Now that the New Year’s celebrations have come to an end, it’s a good time to look back on the Music City Bowl and understand why Iowa dominated Kentucky as much as it did.
The Hawkeyes won their eighth game and put Kirk Ferentz in a tie for the most bowl wins of any Big Ten coach with former Penn State coach Joe Paterno.
Can Iowa sustain the success that it had in Nashville? Let’s take a look at why Iowa handled Kentucky so thoroughly and what can be repeated in 2023.
The more you put in, the more it gives back to you. @MusicCityBowl x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/aB8wnp12xr
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) January 3, 2023
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Iowa’s Tight Ends Came Up Big Without Spencer Petras
Iowa isn’t known as Tight End U for nothing. When you have the likes of Luke Lachey and Sam LaPorta on the field, any quarterback is going to have a few safety valves on the field. With Spencer Petras down with injured ribs, Lachey and LaPorta needed to be even more productive than usual against Kentucky. As maligned as Petras was, and sometimes deservedly so, he was also the only quarterback Iowa had on its roster who had ever thrown a pass in a college football game.
Freshman quarterback Joe Labas wasn’t going to win this game on his own with no experience. All he needed to do was not lose it, and that meant going to the tight ends as often as possible. And that’s exactly what he did, as Labas completed 14 passes for the game and sent eight of them to Lachey or LaPorta. The two combined for 92 yards and a touchdown, which doesn’t sound like a lot at first, until you realize that the rest of Iowa’s receivers combined for a mere 48 yards. In fact, the rest of the Hawkeyes managed just 115 yards of offense as a team.
But Iowa’s defense allows it to go a little at a time and make some short, safe completions to its tight ends. Hawkeyes fans of course want more from the offense, and they might get it from Cade McNamara in 2023. But Labas understood his job and did it well. That’s actually a very good sign for Iowa moving forward.
Labas won’t wow anyone in Iowa City, especially with Marco Lainez and James Resar on the way to Kinnick Stadium. But if anything happens to McNamara, Labas would serve as a capable backup in 2023. As long as Iowa can keep him around until one of its four-star recruits is ready for the job, the Hawkeyes’ offense won’t undo defensive efforts in 2023 if he has to take over. Labas knows what he has in Iowa’s tight ends, and he’s willing to look there often.
Celebrate with the #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/8za04LuIDF
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) December 31, 2022
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Iowa’s Defense Dominated the Day
In June 2022, Iowa defensive coordinator Phil Parker signed a contract extension that raised his annual salary to $1.3 million. Most Iowa fans would agree that Parker is worth every penny, as his defense again played lights-out football. Each year, Parker goes to work putting together a championship-level defense, and each year, it saves at least one game for the Iowa offense that it really shouldn’t have won.
This game wasn’t that; this game was straight domination from Iowa’s defense. The Hawkeyes managed two pick-sixes to outscore the offense (the third time this season that Iowa’s defense outscored the offense) and held Kentucky to a mere 185 yards of offense. Even with Kentucky working shorthanded and even given Iowa’s lofty standards, that’s outstanding.
Iowa needs its defense to perform well in 2023. The Hawkeyes have a golden opportunity with the schedule next season, as they don’t play Ohio State or Michigan. But their trip to Penn State will be a bear, and the Hawkeye defense must be at its best for that game. Thanks to Parker’s work, that seems like a mere formality. Iowa’s defense remains the strongest part of its football program.
Trophy szn 🏆#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/hcbrO97S65
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) December 31, 2022
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Kentucky Was a Shadow Of Itself in Nashville
Let’s get this out of the way: What Iowa faced in the Music City Bowl wasn’t indicative of Kentucky’s true abilities. The Wildcats came in without quarterback Will Levis or running back Chris Rodriguez, and without those weapons, Kentucky couldn’t really do much of anything. The Wildcats tried a pair of inexperienced quarterbacks in Destin Wade and Deuce Hogan, and neither proved effective.
To give credit where it’s due, part of why they were so ineffective was Iowa’s defense. Even for experienced college offenses, trying to beat the Hawkeye defense is like trying to outswim a team of dolphins. Iowa keeps playing disciplined, hard-nosed football on that side of the ball, and that’s why the Hawkeyes consistently win more games than they lose. But once Levis and Rodriguez opted out of the game, any chance the Wildcats had to compete with the Hawkeyes was off the table.
Again, Iowa’s defense had a lot to do with that. But the Hawkeyes shouldn’t let a win over a weakened opponent overshadow the fact that they have a lot of work to do this off-season. Iowa has a golden opportunity with its schedule if it can get better play out of its offense in 2023.
With McNamara and Lainez arriving in Iowa City, the Hawkeyes will have two new faces ready to lead the offense. Iowa fans would love to see another new face as offensive coordinator, but athletic director Gary Barta has been noncommittal about whether Brian Ferentz will continue in that role. Whether he does or not, the pieces are in place for Iowa to succeed in 2023, and the Music City Bowl proved that.
More than football. #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/kWSDuZhduC
— Hawkeye Football (@HawkeyeFootball) December 31, 2022
Credits on Featured Image: Ed!(talk)(Hall of Fame), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
