Ferentz Era Countdown: #22 2009 Outback Bowl

It’s hard to believe, but this will be the 27^th season with Kirk Ferentz guiding the Iowa football program. It will also be a record setting one for the longest active tenured head coach in college football, as Ferentz is poised to pass Woody Hayes for most wins by a Big Ten head coach.

Also, Ferentz will reach another milestone by turning 70 years old on August 1^st. He also shows no signs of slowing down and heading into retirement as he continues to post winning season after winning season.

With all that in mind, we decided to vote on the 27 best games of the Ferentz era. By picking only 27, you leave a few on the cutting room floor and truth be told, I probably squeezed a few in that might not make the list a year from now, but I wanted to represent the various eras of Ferentz leading the program.

We are on to #22 on the list and it’s the culmination contest for one a team that I think improved more than any other in the Ferentz era from game one to their bowl game. That team was the 2008 Iowa football team that absolutely demolished South Carolina in the 2009 Outback Bowl.

The final score was 31-10 and it wasn’t even that close.

I have always contended that by the end of that season, the Iowa football team could have played with any team in the country. Yes, they were playing that well when the season wrapped up. That squad sat at 3-3 on the season after a tough 16-13 loss at Michigan State. Those three losses were by a combined nine points.

After that, they won 6 of their last 7 games, including an upset of previously undefeated Penn State and winning the final two games by a combined score of 86-10 over Minnesota and South Carolina. Actually it was 86-0 at one point before the Gamecocks scored ten points late.

This was a South Carolina team coached by Steve Spurrier, who really didn’t seem all that interested in being there. He had plenty of history in Tampa, but he was probably ready for some time on the golf course and not coaching football.

While Ricky Stanzi was growing as Iowa’s quarterback and finished the day with a very efficient 13-19 for 147 yards and a touchdown.  Meanwhile Stephen Garcia was leading South Carolina. They struggled down the stretch losing to Florida and Clemson by wide margins to wrap up the season. He was not good against Iowa in the Outback Bowl, completing 9-18 throws for 79 yards. In their first four drives of the game, he had three interceptions and fumbled one time. Garcia did not start the second half.

Let’s dig into this game.

Iowa opened with a nice 13 play drive that resulted in a Stanzi to Trey Stross for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead.

Garcia was then intercepted by Tyler Sash on their second offensive play. Sash returned it to the Gamecock 18 yard line. Eventually Greene found the end zone from the one yard line and it was 14-0.

Once again, Garcia gave the all ball back, again on the second play from scrimmage in the drive. This time it was a fumble that was forced by Christian Ballard and recovered by A.J. Edds. He recovered a pair of fumbles in the game. But this time Iowa couldn’t score as Daniel Murray missed a 45 yard field goal.

Still they went to the second quarter with a comfortable lead. To start the second quarter, the Gamecocks were actually mounting a drive into Iowa territory. But, Garcia threw to the end zone and was late on the deliver. Bradley Fletcher snagged the ball and Iowa took over at the 20 yard line.

WHY THIS GAME WAS INCLUDED ON THE LIST

The next drive was the Shonn Greene Show. To remind everyone Greene emerged to start the season from a guy who was overweight in fall camp to the best running back in the country. He won the Doak Walker Award, rushing for a school record 1.850 yards and at the time a school record 20 touchdowns.

That next drive in the second quarter was an example of why he won the award. Also, let’s be honest, if 2008/09 was today, it’s likely that Greene would have opted out of the bowl game. Instead he played and rushed 29 times for 121 yards.  In that next drive he rushed for 37 yards and another 1 yard score to make it 21-0.

Both teams exchanged turnovers and wrapped up the first half at 21-0. South Carolina made a quarterback change to Chris Smelley. It wasn’t any better for them, other than they got off the turnover train, kind of. There was a turnover on the first drive, but it wasn’t Smelly’s fault. It was a fumble by a receiver and Edds recovered it.

Iowa went very conservative in the next drive. Greene and Jewel Hampton got Iowa down to the four, but couldn’t punch it in from the four. Murray makes a field goal to make it 24-0.

The Hawkeyes had one more drive in the third quarter and once again it was Greene leading the way. Eventually Iowa gets down to the 11 yard line and Greene powered his way into the end zone for his third score of the game and a 31-0 lead.

Fun stat, Iowa threw five passes in the second half. They rode that lead and finished it off with a dominating 31-10 victory. Greene was named MVP and declared for the NFL Draft following the game.