This week sees the Iowa Hawkeyes take their longest road trip of the year when they board the plane to take on the UCLA Bruins in Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl Stadium.
For some, the trip is quite a haul and is unchartered territory for Big Ten action. For others, it is a chance to see new places, experience new towns, and vacation to some warm weather.
For the Hawkeyes, it is a chance to get in front of recruits and appeal to current ones by selling unique places to play. This week, Kirk Ferentz discussed the appeal of Iowa playing in Los Angeles.
“Not really. I mean, the venue will be cool. It’s kind of like Wrigley; I’ll explain it to you this way. My wife would be the first one to tell you because she still laughs, I got drenched at the Super Bowl when the Bears and Indy played. We got home at 3:00 because we didn’t have a ride lined up coming out and her response was, ‘Oh, you mean nobody drove you to the game? Nobody gave you a coat when it rained?’ All that kind of stuff. But that’s really kind of our life, and it’s one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done in my life is take my daughters on college visits because I get to see the college, not just the stadium.
We get off the bus, we go to the airport, go to a hotel, go to a stadium, get off, play, get back on the bus, airport, and you’re on your way home. We’ll see less of Los Angeles than anybody following the team, that’s for sure. Quite frankly, that’s why we’re going. We’re going to play a game, a tough game against a tough opponent, and we all know we’ve got our work cut out, and this is going to be a tough challenge for us.
Like a lot of things, that’s the tough (part). Hopefully, somebody can take some pictures and we’ll look at those during the bye week. ‘Hey, that’s cool.’ All that kind of stuff. I still haven’t seen those mountains. I take it back. We went in ’87, would have been the ’88 Rose Bowl because we played in the Holiday Bowl, stayed out there a day and then we came up as a staff and went and saw USC and Michigan State. So I have seen the Rose Bowl like as a tourist, a fan. It was cool. Now it’s a game. That’s really what it gets down to,” Ferentz said in regards to how Iowa will treat this game.
In typical Kirk Ferentz and Iowa fashion, there is no time for tourist activities and such on this trip. He wants Iowa to be there with a business-minded approach and know this is a Big Ten conference game.
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