By Pat Harty

One of the strangest seasons in the history of the Iowa football program will conclude on New Year’s Day against Tennessee in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida.

And before you dismiss that as being hyperbole, or as a prisoner-of-the-moment statement, consider the highly unusual circumstances heading into the game.

This Iowa team, the one that lost to Penn State and Michigan by scores of 31-0 and 26-0, respectively, the one whose offense has been ravaged by injuries and that ranks at or near the bottom nationally in multiple statistical categories, the one whose offensive coordinator was fired two months ago, but allowed to stick around until the season ends, still has a chance to become just the fourth team in program history to win at least 11 games in a season.

Perhaps the two best words to describe the 2023 Iowa football team are resilient and unified, because if it weren’t, this season could have unraveled weeks ago.

The defense never has turned on the struggling offense, nor have any of the defensive players even shown the slightest hint of frustration, at least publicly.

Iowa also has withstood the lure of the transfer portal as only a handful of backup players have entered the portal during the current open window.

This Iowa team might not be very entertaining to watch, and it gets ridiculed and mocked for its inability to score points.

But it also has a chance to win 11 games.

To help put that in perspective, Indiana and Iowa State never have won 10 games in a season, while Purdue has one 10-win season, way back in 1979.

So much attention has been focused on the in-season firing of offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, and on the changing landscape in which the transfer portal and NIL have certainly impacted, or some might say, disrupted things, that it’s easy to sort of take this Iowa team for granted.

But we might never see another one like it.

And while that would be good news from an offensive standpoint, there is also so much to like about this Iowa team because it’s easy to like a team that defies the odds, that overcomes adversity, and stick together during tough times.

This Iowa team also some intriguing individual stories, including 26-year-old Australian punter Tory Taylor, who now ranks among the best in Big Ten history after having never even punted in a game when he arrived at Iowa in the middle of a global pandemic in 2020.

The defense has been rock-solid, one of the best under Phil Parker, and that’s saying a lot.

Parker’s defense combined with Taylor’s punting and a pretty decent kicking game has been enough in most games to overcome the offense.

There also have been a few games in which the offense held up its part of the deal.

The bottom line is that, well, better for Kirk Ferentz to tell you.

“Bottom line is both teams have earned the right to play in a game like this,” Kirk Ferentz said Sunday. “It really is significant in that way.”

Ferentz is right to say that earning a Citrus Bowl bid is significant.

He also shared an old saying from former Iowa defensive coordinator Bill Brashier about bowl games.

“There is no such thing as a bad bowl game. Some are just better than others,” Ferentz said of Brashier.

The problem with that saying is that Kirk Ferentz probably heard it for the first time 40 years ago during his early days as the Iowa offensive line coach under Hayden Fry. But to say that a lot has changed since then would be an understatement, especially in the last five years.

The Citrus Bowl still ranks in the upper tier of bowl games, but no post-season bowl game, outside of the college playoff games, are safe anymore from roster upheaval.

Just look at what happened in the Orange Bowl as Georgia crushed a depleted and deflated Florida State team 63-3 on Saturday, and look at Tennessee’s situation in which the starting quarterback, the top two running backs, a key defensive lineman and six defensive backs have opted out of the Citrus Bowl either to enter the NFL draft or the transfer portal.

The current 30-day open window, which ends on Jan. 2, is starting to destroy the bowl games due to so many players opting out of participating in the games.

“The calendar in which we operate now it changes the way December and part of January unfolds for you,” Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel said Sunday. “I think as we continue to move forward in this great game, is something that we have to look at.”

Kirk Ferentz talked on Sunday about the struggle with trying to coach in this new age of players coming and going, and with NIL money a big reason why.

“It is just a different world,” Kirk Ferentz said. “Even 20 years ago, you had guys possibly opting out for the NFL, not near to the extent now.

“There are just a lot of parties involved now, and it is not always healthy voices that the players here and some of the parties involved are not necessarily thinking about what is best for the individual young people. Just kind of flies in the face of what we try to do as coaches, I think, so that is part of it.”

But even with all the distractions, Kirk Ferentz has a chance to win another January bowl game as the Iowa head coach, and one more chance to coach with his son.

Win or lose, emotions and tears will almost certainly be flowing on the Iowa sideline in the moments after the game, and in the locker room long afterwards.

These players and coaches have been through a lot together, and they’ve persevered together.

This Iowa team isn’t considered among the best in program history because of the offensive deficiencies, but to win at least 10 games with those same deficiencies makes it special in its own way.

Iowa (10-3) vs. Tennessee (8-4)

When: Monday, 12:06 p.m.

Where: Orlando, Florida, Camping World Stadium

What: Citrus Bowl

TV: ABC

Radio: Hawkeye Radio Network

Series: Tennessee leads, 2-1

Last meeting: Tennessee won 45-28 in the 2015 TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida.