No. 23 Tennessee (8-4, 4-4 SEC) will play No. 17 Iowa (10-3, 7-2 Big Ten) in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
Rankings reflect the US LBM Coaches Poll.
Kickoff between the Vols and Hawkeyes is slated for 1 p.m. EST and will be televised by ABC.
Iowa offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Ferentz met with media on Friday and discussed facing Tennessee’s defense.
“Everything for them starts with their front, with those big guys,” Ferentz said. “I think our league has changed a little bit. We have seen some more defenses like that as time has gone on with some bigger guys up front, especially in the interior. I think what makes these guys interesting is they have got the big guys up front. They have got the two backers that are pretty good players. Then, they are playing with those DBs, and they can be a little bit fluid with what they are showing you. I think a real testament to them is just structurally, and I mean this as a huge compliment, they change week-to-week. They can present different looks, based on the game, based on the team they are playing. They can choose to play a couple different ways. They can change the front, they can change the coverage structure. They are really fluid in those things, and they do a nice job of it. They can really create some challenges with you for the pictures you are seeing up front or in the back end with the coverage.
“I think one of the big challenges for us this week is going to be trying to identify very early on what their game plan is against us, because I think it will look different than maybe what we have seen on tape week-to-week. There is, obviously, going to be elements of it, but this has been a tough preparation, because you cannot just say, hey — it is not like playing our defense where it’s like, hey, this is what they are going to do. We know that. They are going to match it up against what we are, but it is going to look like this on game day. Now we have to beat it. There is an element of, hey, look, these guys have some really good players, but there is a structural component that is a little bit of a question mark right now. We probably will not know until about eight, nine, ten plays in this first quarter exactly what it is going to look like and make sure we are dialed in and seeing those pictures clearly and attacking them the way we want to attack them.”
