Outback Bowl Preview

Iowa vs. South Carolina
January 1, 10 a.m. ESPN

The upcoming hours are some of the best, if not the best, of a college football fan’s season—the anticipation during the time leading up to the kickoff of your favorite teams bowl game. It’s currently that exciting time of year for both the Iowa Hawkeyes and the South Carolina Gamecocks.

After starting the season 3-3, Iowa enters the game with some momentum, winning 5 of their final 6 games whereas South Carolina came up well short in their final two games, wining only 2 of their final 5 games and getting blown out by Clemson and Florida. Both teams have ties to the Heisman Trophy. South Carolina is coached by a former winner Steve Spurrier and Iowa RB and All-American, Shonn Greene, finished 6^th in this year’s voting.

Both teams’ defenses rank highly in the national NCAA rankings. Iowa ranks 40^th in passing yards allowed, 9^th in rushing yards allowed, 12^th in total yards allowed, and 8^th in the nation in points allowed, surrendering only 13.3 per game.

South Carolina has very similar numbers as the Hawkeyes defensively, even ranking 3^rd in the nation in passing yards allowed and 28^th in points allowed, allowing 20.3 points per game. They do, however, surrender an average of 128 yards rushing per game.

Iowa is favored by 3.5 points and the game should be relatively low scoring thanks to two stout defenses.

Position-by-Position Breakdown
Quarterback
SC: QBs Stephen Garcia and Chris Smelley have both been erratic. Garcia is a bigger threat to scramble when nothing is available downfield and he's done a better job of taking care of the football. In fact, Smelly threw four interceptions against Clemson in the regular season finale. However, the redshirt freshman Garcia will start and he's still learning the offense so he has some problems locating the open man.
IA: Rick Stanzi has made vast improvements during a season that began with a quarterback controversy. He averages 182.1 passing yards per game which is good for a team in a strong defensive conference, but when he has to hold on to the ball longer due to his WR’s inability to separate from their defenders he can be inconsistent and turnover prone.

Advantage: Iowa

Running Back
SC: No SEC team averages fewer rushing yards per game than South Carolina (98.3 ypg) and they rank #109 in yards/rush (2.9. SC RB hasn't rushed for 100 yards in a game since the season-opener.
IA: All-American and Doak Walker Award winner, RB Shonn Greene, has rushed for over 100 yards every game this season and averages more than 23 carries per game. The 235-pounder is a powerful between-the-tackles runner who rarely goes down with the first hit.

Advantage: Iowa

Wide Receivers
SC: Iowa is going to have a difficult time matching up with South Carolina WR Kenny McKinley and TE Jared Cook.
IA: WRs Derrell Johnson-Koulianos and Andy Brodell don't have the burst coming out of their breaks to consistently separate from CBs Captain Munnerlyn and Stoney Woodson.

Advantage: South Carolina

Offensive Line
SC: Gamecocks have been leaky in pass protection. they rank 114th in sacks allowed, giving up an average of 3.14 sack.game and will have fits with sneaky, undersized DT’s King and Kroul.
IA: Big’s have cleared the way for the nation’s best running back and the unit may be Kirk Ferentz’ best second only to the 2003 offensive line.

Advantage: Iowa

Defensive Line
SC: DTs Nathan Pepper and Ladi Ajiboye have adequate size but the Hawkeyes' interior offensive linemen are capable of getting into position and sustaining their blocks.
IA: One of the stingiest in the FBS (98.3 ypg). DTs Matt Kroul and Mitch King make up for their lack of prototypical size with quickness and effort but haven’t had much success getting to the quarterback.

Advantage: Iowa

Linebackers
SC: Talented LBs Jasper Brinkley and Eric Norwood (nine sacks) make more tackles three-to-four yards downfield than they do at or near the line of scrimmage.
IA: Leading tackler, MLB Pat Angerer, should have a large number of tacklers as DT’s King and Kroul will receive much of the attention of the SC OL.

