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By JAMES ALLAN
hawkeyesports.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The Hawkeyes are headed to the Bronx.
The University of Iowa football team accepted an invitation to play in the 2017 New Era Pinstripe Bowl on Sunday, where it will face Boston College on Dec. 27 at 4:15 p.m. (CT). The game will be played at Yankee Stadium — the home of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees.
“It’s a unique opportunity for our football team to have a chance to travel out East,” Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said at a Sunday bowl news conference inside the Stew and LeNore Hansen Football Performance Center.
“I don’t know if I have ever been involved with a football team playing on a baseball field or stadium. It will be unique. It’s going to be a great adventure for all of us to see a unique city in ways that most people don’t get to see it.”
Ferentz doesn’t know a whole lot about Iowa’s opponent — a 7-5 Boston College team out of the Atlantic Coast Conference. He is familiar with Eagles’ head coach Steve Addazio and BC’s defensive coordinator — former Iowa linebackers coach Jim Reid.
“I probably saw 10 or 15 plays when they played Florida State (earlier this season),” said Ferentz. “They looked good and they are a good defensive football team.
“We have a couple of weeks to get up to speed on that. I do know this about coach Addazio’s teams: They will be a physical, hard-nosed team; that’s how BC has been for a long time.”
Ferentz enters the bowl season one win shy of tying Hayden Fry as Iowa’s all-time wins leader. The record-tying win would be significant because it would end Iowa’s five-bowl losing streak, making for a better winter in Iowa City.
“I’d be happy to tie the record because that means we’re going to win this game, which would be good,” said Ferentz. “That, to me, is the motivating factor to win this football game is for us to get our eighth win.
“You think about our seniors this year and the first guys that come to mind are the four linebackers and what they have done in their careers. I like to send all of our seniors out with a win. That’s one of the many benefits of winning the bowl game.”
Iowa will treat the trip to the Big Apple like a business trip. A majority of the prep will take place in Iowa City where the Hawkeyes won’t spend hours-upon-hours on a Windstar.
“We’ll try to get as much of our preparation done here where we have the friendly confines and convenience,” said Ferentz. “I figured out in 1981 — our first trip to the Rose Bowl — that you don’t’ want the team on the bus all the time.”
The University of Iowa Athletics Ticket Office is accepting online bowl orders at hawkeyesports.com/tickets. Fans may also order tickets by calling 1.800.IAHAWKS Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Priority order deadline is Friday, Dec. 8 at 5 p.m.
