Hawkeyes (7-5) prepare for No. 12 Missouri (10-2).

The players are done looking for the reason. They've opened their minds to the lessons that 7-5 holds.

They store the outside disenchantment where they need to go get through the practice, the day, the game. They're aware of the fickle nature of fandom.

“People are going to talk,” quarterback Ricky Stanzi said. “That's all you can do, if you're not playing, the only thing to do is talk. That's life, that's football. That's something you have to accept as a football player really early on. You have to accept it. You can't be soft. You have to have a strong enough character to endure.”

If there's another 7-5 in their lives - a car accident, a tax audit - they at least have a map to negotiate it.

“There are a lot of good fans out there,” said defensive end Adrian Clayborn, who could see worse than 7-5 in his next football station in NFL. “I don't want to say too much, fans are fans. They stick with us through thick and thin.”

The “football as metaphor for life” is a solid theme. Reality is swift and harsh in both arenas.

Read more from Marc Morehouse's "The lessons in a 7-5 season"

Note - Wednesday's print edition of The Gazette newspaper may be a delayed to accommodate a late press run so we can get coverage from the Insight Bowl into the paper.

Mike Hlas and Marc Morehouse will be providing live blog coverage of tonight's game starting shortly before 9 p.m.

More Coverage

Mike Hlas

• WEBCAST: Saville, Morehouse and Hlas on possible Hawkeyes early-entrants to NFL
• Hlas column: Every day is sunny for the bowl committee people, who feed on universities
• VIDEO: An Arizona cowboy and a horse

Morehouse

• Prater also files for NFL evaluation (+ other notes, Ferentz transcript)
• The Big Analysis - Insight Bowl
• Insight.3 - Iowa media day video

Game Guide

Teams: Iowa (7-5) vs. Missouri (10-2)

• Where: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Ariz.
• When: 9 p.m.
• Kickoff forecast: Partly cloudy, 57
• TV: ESPN
• Radio: WMT-AM (600), KXIC-AM (800); KCRG-AM (1600)
• Spread: Missouri by 2 1/2
• Series: Missouri leads, 7-5
• Coaches: Kirk Ferentz is 88-60 in his 12th year at Iowa, 100-81 in his 15th overall. Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel is 77-48 in his 10th year at Missouri, 150-85-3 in 20th season overall. This is the first time these coaches have met on the field.
• The buzz: Iowa's offense was inconsistent this season, and the Hawkeyes will be without their leading rusher (Adam Robinson) and their best receiver (Darrell Johnson-Koulianos). Robinson is suspended and DJK was arrested earlier this month on drug charges ... Missouri had hoped for a more high-profile bowl, so the Tigers' hearts may not be in this one.
• The pick (by Rivals.com): Missouri, 24-17

Vote

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Photos by Cliff Jette

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