Advantage: South Carolina

Defensive Backfield
SC: Will be without leading tackler SS Emanuel Cook, who is academically ineligible. Without Cook in the lineup South Carolina's eight-man fronts won't be as effective, but is still extremely talented and ranks third in the FBS in pass defense.
IA: Intercepted 20 passes and have playmakers capable of turning a mistake into a turnover.

Advantage: South Carolina

Special Teams
SC: PK Ryan Succop has shown good range, notching a long of 54 yards against Arkansas earlier in the year, but he hasn't been as consistent and connected on just 19 of his 28 field goal attempts. Look for SC to try to exploit a sometimes fickle Iowa KR coverage team.
IA: PK Daniel Murray has connected on five of his seven field goal attempts. He's also shown adequate range with a long of 45 yards. Punter, Ryan Donahue can be very lethal if given time to get rid of the ball.

Advantage: Iowa

Coach
SC: Spurrier won a National Championship in 1996 at Florida and has taken a bottom-feeder in SC and turned them into a SEC contender. In his career, he is .500 in bowl games.
IA: Iowa went to 4 straight January 1 bowls and won two Big Ten Championships between 2002 and 2005. Ferentz is also .500 in bowl games all-time.

Advantage: Iowa

Striking Statistics

41 three and out's for Iowa this season

46 sacks allowed this season by SC OL. Fired O-line coach after season.

850 yards after 1st contact for Greene this season

30+ points scored by Iowa in the Outback bowl will officially rank this Iowa offense as the 10 best in Iowa football history in terms of points scored per game.

Score: Iowa 28, South Carolina 17

Greene joins Kinnick, 14 other Hawkeye greats

Shonn Greene joined an elite Iowa football club on Tuesday as he collected yet another post-season honor when he was named an Associated Press first-team All-American.

Greene joined an elite group of Hawkeye greats and became the first Iowa RB to be named a consensus All-American since Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick did so in 1939.

"If there's a better running back in America, I haven't seen him," said Kirk Ferentz.

The nations leading rusher is only the 16th Hawkeye ever to be named to the AP All-American first team. The last Hawkeyes to do so were Nate Kaeding and Robert Gallery in 2003.

"It's one of the best stories in college football," said Tom Dienhart of Yahoo.com. "He's the ultimate workhorse who almost single-handedly carried a pedestrian Hawkeye offense each week.

"And to think he did all of this after not even playing last year. Just incredible."

Iowa AP first-team All-Americans
1933 Francis Schammil, G
1939 Nile Kinnick, TB
1954 Cal Jones, G
1955 Cal Jones, G
1956 Alex Karras, T
1957 Alex Karras, T
1958 Randy Duncan, QB
1981 Andre Tippett, DE
1981 Reggie Roby, P
1984 Larry Station, LB
1985 Chuck Long, QB
1985 Larry Station, LB
1991 Leroy Smith, DE
1997 Tim Dwight, WR
2002 Dallas Clark, TE
2002 Eric Steinbach, G
2003 Robert Gallery, G
2003 Nate Kaeding, K
2008 Shonn Greene, RB

Quite Greatness

For someone who began the 2008 season as the third string running back, Shonn Greene not only succeeded far beyond expectation, but he has also forever ingrained his name into the long and storied history of Iowa football lore.

And he's made some friends along the way.

Hardware

Shonn Greene can now call Eddie George, Ricky Williams, LaDainian Tomlinson, Reggie Bush, and Darren McFadden his company. On Thursday night Greene was officially named the best running back in the nation when he won the 2008 Doak Walker Award.

The prestigious award is yet another for the Slickerville, NJ native who just one year ago was attending junior college, not playing football and working at a furniture store.

"I guess it's a pretty good story," Iowa's all-America, record-setting running back said this week. "With a little help, anything is possible."

Along with the Doak Walker Award, Greene has collected numerous other awards following a record breaking season in which he became the all-time single season rushing leader at the University of Iowa.

He was named a first-team All-American by the media and the coaches. He was also named first-team all-Big Ten by the coaches and was a unanimous selection by the media.

