Missouri @ Iowa preview
Sun Devil Stadium
If things had played out differently, the Missouri Tigers might have been members of the Big Ten Conference next season. Instead, the Big Ten tapped Nebraska to join its ranks and the Tigers stayed put in the watered-down Big 12.
Now Missouri will get a chance to show at least one member of the Big Ten what the conference will be missing when the Tigers take on Iowa in the Insight Bowl on Dec. 28 at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.
The one-time border rivals met 12 times between 1892 and 1910, with Missouri holding a 7-5 advantage, but they have not played in the century since. They had arranged a four-game series beginning in 2005, but the Tigers backed out a year before it was set to begin.
The long-dormant rivalry will be renewed in the desert.
Ironically, the Tigers (10-2) got the nod from the Insight Bowl over Big 12 North Division champion Nebraska, reversing a trend of three consecutive years in which Missouri felt it was snubbed by various bowls. In 2007, the Tigers missed out on a BCS bid when the Orange Bowl instead took rival Kansas, whom Missouri had beaten to reach the Big 12 title game. In 2008, the Tigers again won the Big 12 North but slipped to the Alamo Bowl, and they fell to the Texas Bowl last year, losing 35-13 to Navy.
While Missouri will look for a bowl victory to cap its third 10-win season in four years, the Hawkeyes will use the opportunity to earn a bit of redemption.
Iowa (7-5) began the season with great promise, but a 34-27 loss at Arizona on Sept. 18 foreshadowed the disappointment to come. The Hawkeyes lost four times in Big Ten play. Their hopes of reaching the Rose Bowl slipped away with three consecutive losses to end the regular season, culminating with a 27-24 loss at Minnesota.
Hawkeyes quarterback Ricky Stanzi completed 64.8 percent of his passes for 2,804 yards with 25 touchdowns and four interceptions, but he struggled down the stretch. Stanzi was 10-for-22 for 127 yards in the season-ending loss to Minnesota and he failed to top 200 yards passing in three of Iowa's last five games after doing so in each of the first seven.
It won't be easy for Stanzi to get back on track against a Missouri defense that ranks sixth in the nation in scoring defense (15.2 points allowed per game) and sacks (3.1 per game).
And it won't help that Stanzi likely will be without receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos, who was suspended from all team activities after his arrest on drug charges earlier this month, and his top two running backs in Adam Robinson and Jewel Hampton. Johnson-Koulianos caught 46 passes for 745 yards and a team-high 10 touchdowns this season. Robinson, who led the team in rushing with 941 yards, was suspended for failing to meet team expectations, coach Kirk Ferentz announced Dec. 13. Hampton, the second-leading rusher, intends to transfer.
In his absence, the Hawkeyes will depend heavily on receiver Marvin McNutt, who led the team with 51 catches for 798 yards and added eight touchdowns.
The Hawkeyes should have running back Adam Robinson back from his second concussion of the season in time for the bowl game. Robinson rushed for 941 yards and 10 touchdowns, shouldering most of the load after Jewel Hampton was lost for the season to a torn ACL suffered against Arizona.
Despite allowing 20-plus points in each of the three losses to end the season, Iowa ranks seventh in the nation in scoring defense, allowing 16.4 points per game. The Hawkeyes are especially tough against the run — sixth best in the nation, allowing 103.5 yards per game — but their focus against Missouri will be stopping quarterback Blaine Gabbert and the Tigers' passing attack.
Gabbert completed 62.2 percent of his passes for 2,752 yards with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions, and he had four receivers catch 32 passes or more. Converted quarterback T.J. Moe (77 catches, 893 yards, 6 TDs) and tight end Michael Egnew (83 catches, 698 yards, 4 TDs) led the way.
Like Stanzi, Gabbert had his share of struggles down the stretch. Over his last five games, he completed just 53 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and four interceptions.
The Tigers were off to a 7-0 start after beating Oklahoma — then the No. 1 team in the BCS standings — 36-27 on Oct. 23 in Columbia, Mo., but they stumbled to consecutive road losses at Nebraska and Texas Tech to squander their Big 12 title hopes.
Nonetheless, they rebounded with three consecutive victories to finish the season ranked 12th in the final BCS standings, making the Tigers the highest-ranked team to appear in the Insight Bowl in its 22-year history. It will mark Missouri's second appearance in the game — the Tigers beat West Virginia 34-31 in 1998.