By Vickie Sellers
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The 17th-ranked University of Iowa football team will face No. 21 Tennessee in the 2024 Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Jan. 1 in Orlando, Florida. Kickoff is set for noon (CT) from Camping World Stadium and the game will be televised on ABC.
IOWA IN POSTSEASON; AT THE CITRUS BOWL
The Hawkeyes will be making their 36th bowl game appearance and their third Citrus Bowl appearance (formerly the Capital One Bowl).
Iowa is 1-1 all-time at the Citrus Bowl. The Hawkeyes defeated No. 11 LSU, 30-25, on an improbable Drew Tate-to-Warren Holloway 56-yard touchdown pass as time expired on Jan. 1, 2005. Kentucky scored the go-ahead touchdown with 1:48 remaining in the fourth quarter to edge Iowa, 20-17, on Jan. 1, 2022.
The Hawkeyes have won four of their last five bowl games, including a 21-0 shutout of Kentucky in the 2022 Music City Bowl. Iowa is 18-16-1 all-time in bowl games.
IOWA VS. TENNESSEE
The Hawkeyes are 1-2 against the Volunteers in program history. Tennessee won the only bowl meeting, winning 45-28 in the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville.
Iowa won the first ever meeting in the 1982 Peach Bowl, winning 28-22 in Atlanta, and the Volunteers were victorious, 23-22, in East Rutherford, New Jersey in 1987.
Iowa is 7-6 all-time in bowl games against current Southeastern Conference (SEC) opponents. This marks the fourth time in five seasons Iowa will play a school from the SEC in a bowl game.
IOWA IN 2023
The Hawkeyes went 4-0 in the month of November to finish with 10 regular season wins and a 7-2 Big Ten record en route to the Big Ten West Division title. The West Division title is the third in program history and it is the eighth 10-win season under head coach Kirk Ferentz.
Junior Cooper DeJean was selected as the Tatum-Woodson Big Ten Defensive Back of the Year and the Rodgers-Dwight Big Ten Return Specialist of the Year, while senior Tory Taylor was recognized as the Eddleman-Fields Big Ten Punter of the Year. The Odebolt, Iowa, native is also a finalist for the Jim Thorpe Award and Bronko Nagurski Award and was a semifinalist for the Lott IMPACT Trophy.
DeJean is the sixth Hawkeye to be voted the top defensive back in the Big Ten and the third player to earn the league’s top returner honor. Taylor earns the top punter honor for the second time in his career (2020). He is the first punter in league history to earn the distinction more than once.
Iowa had 20 players earn All-Big Ten recognition, including first-team honorees Jay Higgins (linebacker), DeJean (defensive back, return specialist) and Taylor (punter). Sebastian Castro (defensive back) garnered second-team honors, while Joe Evans (defensive end), Nick Jackson (linebacker), Drew Stevens (placekicker), Logan Jones (center), Connor Colby (guard) and Nick DeJong (guard) were third-team honorees.
The Hawkeyes are bowl eligible for the 22nd time in the last 23 seasons under head coach Kirk Ferentz. Iowa is 10-9 in bowl games under Ferentz, including a 21-0 victory over Kentucky in the Music City Bowl. Since 2001, only Ohio State and Wisconsin have won more bowl games (including the FBS championship game), than Iowa.
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