The Chicago Tribune awarded Greene the Silver Football, voted on by the conference head coaches and given to the most valuable player. Greene won in a landslide, capturing seven first-place votes (coaches can't vote for their own player).

"It's nice to see the recognition come his way," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. "He's earned it the old-fashioned way - he worked hard."

If that wasn't enough, the nations only running back to rush for 100+ yards in each game this season was named a first-team all-American on Walter Camp, Football Coaches' Association of America and Football Writers Association of America teams.

"The consistency of how he has played is amazing," Indiana coach Bill Lynch said.

Greene came in sixth place on the final Heisman Trophy ballot and he was named team MVP along with DT Mitch King.

ESPN and the Heisman

If the Heisman Trophy is contended for by the nations best players, then let the nations best players attend the ceremony. The last time I checked (2002, when Brad Banks took second to Carson Plamer) five players attended the ceremony. From what I heard, that wasn't the case in 2008.

I wonder why.

Regardless of whether or not Greene would have been included (he would have), we probably didn't have the privilege of hearing the stories of the 5 greatest players of 2008 for the same reason ESPN spends more time talking about things like how the three candidates get along or Tim Tebow's missionary work, than they do about actual game of football.

I would imagine that their decision to only invite three players to the ceremony this year was made for the same reasons ESPN covers the T.O./Tony Romo soap opera like it's the Super Bowl.

And I would venture to guess that we only saw the three ESPN mistresses, Tebow, Bradford, and McCoy, so that ESPN wouldn't have to bother themselves with anything that isn't perceived as hip or cutting edge. After all, if you aren't a fan of the Gators, Longhorns, Tar Heels, Blue Devils, or Trojans good luck finding an image or hearing a word said, about your favorite team.

The Heisman Trophy presentation should recognize the five greatest players in the NCAA, no matter how close the vote. Their stories should be told and ESPN should equally disperse the air time and attention amongst those five players.

But don't expect that from ESPN. In the next decade or so, each day, you can expect to hear about T.O.'s feelings, LeBron's new head bands, as well as anything you'd like to know about USC, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Duke, or any team on the east coast for that matter.

The Road Less Taken

I don't know that I have ever enjoyed watching a player more that I enjoy watching Shonn Greene.

Although I never had the privilege of watching him play, from the highlights that I have seen, the way Shonn Greene plays football reminds me of the way Magic Johnson played basketball--deceivingly smooth and graceful, with the occasional pop.

"He was the most feared running back in college football," wrote Scoop Jackson of espn.com.

Whether he is running over a player or making them miss, Greene has a very unique style. You wouldn't call him strictly a power back, although he will absolutely bowl a defender over. You wouldn't call him a speedster, however he broke away for a 75 yard TD against Purdue.

"He runs angry," Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio said. "And he runs with an attitude."

An attitude, however, is something he has never displayed off the field. The combination of his greatness on the field and his work ethic and humble nature off of it, allows me to say that Shonn Greene will go down, in my book, as one of my all-time favorite Hawkeye's and athletes in general.

When he wasn't piled on to by his teammates or greeted by his offensive lineman, Greene celebrated each time he got to the end zone by handing the ball to the referee--all but one time.

In the biggest game of his career and in what will go down as one of the Top 3 Hawkeye games ever to be played, Greene reached the end zone after just two offensive plays (both carries by Greene, nonetheless) and celebrated by running towards and pointing to, a student section decked out in the color green in honor of him.

"What the public has seen of Shonn is what we see too," Ferentz said. "He's very soft-spoken and humble."

And honest.

"I really don't like school now," Greene said. "I shouldn't be saying this, but it's the truth."

And sometimes the truth hurts. In this case, it hurts especially bad for the black and gold faithful. But Hawkeye fans have been preparing for the truth for quite sometime now--Greene will be playing on the weekends next year, it just wont be on Saturdays.

Unfortunately for us, players like Greene are few and far between.

From the naked eye, it was plaint to see that Greene had a lot of potential when he first stepped foot on the Iowa City campus. And he may have made some mistakes early on, but he got himself back on track. I'm just thankful he was able to do it at Iowa.

