Josh Heupel, Kirk Ferentz preview Tennessee-Iowa Citrus Bowl clash
For the third-straight season under JoshHeupel, Tennessee will play in a bowl game.
Coming off of an 8-4 season, the No. 21 Vols were selected to the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Sunday.
Tennessee will play No. 17 Iowa at Camping World Stadium in Orlando on Jan. 1, 2024 at noon ET on ABC, pitting the Vols against the Big Ten runner up.
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The Hawkeyes are 10-3 overall after falling to No. 1 Michigan, 26-0 in the Big Ten Championship Game on Saturday.
Tennessee opened as an eight-point favorite with the total set at 36.5 points.
It will mark the first time Tennessee has played Iowa in the postseason since the 2015 Gator Bowl. The Vols won that matchup, 45-28 in Jacksonville.
It will also be a homecoming for a number Tennessee players and coaches. Quarterback Joe Milton III and offensive lineman John Campbell Jr. played high school football in the Orlando area while Heupel and members of his current coaching staff were previously at UCF.
Heupel and Iowa head coach KirkFerentz met with the media via Zoom on Sunday night to preview the clash.
What Josh Heupel said about facing Iowa
Opening statement
"So excited to be here with you today and be the representative that is able to talk about us having the opportunity to go play in the Florida Citrus Bowl. Entire program is so excited to have the opportunity to come to the city of Orlando, represent Tennessee football and our university on New Year's Day. This is a huge opportunity for us. Appreciate (Florida Citrus Sports CEO) Steve Hogan and everyone that is associated with Florida Citrus Sports in choosing Tennessee. As was just said, it's been a long time since we've been able to down in Orlando. We're looking forward to the opportunity of coming back. For myself, it's an area I'm familiar with, my family is as well. We're really excited about the opportunity to be there. Our players are going to enjoy a great week of festivities. They have an opportunity to partake in some of the things that are available inside of the community. Excited about being in Orlando, playing in this football game. It goes without saying that we understand the quality of the opponent that we're facing in Iowa. It's a proud football program. Coach Ferentz has done an unbelievable job in his tenure there. You look at them winning their division two out of the last three years, having an opportunity to compete and play for their conference championship last night. Statistically, you look at them, they're one of the best in college football defensively and it's a program that prides itself on playing hard, playing smart, playing physical. They certainly do all of those things.
On challenge of facing Iowa defense
"Haven't had an opportunity to watch a lot of them as we're wrapping up the season here. We've been recruiting here. I know this, philosophically, they haven't changed a whole lost over the years. They're big, strong, physical, first and second level. They have really good athletes on the third level. You look statistically, they're really hard to run the football against. They do a great job on third downs. You look statistically at them this year, their pass defense is one of the best in their league but across the country as well. They make you earn it. They're not going to give you anything. You've got to go out there and take things and earn it. They don't make mistakes. They play with great discipline and fundamentals. This will be a huge test for us on the offensive side of the football."
On scouting Iowa punter Troy Taylor
"I haven't watched a bunch of him, but I do statistically that he's one of the best in the country. He's been a huge part of flipping and changing field position for them."
On familiarity with Iowa program
"Spent a lot of time, as you mentioned, with the (Bob and Mike) Stoops brothers, Jay Norvell. We had a lot of other guys. Chuck Long, Jonathan Hayes, those are all guys that were a part of my playing days and part of my coaching career. They played their football at Iowa. It's a program, as we prepared in 2011 (Insight Bowl on Oklahoma staff) we knew would be tough, smart, physical, disciplined. It's a football team that doesn't beat themselves. You've got to go out and match those things. Haven't had a chance to watch the tape yet, but I know those things are still true with coach Ferentz leading that program."
