Kentucky's Mark Stoops talks about opportunity to play Iowa in Citrus Bowl
Bowl season is officially here. The holiday season is one of the best times of the year, and there’ll be non-stop football action in case you need a break from your in-laws.
9 B1G teams have made a bowl game this season. B1G West division winner Iowa is set to play Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day. This is the 1st ever meeting between the 2 programs.
Kentucky head coach Mark Stoops has ties to the Iowa program as he played under Hayden Fry.
Stoops talked about his experience and his connection to the Iowa program.
“Yeah, absolutely. It’s hard to put into words what the Iowa program has meant to us,” said Stoops. “In the early part of our careers, whether it was playing or getting started in coaching, I remember as a young child, going and getting in the car, playing football games on Friday night, my dad coaching on Friday night. Getting in the car, driving ten hours, arriving in the morning, watching my brothers play, and staying Saturday night, getting back in the car, driving another 10 hours back home.”
Stoops also talked about Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz and quipping they overlapped time while he was at Iowa.
“So just the experience with coach Hayden Fry and all the assistant coaches, the people of Iowa, everybody was just so good to us during our time there,” said Stoops. “It really helped shape a lot of what we became. And the success we’ve had has a lot to do with the roots of Iowa, with Hayden and coach Ferentz and the many talented coaches that were there — of course, coach was there; we overlapped a time when he was an assistant coach there and, of course, he came back. Just nothing but fond memories from the Hawkeye experience.”
No. 13 Iowa plays No. 23 Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day at 1:00 ET on ABC.