"Sometimes a mistake is a good lesson," said Reginald Greene, Shonn's father. "Sometimes you don't miss things until they're gone."

And sometimes you miss things before they're gone.

2009 Outback Bowl

Iowa vs. South Carolina
January 1, 10 a.m. ESPN

The Outback Bowl ended a two-week span of speculation on Sunday when they choose to invite the Hawkeyes to Tampa, FL for the third time in the last five years.

Although another trip to sunny Florida was almost of a foregone conclusion, the official announcement was actually delayed exactly one hour because the Capitol One Bowl had yet to make their official selection.

Rumor has it that the officials at the Capitol One bowl came very close to choosing the Hawkeyes over eventual invitee, Michigan State, and that the delay was because of the difficult decision.

But as it stands, the Hawkeyes are set to square off against the Gamecocks of South Carolina for the first time ever, in what will be the first NCAA football game played in the new year.

Among other things, like a hot finish (winners of 5/6 final games), an All-American and Big Ten MVP running back, and big, BCS-busting victory over a top three team in November, the Hawkeyes have their fans to thank for the bid.

"Having our fan support, I don't think, I know, that is a real plus for us," Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said Sunday. "It's a great benefit. And we are very unique in that regard. We appreciate it, and we certainly don't take it for granted.

With a better record of 9-3, the Outback committee could have selected Northwestern over the Hawkeyes, but instead the committee choose the 8-4 Hawkeyes, much in part due to their dedicated following of die-hard fans who have twice flooded the city, markedly boosting economic activity in past Outback bowls.

To say the very least, the Hawkeyes have one of the most devoted, fanatical fan bases in all of college sports and there is no better evidence than a bid to the 2009 Outback Bowl.

The Wildcats, who lost to a 3-9 Indiana team this year, have had trouble this season garnering the support of 30,000 fans for home games. So it’s no surprise that the committee choose Iowa, who in 2006 helped sellout Raymond James Stadium for only the fourth time in what was the bowls 18 year history.

South Carolina has a history at the Outback Bowl also; making consecutive appearances after the 2000 and 2001 season, both times defeating Ohio State. In the 2004 Outback Bowl, Iowa whipped Florida, 37-17. Iowa went back to the Outback Bowl in 2006 and lost to the Gators, 31-24.

South Carolina, who comes into this game sputtering, winning only two of their last five games, will be lead by redshirt freshman and Tampa native Stephen Garcia. Among other struggles, former Heisman Trophy winning QB and head coach Steve Spurrier has started three different players this season at the position he once mastered. Garcia, who has only attempted 104 passes this season, was named the starter for the bowl game following a 31-14 beat down at the hands of the Clemson Tigers.

“At times, (he) does a lot of good things and at times doesn't understand things as well as he will later on," Spurrier said.

"We're going to coach Stephen Garcia as hard as we can and hopefully he'll be ready to lead us in the Outback Bowl."

Furthermore, the Gamecocks average just 21.7 points per game. They have thrown 19 touchdowns, but also 20 interceptions. They rank 54^th in passing offense, 109^th in rushing offense, 97^th in total offense, and 92^nd in scoring offense. Not a good sign if you’re the ‘Ol Ball Coach. Iowa ranks 40^th in passing yards allowed, 9^th in rushing yards allowed, 12^th in total yards allowed, and 8^th in the nation in points allowed, surrendering only 13.3 per game.

However, South Carolina has very similar numbers as the Hawkeyes defensively, even ranking 3^rd in the nation in passing yards allowed and 28^th in points allowed, allowing 20.3 points per game. They do, however, surrender an average of 128 yards rushing per game.

Lick your chops Greeney!

At a glance, this looks like an epic defensive battle between a much improved Big Ten team with a lot of potential and a good SEC team that’s looking to get back on a winning track.

*Full Outback Bowl analysis, position-by-position breakdown and detailed predictions still to come in the pre-game special!

**Basketball game-by-game posts coming soon. It’s still football season!