On players and coaching staff returning to Orlando
"For our players from the area, it's an opportunity to get back home. So many family and friends that are going to have an opportunity to watch them play and get a chance to be a part of the entire week and the build up to it. Those guys have great pride, first of all but are going to take a great amount of pride in their preparation, the way they go play and having the opportunity to go share that experience with their family throughout the course of the week. For myself, some of our staff that were with me previously (at UCF), so many friends that are in the area, having an opportunity to catch up with them. We absolutely loved our time. It's a great city and it's an opportunity to get back to an area that we love and are extremely familiar with."
On importance of bowl practices for younger players
"We had a couple of young-guy emphasis practices last week as we were conducting our exit interviews before everyone got out on the recruiting trail. Our older guys were there for some of the individual, just getting movement, knowing that we were going to be gone for an extended period of time before we got back, before this weekend. Our young guys were able to get good intentional work. Some of our group settings and all of the team stuff was designed for them. We'll continue that as we get back off the road this weekend and we'll always be extremely intentional and continue to build those guys. In some ways it's an extra spring ball for those guys. We'll have some high school, mid-year guys that will show up in the middle of December as well that will get their first exposure to college football."
On balancing quarterback room
"There's no perfect science, no equation that gives you a percentage of what you should be weighing. In general, though, whether it's the quarterback position or other things, the things that you're seeing in practices are inevitably going to show up during the course of the ball game, too--positive and negative. As a coach, whether it's quarterbacks, whether it's the offensive line, DBs, whatever it might be, you're going to put the guys out on the football field that you feel gives you the best opportunity to go win a football game. All of the little things add up to the big things that everybody sees as you go in and play in a football game."
On discussions with players who have another year of eligibility
"I think that's something that typically happens as they get closer to finalizing their decision. Last year we had a good bulk of guys that were going to be in the (NFL) draft that participated in the Orange Bowl. This is a great game against a great opponent. We certainly hope we get a bulk of our guys that are going to help us go be ready to play on January 1. But, as those guys continue to have those conversations as they inch closer towards a decision whether they're coming back for a year or going into the NFL Draft, those are things that you continue to talk about with them at that time."
What Kirk Ferentz said about facing Tennessee
On Heupel's up tempo offenses
“Yeah, we certainly haven’t seen them this year and, but I know the work that Josh has done, both obviously at Tennessee and then Central Florida before that. Just outstanding. We have, coincidentally, we saw that Tennessee the last two years against Kentucky. We played Kentucky two straight years. So we do have some familiarity, but certainly weren’t looking at them from a game-plan standpoint. Nice thing about playing on January 1st as well. Plenty of time to look at them, but I’ll go back to my first experience playing Tennessee. It was 1982 in the Peach Bowl, one guy, I remember that, Reggie White … Willie Gault. Some pretty good players. We had a great game with them and, you follow them through the years just, you know, a really good program. So it’s going to be be a big challenge for us. We know that.”
On putting Big Ten Championship loss behind them before bowl invite
"That's a great point, because every loss stings and if you're a competitor, that's just the way it works there. There's no substitute for winning. There's no substitute for losing, two different extremes. And one's a lot better than the other. Typically if you lose a game, you don't get good news on Sunday and in this case, to your point, we got wonderful news today. So, yeah, I don't want to speak for everybody, but everybody should be really excited about this. Again, you go into Orlando, great bowl committee that does a great job, great community and you to play a top-tier opponent. So it's a great challenge on that hand, great experience for our players and we give the guys a couple of days off, we'll meet here in a couple mornings. It'd be the first time we'll get to be together, but I'm sure everybody would be really happy about that. And we'll move our sites forward. We'll move on to the next one, next challenge and try to be smart about the month."
On schedule leading into bowl preparation
“We’ll probably go real light, Friday, Saturday. Just you don’t want the guys to go a couple weeks without getting on the field and doing some things. The older guys will be on and off the field, really like much, much like the bye week. And then we’ll work the younger guys a little bit more. Then we’ve got our banquet here next Sunday. And then we go into finals week. So we’ll be very, very limited during finals week and then start pretty much in earnest after the last finals are over.”
