By Hawk Fanatic

IOWA CITY, Iowa – For the second time in three seasons, the Iowa football team will play in the Music City Bowl.

Iowa (8-4) will face No. 19 Missouri (9-3) on Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Iowa defeated Kentucky 21-0 in the 2022 Music City Bowl, giving Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz his 10th bowl win.

“We are thrilled to accept an invitation to play in the 2024 Transperfect Music City Bowl against Missouri. On behalf of the Hawkeye football program, I want to say thank you to Scott Ramsey and the Board of Directors for picking us to represent the Big Ten Conference. Nashville is a great city and the Music City Bowl staff does an incredible job putting on a first-class event,” Kirk Ferentz said in a release. “I believe our fans will be excited about the chance to see this Hawkeye team play one more time at a venue not too far from Iowa.

“As a staff, we are looking forward to three more weeks together with this group of players. The Music City Bowl is a great opportunity for our team to compete one more time to cap off the 2024 season. We can’t wait to get there.”

The Hawkeyes will be without star running back Kaleb Johnson in the upcoming bowl game as he already has announced that he will declare for the 2025 NFL draft after having led the Big Ten in rushing during the regular season.

Graduate quarterback Cade McNamara, who started the first eight games this season before suffering a concussion against Northwestern, also won’t play in the bowl game as he plans to enter the transfer portal, while graduate cornerback Jamari Harris also has moved on, apparently to start preparing for the NFL draft.

Harris did not play in the final two regular season games.

Junior quarterback Brendan Sullivan is expected to be fully healthy for the bowl game after having missed the final two regular season games due to an ankle injury.

Sophomore walk-on Jackson Stratton started at quarterback in the final two regular-season games against Maryland and Nebraska.

Stratton threw for fewer than 100 yards in both games, but Iowa also won both games.

Kirk Ferentz said Sunday on a zoom conference with the media that if he had to guess Sullivan would start in the bowl game.

However, Kirk Ferentz also said he would let the quarterbacks compete during bowl preparation.

Iowa was thought to headed to the ReliaQuest Bowl in Tampa, but that changed when Michigan defeated Ohio State.

The Wolverines, even at 7-5, moved above Iowa in the pecking order.

Kirk Ferentz has 204 career wins as a Big Ten head coach and he would tie Woody Hayes for first place with a win in the Music City Bowl.

Iowa and Missouri last played in the 2010 Insight Bowl with Iowa prevailing 27-24 in Tempe, Arizona.

Missouri has a 7-6 advantage in the series, but the teams have only played once since 1911. Full presser here.